Published on Wednesday, March 23, 2005
in the Naples Daily News

FHP warns public of phone scam run by jail inmates

When the voice of a state trooper comes over the phone line in the night saying a loved one has been hurt, the last thing on anyone's mind is a phone bill — and authorities say con artists know it.

A loop in the phone system can grant the unscrupulous unlimited access to private phone lines, leading to a jailhouse hoax that is growing in popularity, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

The con starts when a prisoner with access to a jail pay phone makes a random collect call, asking the recipient to accept charges from a Florida state trooper, said FHP Lt. Doug Dodson. The criminal informs whoever picks up the line that a family member has been involved in an accident and that to speak to a doctor or to a state trooper with more information, they need to press either *72 or 72#.

In reality, doing so doesn't connect the victim to anything, Dodson said, but it does forward their phone line, allowing the prisoner to rack up local and long-distance calls from a jail pay phone.

Tuesday, the Florida Highway Patrol issued a warning urging people to be vigilant with their phone lines even under stressful situations. While the FHP does sometimes notify family members about an accident, troopers always use their cell phones, never a pay phone and never reverse the charges, he added.

"We would never call you collect," he said. "That's the key."

Many of the calls are coming from jails or prisons, Dodson said, and many from the Miami-Dade county area.

Janelle Hall, spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade County Corrections and Rehabilitation Department, said its prison system started taking steps last year to protect consumers from the con by putting a warning not to press *72 or 72# during calls with inmates on its Web site. A verbal recorded message stating the same also is played on all outgoing calls from its facilities.

Miami-Dade is working closely with the State Attorney's Office on the phone hoax issue, Hall said, and prisoners who are found to have abused the pay phones face consequences, including having their calling privileges revoked.

Despite that, the calls continue to be a problem. Hall said she has gotten complaints about the scam from as far away as North Carolina.

"They just dial numbers hoping to come across any person who hasn't heard the warning," she said of the prisoners. "The sad thing is some people are not listening to the (recorded) message. We still have people being conned."

Lee County's prison facilities also place a warning message on each outgoing call prisoners make, and did so after the Miami-Dade calls started to become a problem, said Sheriff's Office Maj. Michael Waite.

In Lee County, prisoners have access to pay phones daily. They are charged $2.25 for every 15 minutes of phone use.

Security measures beyond the message are in place to make sure the privilege isn't abused, Waite said. Each call is recorded and if there is a complaint, call use can be tracked to a particular cell block and back to the offending prisoner, he said.