NEW ORLEANS--Some Southern residents are becoming the targets of pre-recorded phone calls indicating a family member was arrested or involved in a serious accident.
Those calls are being made to several residents of California, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and parts of Florida. These calls are not genuine and should be ignored.
The calls include a pre-recorded message indicating a family member was arrested or involved in a serious accident and for the reciever of the message to call a long distance number that starts with *721.
A Kenner, Louisiana resident who dialed the number included in the pre-recorded message ended up forwarding his calls to Los Angeles.
"Normal phone numbers don't start with a star. This is a way to forward your phone. Once the person hijacks your phone, they can make collect calls, resulting in the collect calls being charged to your telephone bill." said Lieutenant Wayne McInnis, spokesman of the Kenner Police Department.
Anyone who receives a request to dial *721 on their landline or cellular phone should hang up and contact their local police department immediately.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Wednesday, February 15th 2012 at 10:54AM
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