January29
How To Make Free Long Distance Calls
1. Con man looks up the phone number for a major company. e.g. 555-0000. (in this example, the con man is in a movie from the late 1980’s)
2. He calls 555-0050, which will almost certainly be a direct line within the company.
3. When the persons answers he asks who he is speaking to. He apologises and says “Sorry - wrong person. Could you connect me with the switchboard?”
4. The switchboard gets an incoming call from inside the company.
5. The con man then claims to work for the company and that he is having trouble getting an outside line.
6. The switchboard connects him to an outside line which the company is paying for.
3 Comments to
The call is coming from inside the house!
How would you know the direct extension within the company?
How do you know which companies have the ability to send you back to the switchboard?
Why would the switchboard need to sennd you to an outside line.
Jackt,
Most people in large organisations will have their direct extension on their business cards.
Most large organisations will have a phone switch capable of sending you back to the “switchboard” (i.e. a receptionist or attendant).
Nicholas,
I worked for a manufacturer of telephone switches. The issues of toll-fraud are taken quite seriously, and this is the sort of issue that can be avoided - the concept of “getting an outside line” isn’t normally set-up this way any more.
Some companies offer services to perform a security audit of your configuration, and will then indemnify you against toll-fraud as long as the security settings are not modified.
Thanks for the update Julian.
I understand that companies have switch over to VOIP now have a new set of problems from outside sources hacking their system.
By hacking into phone systems, the con artists can record phone banking.