District Attorney Gregory D. Totten advised today that the public should be aware of a telephone scam where the victim is deceived into dialing the symbol and numbers “*72” before dialing a telephone number. This “*72” scam allows prison inmates, jail inmates and other con artists to place collect calls that are billed to the victim’s phone account.

Ventura County victims have reported receiving calls where they are told there is some sort of emergency that requires them to dial *72 followed by a telephone number. The emergency can be anything, but usually involves a medical or financial urgency. When the victim presses *72 and dials the telephone number provided, he or she unknowingly causes all subsequent calls coming to his or her phone to be forwarded to the number provided by the conman, or an associate of the conman. When the victim places the call, an associate answers and tells the victim they have reached a wrong number. Now, the con artists are free to accept all collect calls that go through the victim’s phone. The charges for these collect calls are billed to the victim’s phone account. The victim will not know that all calls to his line are being forwarded to another number until some other factor alerts the victim.

Other characteristics of scam calls to the victim may include:
A notification that the call is coming from a jail.
Claims that the caller is from the phone company.
Someone impersonating a police officer and advising that there is an emergency.
Requests can include asking the victim to call *72.

The current investigation has not identified any such calls coming from the Ventura County jail system. Assistant Sheriff Gary Pentis said that the Ventura County jail phone system has technology that will not allow this kind of activity to occur. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department has not received any complaints of a similar nature in several years.

If you receive a call requesting you to place another call, do not dial the number. Alert your telephone provider and local law enforcement office. If you have already dialed the number, you should contact your phone provider for advice and to report charges that you did not intentionally incur. Pressing the *73 keys on your phone can often undo the call forwarding command and return your phone back to normal. Customers that cannot resolve billing disputes with their phone carrier may call the Public Utilities Commission at (800) 649-7570.