UPDATED: 10:52 AM EDT July 19, 2004
CINCINNATI -- If you’ve thrown out your old answering machine and replaced it with voicemail, you could be the target of a scam.
The scam involves hacking into a voicemail system and using it to rack up
Rob Himmler found out about the scam the hard way when someone dialed into his voicemail system.
«He or she was then able to reprogram the system and make long distance calls to the Philippines,» Himmler said. Himmler learned how the scam works after someone called his office and asked for his voicemail without first asking for him. «It was odd, because typically they would ask for me directly,» Himmler said. «Nobody would ask for the voicemail directly. The first few times it was put to voicemail and there was never a message left.» Cincinnati Bell spokeswoman Jenifer Kues said the company’s fraud department caught on quickly to how the con works. «As technology advances, so do the people that are knowledgeable about how to abuse the technology,» Kues said. Cincinnati Bell is seeing the scam a couple of times a month, Kues said, it’s new enough that a detective with the Cincinnati Police Department fraud unit said he’d never heard of it. The scam cost Himmler’s company about $144. «I think that’s the problem in today’s age,» he said. «You just don’t feel like you can trust anyone, and this is just one more thing that’s thrown at you to confirm that.» There are several things consumers can do to avoid becoming voicemail victims, according to WLWT. Choose a complex password with at least six digits or more. Change your password occasionally. Review your phone bill regularly
Always change the password from the default password provided by the vendor.
Stay tuned to WLWT Eyewitness News 5 and ChannelCincinnati.com for updates.