Revenge for prison phone scam?

August 12, 2007 1:42 PM

Scam revenge/prank filter: I fell victim to the prison phone scam. I have a phone number for one of the perps (the one calls are forwarded to). I've already reported this to the FTC, but what else can I do to speed some karmic payback their way?
posted by Work to Live to law & government (12 answers total)

Best just to leave it alone and move on.
posted by Burhanistan at 2:06 PM on August 12, 2007

I love how someone on Ask Metafilter is always at the ready to defend people doing shitty & criminal things.

That said, Work to Live, I completely understand your desire to get some payback, but in this situation, it seems like maybe it's not in your best interest to piss off a criminal who may or may not have some sort of scam thing going with someone on the outside. I wouldn't fuck around with them in a way that would seriously put you on their radar...just in case.

You could try doing a reverse lookup on the phone number, and if you get a name report them to your local authorities.
posted by tastybrains at 2:37 PM on August 12, 2007

1. Unclench.

2. Report this to your phone company. They will take it off your bil.

3. Dont worry about "karma" just take care of yourself. I cant imagine a philosophy that advocates revenge as a positive part of karma.
posted by damn dirty ape at 3:31 PM on August 12, 2007

It's not karma, it's revenge. I think revenge should be left for people without criminal records.
posted by monkeymadness at 3:36 PM on August 12, 2007

Concentrate on speeding karmic payback toward scamsters in general by becoming better educated about scamming techniques and helping other people you know avoid falling for them.
posted by flabdablet at 4:37 PM on August 12, 2007

Karma happens with or without your help.

Assuming you believe in it, just let it flow.

Like beehives and bears, don't poke felons with a stick.
posted by Bonzai at 7:00 PM on August 12, 2007

Whoa! Something like this almost happened to me a couple of years ago and I've always wondered what was going on!

I'm sorry about what happened to you, but thank you for letting me know that this scam exists.
posted by redteam at 7:02 PM on August 12, 2007

but what else can I do to speed some karmic payback their way

Do something good for a random stranger, in such a way that you are anonymous and cannot benefit from any praise or thanks. This will help to properly realign the karmic scales.
posted by Meatbomb at 9:58 PM on August 12, 2007

If you know (or can find out from the phone company) where the call originated, you could call the jail and explain what happened. It's possible they might be able to pinpoint who used the phone at that time and punish that person. Even if they can't, I imagine they would want to know that prisoners are abusing the phones.
posted by Violet Hour at 10:26 PM on August 12, 2007

what else can I do to speed some karmic payback their way

You can post a link to the prison phone scam in your question, so that I follow the link, learn about the scam, and then when they try to scam my phone, they try in vain and have to go to bed without any phone-sex that night.

Hey look, you're done! :-)
posted by -harlequin- at 12:58 AM on August 13, 2007

Um, this person is in jail. Karma already has their number, so to speak.
posted by happyturtle at 5:00 AM on August 13, 2007 [1 favorite]

Have your local police expressed no interest in this matter? Since you only have the incoming phone number of the call forwarder I don't see how you can report this to the prison in question (and they may not be able to tell who was on the phone at that given time anyway) but you can certainly call your local police.

Beyond that, if you really want to advance the karmic causes then write to your various representatives and ask them why a regulated agency - your phone company - isn't asked to do the most basic of statistical analysis and pay attention when an account that never uses pay services suddenly spends 5 consecutive hours on a 900 number call, or makes more long distance calls in one day than they have the preceding two weeks.

Your credit card company watches for this kind of thing precisely because they've been stuck with financial responsibility when it happens. Start on a buying binge and you'll get a call from their fraud protection services department - claiming, laughingly, to be doing so for your protection rather than, in fact, their own. Where's that behavior from the phone companies?

That's far more productive than trying to lay the smackdown on pissant criminals in jail who are gaming the system. There's always going to be loser dirtbags in the world, the goal should be to closing their avenues to exploit the rest of us.
posted by phearlez at 8:23 AM on August 13, 2007