Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson Warns Constituents To Be Aware of a Telephone Scam Targeting Businesses

Statement

Today, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson echoed the recent warnings issued by the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") regarding the resurgence of a scam targeting businesses that own telephone landlines. The FCC published the following warning directed to business owners on its website:

"You receive a call at your office from someone claiming to be a telephone company employee investigating technical problems with your line, or checking up on calls supposedly placed to other states or countries from your line. The caller asks you to aid the investigation by either dialing 90# or transferring him/her to an outside line before hanging up the telephone receiver. By doing this, you may be enabling the caller to place calls that are billed to your office telephone number."

The FCC also wants citizens to know that:

Telephone company employees checking for technical and other types of telephone service or billing problems would not call and ask a subscriber to dial a specific series of numbers before hanging up the telephone receiver.

Telephone company employees would not request subscribers to connect the caller to an outside line before hanging up the receiver.
These types of calls are made to trick subscribers into taking actions that will enable the caller to place fraudulent calls.
This scam only works if your telephone is served by a private branch exchange (PBX) or private automatic branch exchange (PABX).

Source