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| Hi, I'm Don McGonigal , a System Support Generalist and member of the IET Helpdesk team. I'm your official source of info on computer viruses. In this page I will try to give you all the information you need in regards to viruses, virus scanning and virus hoaxes. You can check this page for the latest news on computer viruses. If it's in the news, I'll have the skinny on it here and my thoughts on how it affects us at Kwantlen. In addition, I will have a page of links and information about the internet based hoaxes and urban legends (not just virus hoaxes) so that you have a quick place to check when you get a new "SEND THIS TO EVERYONE" email and want to know if it's legit. I will also have the current instructions for updating and maintaining your McAfee virus scanning software. | Places to Go... People to see: http://plaza.kwantlen.ca/sites/iet.nsf/pages/hoax |
November 2000
Hello everyone, in the passed week I have received a number of inquiries regarding the validity of the an email warning about telephone calls made to the 809 Area Code. Although the warning contains a certain amount of truth and is based on fact, the email is very flawed and also provides some mis-information and bad advice. In order to ensure that you all have the most complete information regarding this, I'd like to dispell some of the inaccuracies included in the email you may have gotten (or are likely to receive) from well-meaning friends and colleagues.
The Facts: About 3 years ago a warning was published by excellent people at www.scambusters.org regarding telephone scams that originated in the Caribbean and primarily from the 809 area code. The article described how people were receiving messages requesting that they phone a number (in the 809 area code). The messages were being sent via email and to pagers. Calling the number would result in charges typically in the $25 per minute range and could easily rack up to over $100 dollars if the caller actually listened to the entire message.
The article warned against calling any numbers in the Caribbean that the user was unfamiliar with and recommended the user investigate before calling.
The Fiction: The recent emails have taken that article and padded the dollar values. They will often also include statements such as "Telus has confirmed this." Telus HAS confirmed it, as has AT&T. There is a series of long standing phone scams originating from the Caribbean. They problem is, the dollar amounts described in these new warnings are grossly exaggerated. In the most recent email I received, the per minute amount was $2425 !! (a far cry from the $25 of the original article). The possible overall monetary bill was inflated from $100 to $24100. Fun how in both cases, the original value was simply padded by adding a 24 to the front.
The Path to Salvation: The original warning and recommendation are still quite valid. Do not call any area code in the Caribbean without first checking the validity of the number. If it is unfamiliar to you, ignore it. The scams are no longer isolated to just the 809 area code. 809 is the Dominican Republic, but similar scams are also based in Area code 242 (the Bahamas), 284 (British Virgin Islands), 787 (Puerto Rico), 700 and 500 (Vanatu).
for more information, please visit the Scambuster's site and read what they have to say about the original scam and the new version of their article.
http://www.scambusters.org/809Scam.html
thank you for your time!
---Don!