How To Avoid Paying Phone Fees From Jail
Several Johnson County residents recently have fallen victim to a phone scam run by inmates in a Chicago jail. Inmates at the Cook County Correctional Facility called local residents over the past several days in a scam that allows them to avoid fees related to making a phone call from jail. Figures!
When a person receives one of these calls, an automated message in Spanish will ask the listener to accept a collect call from an inmate. And instead of the inmate stating his name on a recording for the listener, he says “emergency situation.” Most residents only understand “emergency situation,” think there is a problem and then accept the charges. The inmate then comes on the line posing as a police officer and tells the person a family member might have been injured in an automobile accident. When the resident asks who was hurt, the inmate says he doesn’t know and gives the resident instructions to call another officer at the scene of the accident. However, if the resident follows the instructions, the call is forwarded to another person, a friend of the inmate. The friend claims to know nothing about the police, acts annoyed and yells at the resident before pretending to hang up the phone. Once the resident hangs up the phone the friend and the inmate are still on the line and can talk without being charged for the call. Charges more than $100 or $150 can show up on a phone bill. If you receive a call which show up as “prison” on caller ID, use your common sense and don’t accept the charges. The police would never notify somebody by phone of a life threatening accident; they would dispatch an officer there.
