AT&T Customers Victims of Slammer Scammers

We haven't made a collect call since the '90s ("Hi Mom, about your car..."), but inmates all over Miami-Dade County, reports the Herald, are using the ancient form of communication as a way to scam unsuspecting victims out of their hard-earned cash. Like about $200,000 worth.

Here's how it works: Inmates get someone from the outside - baby daddy, sketchy friend, etc. - to scour the phone book for peoples' fax numbers.

He/She then activates the call forwarding feature for that number by obtaining that line's PIN (investigators aren't sure how they do so), and sets the feature to forward to his/her own phone.

That way, the inmate can the fax number from the inside and have their accomplice accept the charges, which are then billed to the owner of the fax number.

The scheme works in part because a lot of AT&T - the phone company that these calls are going through -- customers don't even know they have a PIN number.

"AT&T takes such matters seriously and strives to prevent fraudulent use of the AT&T network by third parties,'' AT&T spokeswoman Kelly Layne Starling said in a statement given to the Herald.

A Miami U.S. district judge, who asked not to be named, noticed a $120 charge to his/her fax number. After haggling with AT&T, the charges were removed and the calls were traced back to two inmates, whose phone privileges were suspended for 30 days (prosecution is tough because investigators would have to prove the inmate concocted the scheme and actually made the calls him/herself - he/she could claim a friend borrowed his/her account).

North Miami Beach resident Donald J. Frederick said he was unaware he had a PIN for his fax machine, which was charged for $130 in calls. After hours of haggling with an AT&T representative, who insisted he was the one who made the calls, he sought help from the Herald's Action Line and the charges were removed.

``What would I use a PIN for?'' Frederick told the Herald. ``That's kind of scary.''

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