Legal office issues warning on *72 phone scam Published April 7, 2011 By Richard Brock Legal office KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. -- You receive a call from a stranger telling you she has been in a serious accident and needs your immediate help in reaching her husband. She asks your help in contacting her husband to tell him to pick up their children. She asks if you would dial *72 and then her phone number. This is a scam and can subject the unwary to be billed for numerous calls they never make. Star-7-2 is a custom feature for call forwarding which causes all calls, including collect calls, to be forwarded to another number. This means that the person at the end of the number you were given is now able to accept all calls whether from your legitimate friends or from third parties. This partner-in-crime can then tell any friends who try to call you that they have the wrong number while at the same time accepting numerous expensive collect calls from others involved in the fraud. This may go on for days before you become aware it has happened, and then you are billed for the bogus calls because your number is the one from which they are forwarded. If you have signed up with your carrier for the call-forwarding feature for your phone, you should be aware of this *72 scam. One company, US Cellular, instructs victims of the *72 scam to dial *720 and press "send." This command cancels the call-forwarding feature and prevents future calls at your expense. The bottom line is to exercise extreme caution when asked to phone any number beginning with an *, #, 0 or 900 series number. These numbers may allow access to the user's account and, in the case of fraudulent use, incur significant toll charges. For more information, call the legal office, 376-8716.