From the "Word of Mouth" department, we're starting to hear from the Houston BBB about a call-forwarding scam from consumers who say they received a collect call from the Harris County Jail. I know this in Houston, but it's close enough to you all that I feel you should be aware. The consumer is asked to push 9 or 1 another number to accept the collect call. Some have accepted the call for various reasons. In one instance, a women who owns a trucking business thought it might be one of her employees.
When they accept the call, a fake officer, who goes by a random name and sometimes gives a badge number, says he is calling on behalf of a random inmate. When the victim says they do not know the person on whose behalf the call was placed, they say they can call a number to remove the collect charges. Various numbers have been given to call to remove the charges.
So far we have found info on this being a call forwarding scam mainly because the victims cannot use their phones for a day or two. Some can call out, but cannot receive calls. Either way, unless you know someone has been placed in jail, do not accept a collect call from a detention facility. Most jails will give a new inmate the opportunity to make one free call so a red flag should raise in your head if the call to you is a collect call.