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Crime & Safety

Fraud Alert: *72 Scam is Back

The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is urging residents not to be tricked into calling *72... it's an old scam that jail inmates and others use to avoid paying collect call fees.

If anyone calls you asking to hang up and dial *72 plus a phone number, be wary. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department says that an old scam run by jail inmates and other people who want to dodge collect call fees is resurfacing in the Southland.

You should only dial *72 if you want all of your calls to be forwarded to a new number.

This is from the LASD:

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The scam begins by the victim caller receiving a call from a person claiming to be a deputy. This imposter tells the victim that one of their family member's has been incarcerated or involved in an accident. The imposter then informs the victim caller that their family member provided the victim caller's name as an emergency contact.

The victim caller is then instructed to call a number that begins with *72 (Example: *72-323-555-1212) to get the information they will need. When the victim caller hangs up and dials the number provided, they are told they have a wrong number.

Concerned for the safety of their family member, the victim caller usually then calls an information line (4-1-1) and asks for a number to the Sheriff's Department. They are then connected with a real deputy.

However, since the victim caller used the prefix *72 to initiate their last phone call, they have just automatically forwarded all their incoming calls to the scammer's phone number (These include collect calls from inmates who want to avoid paying for collect calls). The billing for these forwarded calls goes to the victim caller until they turn off call forwarding on their phone (usually by dialing *73).

If not careful, Victims can be scammed out of a lot of money in collect-call fees before they find this out.

Do Not Dial *72 unless you want to forward your calls.

If you have been involved in this scam, and you have already dialed a number beginning with *72, contact your phone service provider to learn how to shut off automatic call forwarding.

This scam has occurred in L.A. and all around the country on and off for years. The LASD says that when they send out warnings like this, the number of victims drops dramatically. So, forward this info on to your friends and family and protect yourself from phone scams.

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