Non-English-Speaking People Warned by Pacific Bell of Calling Card Scam

Pacific Bell customers should be alert to con artists who ring up fraudulent long-distance charges by tricking non-English-speaking people, particularly in the Latino and Vietnamese communities, into divulging their calling card numbers, the phone company said.

The thieves call up or knock on doors of non-English-speaking people in Orange and Los Angeles counties, pretend they work for Pacific Bell and tell customers they have a collect call from Mexico or Vietnam, company spokeswoman Beebe Rosas said.

“People are told to give their calling card numbers and wait for their calls from relatives or friends. Of course, the calls never come,” Rosas said.

The numbers are then sold for at least $10 each on the streets at public telephones, she said. The con artists do not let the public phone caller learn the stolen number but instead punch it in to the phone pad themselves, allowing the numbers to be resold.

The scam is especially prevalent during time of crisis in a foreign country, she said.

“We want our customers to remember that Pacific Bell would never call and ask for your calling card numbers. We already have them,” Rosas said. “That’s a big tip-off that whoever it is does not work for us. Just hang up on these strangers.”

The phone scam has existed on and off for several years, she said, but it was not discovered until recently.

Each month, the company calls about 24,000 customers who suddenly have an unusual and sudden increase of charges on their telephone bills, Rosas said.

Nearly 10% of those surveyed say they did not make calls charged to their accounts and many of them reported having given out their calling card numbers to strangers who identified themselves as Pacific Bell employees, she said.

The thieves have also been known to identify themselves as Pacific Bell agents investigating telephone fraud. They instruct the customers to give their calling card numbers to be checked, Rosas said.

Nationally, fraudulent use of calling card numbers costs Pacific Bell up to $500 million a year, she said. It also costs customers an undetermined amount if they do not recognize the fraudulent use of their cards and pay their bills.

“The con artists just get more and more experienced with this and we need to stop them,” Rosas said.

In the last six months, some bewildered Latino customers have contacted Azteca News, a Spanish-language weekly in Santa Ana, to ask what to do about strange telephone numbers on their bills, said the publisher and editor, Fernando Velo.

“People tell me they call Mexico sometimes, but then they started getting bills showing phone numbers in Europe,” Velo said, “and they know no one in Europe.”

Westminster Councilman Tony Lam, a Vietnamese-American, said the scam is cruel.

“They’re ripping off innocent victims,” Lam said.