Personally, I think collect calls should be accepted from cell phones these days. At least then, it would say "you have a collect call from "________" from jail. Do you accept? It would take care of a lot of this crap. Back in the 90's, the caller would just remain silent, and then when you accepted, they'd ask you to call someone. Honestly, why aren't collect calls allowed yet from cell phones? Land lines are going the way of the dinosaur.
Wow, thanks for creating this thread. We've gotten several calls like this on our land line over the past year or so. It seems like the collect call is always coming from the same person (a girl's name) and I believe it shows Pay Phone on the Caller ID. We never accepted the calls and couldn't figure out what the heck was going on or why it kept happening. At least we're not alone.
Oh...and here's info on the collect call scam: http://consumerblog.abc13.com/2006/05/that_old_72_jai.html
All I know is that jail collect calls are EXPENSIVE. The one time I had to spend a night in jail and I called my roommate twice, the phone bill was much more than usual...
I took one of those calls once, but it was not automated. IIRC there was an operator. It was a guy who does some work for my neighbor calling for my neighbor. The guy (he goes by Hippie) was in the hoosegow for driving with an expired license IIRC. He wanted his friend to call his wife and deliver a message to her at work, so I did it for him instead. Hippie had done some work around the house for me and helped me out on the fly innumerable times...
They have called the house many times! I hate that they are able to do this but I guess we need to spread the word about this scam. They are probably able to get the old folks to fall for this.
Wow another ancient thread revival... I've gotten those calls on my cell phone before. But they were from the person I knew was incarcerated at the time, and I fully expected the calls. I had to go to a website to sign up for the service, and I had to pre-pay for the calls. Depending on which facility they were in, I'd have a different message: At one facility, it would give the option to state a name "You have received a collect call from XXX(person's name) at YYY(correctional facility). This call maybe be monitored... blah blah blah.... The cost for this call is.... If you wish to accept this call, please press 1 now." At another facility, it wouldn't give you an option, it would just say "You have received a collect call from an inmate at YYY. Do not respond to requests to use services such as *72, call forwarding, 3 way calling... scams... blah blah blah... The cost for this call is.... If you wish to accept this call please press 0. "
