BY LAURIE HAHN, Times-Union Staff Writer

Area businesses that receive calls from an alleged phone company representative should think twice before they comply with his requests.

According to Linda Arnold, executive director of the Kosciusko County Convention & Visitors' Bureau, a man who identified himself as an AT&T representative called their office Wednesday morning to report that he was working on a report of crossed lines.

The man told the CVB to hit "transfer," then dial 9102880, which would call up a recording that Arnold said sounded official. After the recording was reached, they were told to hit transfer again, at which time the man had access to their lines.

She said AT&T security called today to alert them that because of the scam yesterday, the CVB will probably have to pay for almost 10 hours of overseas calls.

A representative of AT&T corporate security said today that the incident is a case of what AT&T calls "social engineering," in which a person gains the confidence and trust of a business to use that business's outside lines.

The practice is a popular scam, he said, and often the person calling, if challenged, will even give the business the name and number of a "supervisor" to verify the legitimacy of the call.

He said these calls usually originate from a pay phone in a large city, such as New York or Chicago, and the scam artist sells the time to callers on the street.

Businesses that receive calls about crossed lines should immediately be suspicious, the security representative said.

"The telephone company does not need the assistance of customers to check lines," he said. "As soon as that is said, a red flag should go up."

Anyone with questions about suspect phone calls should call AT&T Network Security at 800-821-8235. [[In-content Ad]]