Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Strategies & Market Trends : Joe Copia's daytrades/investments and thoughts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Joe Copia who wrote (25408)	12/8/2003 6:06:00 PM
From: Tom Swift	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25711

snopes.com Claim: Unsuspecting phone customers have been gulled by scam artists into placing calls to area codes in the Caribbean that result in hefty charges. Status: True. -snip- As mentioned above, the amounts of money involved in these scams have been greatly exaggerated (probably by computer-introduced transcription errors) to the point that readers are now warned they may be charged more than $2,400 per minute if they fall for this scam! Actually, a victim might realistically be taken for $25 to $100, but not thousands of dollars. This scheme works a variety of Caribbean area codes, not just the 809 area code mentioned above (which now belongs exclusively to the Dominican Republic, the British Virgin Islands having switched to 284), but 809 seems to work especially well because many people associate it with toll-free 800 numbers and believe they will incur no charges for calling such a number. This scam took off when the government cracked down on domestic 900-number abuses several years ago, but it isn't especially common any more, and most consumer watchdog organizations report they receive far, far more calls from people concerned about the e-mailed warnings than from actual victims.