*72 Phone Scam: Telephone Scam being used by Inmates and others here in Los Angeles County

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Got this important media release from my friends over at the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Media Division LATE MONDAY night....

Beware.  Do get sucked into the *72 Phone Scam.


Members of the public are being tricked by jail inmates and others through a telephone scam.

The increasing pattern was noticed by deputies with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, who have been receiving an increasing number of phone calls from people who have been scammed.

Members of the public have been calling the Sheriff's Department and asking to talk to a specific deputy, detective, or sergeant who had just called them. The real deputy who answers the phone explains they are mistaken, as the named deputy does not exist or is not on duty.

The scam begins by the victim caller receiving a call from a person claiming to be a deputy. This imposter tells the victim that one of their family member's has been incarcerated or involved in an accident. The imposter then informs the victim caller that their family member provided the victim caller's name as an emergency contact.

The victim caller is then instructed to call a number that begins with *72 (Example: *72-323-555-1212) to get the information they will need. When the victim caller hangs up and dials the number provided, they are told they have a wrong number.

Concerned for the safety of their family member, the victim caller then calls an information line (4-1-1) and asks for a number to the Sheriff's Department. They are then connected with a real deputy.

However, since the victim caller used the prefix *72 to initiate their last phone call, they have just automatically forwarded all their incoming calls to the scammer's phone number (These include collect calls from inmates who want to avoid paying for collect calls). The billing for these forwarded calls goes to the victim caller until they turn off call forwarding on their phone (usually by dialing *73).

If not careful, Victims can be scammed out of a lot of money in collect-call fees before they find this out.