London Calling - The Clash, is arguably the most
important album in Punk Rock history. But Arizona calling is the
reason behind this month's Cocktail Talk.
You see, I've been getting calls from Arizona for
months, a lot of calls. Same number, no Caller ID, no voice mail,
just "Arizona". You know how that goes.
Then I'm trying to work out a little something in
Arizona and it's like I'm Lost in the Supermarket. I get a call
from 1 (623) 594-7463 "Arizona" and let it go to voice
mail. Then another call, and another call, and another all from the
1 (623) 594-7463 "Arizona" number. Now I'm
Jimmy Jazz and I call the number, only to hear this:
"If you have received a call from this phone
number please do not provide any information to the caller. Our
company did not call you .Our company phone number was
hijacked by scammers. This is called Spoofing or Ghosting. It is a
form of identity theft and we have reported the crime to the FCC.
We have set up an additional line to make sure that anyone
who calls is made aware of the situation. We were forced to change
our phone number because of this crime. So if you are a customer or
professional associate off (company name) please contact us
our new number (company number)."
A quick Google search confirmed scammers calling
from the hijacked 1 (623) 594-7463
"Arizona" number are phishing for our personal
banking information. People are much to smart to fall for
that, but they still try to Wrong 'em Boyo.
But there's another phone scam you can fall victim
to. One that you might not even know about. One that uses your
office phone, and you don't have to answer, and you can't even hang
up, or block the incoming number.
Some people have fancy office phone systems, the
type where you can call your main number while you're out and press
a button during the greeting to be taken to a menu that let's you
do things like check voice mail or make a conference or other call.
All you need to get from your phone number to that menu is what
button to push and the password. The Right Profile.
The problem is that after getting their shiny new
phone system many companies tend to leave the password set as the
default, for some reason they won't Clampdown, and the default
passwords for almost everything are in the User Manuals on the
internet.
Death or Glory I look up the default password for a
popular phone system (it isn't Revolution Rock) and call some
popular companies, like Koka Kola, pressing * during the greeting
and then press 1111 at the prompt to gain access.
I'm Not Down with it but I could then sell the
information to people who want to call London, Arizona, India,
China, Afghanistan or even just 900 numbers. I get paid, Lover's
Rock, and someone getting a huge phone bill becomes Hateful
