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| New telephone scam--of interest to Rantburg readers |
| 2003-05-27 |
| The scam itself is very clever, but I thought the destinations of the overseas calls were relevant to Rantburg readers. When Susan Steel called her phone line a few months ago, she heard something strange. Instead of her usual voice-mail greeting, a man with an accent answered: "Investment office, please hold." Then after a burst of elevator music, the voice returned to say "Yes . . . yes . . . yes." Steel kept saying "hello," but the man ignored her, then hung up. It wasn't until the next day that Steel, a self-employed employee recruiter in San Francisco, learned what had happened: She was the victim of the "yes scam." Someone had hijacked her voice-mail box to make thousands of dollars in long-distance phone calls to Saudi Arabia and the Philippines. You can read the link to find out how the scam works, but I am more concerned that this could be a nearly untraceable way for terror cells to communicate with their overseas handlers. If I was a victim of this scam, I would demand the records of where the calls originated and take the info straight to the FBI. |
| Posted by:seafarious |