Who is the world do these people call when they scam and what do they talk about anyway? I can't seem to keep engaged in a phone conversation for more than about 10 minutes...

Cook Country federal prison

@sly100100: common sense does not exist. there is no baseline of intelligence out there. unless you are assuming the cut off line is mental retardation (IQ <70).

Inacurrate.

I work for the big phone company here in St. Louis (guess who!). Call forwarding is activated by "72#" not "*72". I'm disappointed that the Post-Dispatch wouldn't fact-check.

Prison collect calls always have a recorded message at the beginning identifying them as such. I'm also not sure why these so-called "victims" would accept a collect call from someone they didn't know (much less from an inmate they didn't know!).

BTW, anyone that still has a landline and wants a collect call block can call and get one for free.

@don roberto

You should see the Onion article on this neat invention called a "floor"... these things look amazing!

(its worth dozens of laughs: [www.theonion.com])

For serious though, you don't have to be too much of an idiot to fall for this. Psychological studies have shown time and again that if you can convince people that you have authority, you can easily manipulate them.

I get this call marked PRISON on caller ID. I'm thinking to myself "Great, one of my idiot friends got wasted and got thrown in the tank or something". I answer it and get this long automated messsage in spanish saying something about the legal requirements to report this call is coming from prison, etc. Finally, this guy picks up the phone and tells me he's a sargent with the cook county police and that an unidentified female with my contact information has been injured in a car accident. Of course I start totally freaking out and demand to know who and everything else I could find out. He says he is only the dispatcher and does not know any details, only to call this number that starts with *72. He then gives me a whole bunch of other info like his badge number, etc.

I get off the phone and my addrenylin is pumping beyond control. Part of me though was like "a *72 number? that dosn't sound right" so I immedietly typed the number into google. the first hit was a bulletin from the Marengo County sherrifs office warning people not to fall for the scam.

I'm glad I'm a skeptical guy, but honestly, I have some real unknowledgeable friends who wouldn't think twice about calling that number back. Now I'm just hoping that they call me back again.

And in other news, scientists have just invented with a new-fangled invention for growing our food. They call it DIRT.

@Major-General: I use that as a positive! When I'm calling someone I don't really want to talk to but need to give some information to, I'll block callerID and 99% of the time I go right to the machine. Just like I wanted.

that sherriff must've been really embarrassed when he found out he was the only victim to fall trap

@doctor_cos: Congratulations. If your caller ID is off, you go straight to the answering machine.

When the calls started getting scary, I know the phone company offered some way to block the calls from going through if it was requested. Haven't been lucky in a google search to verify if this is still the case, but if you're concerned about a gullible family member call your phone company and ask if the offer prison blocking services.

Only * code you need is *67 (to turn off your broadcasting caller ID).

Who would ever think a phone number starts with a *?