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Daniel Gaudet One of the granddaddies of telephone fraud recently resurfaced in the Maritimes, but Holland College's telephone system isn't in danger. Nevertheless, when receiving a call within the college, students and staff should always be wary of unusual requests. Earlier this month, a college administrator was notified by a staff person at a New Brunswick company of an attempted scam. The staff person received a call from a man identifying himself as an AT&T service technician. He asked her to press 9, then 0 and the pound key (#), then hang up. The staff person was suspicious and told the man she would have to check that with her telephone company. It turned out that by following the fraudulent technician's instructions, the staff person would have given him full access to the telephone line, allowing him to place long-distance phone calls billed to the company number. Pauline Taylor, a representative from Island Tel says this type of scam has been around for at least 20 years. "Typically they dial a switchboard area. They will then tell the operator that they're calling from a telephone company, whether that be Sprint, AT&T, Bell, what have you,"Taylor says. "Then they'll tell the operator that they're testing, and would they please do the following. It may be -- whatever,"Taylor says. "What they're looking for is free long-distance." Regardless of the instructions the technician gives, Taylor recommends you pay attention to what they're saying and decide whether or not it is logical. "If it's not your local provider, get a name and number and call them back. Make sure. If this guy's going to hang up on you or not give you the information you want, then you know right off,"she explains. The dialing combination given to the staff person in New Brunswick would only work on older switchboard systems, common today only in motels and hotels. Holland College does not use a switchboard. "If you did that on a switchboard, the switchboard operator presses 9, thn it gets an outside line, 0 gets the operator and then the pound key (#) transfers the call." "Then they'd tell the operator where they want their call processed to, the operator would make the call and the line would go back to that person,"Taylor says. "If he called anybody at Holland College, and asked them to do those particular instructions, it wouldn't work. There's no fear of it happening at the college, but it is something to be aware of,"Taylor says.
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