Union Matters | FairPoint Teams with Vermont Attorney General ...

Rutland, VT (PRWEB) May 17, 2012

FairPoint Communications, Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell, AARP Vermont and Rutland City Police Department held a press conference today to raise understanding about a telephone fraud or [see also 'union avoidance' ]iginating from the Jamaican 876 area code that targets retired people in Vermont and around northern New England. FairPoint additionally unveiled a Public Service Announcement and grown internet site, http://www.bewareof876.com, with sources to determine and avoid phone frauds.

Todays press conference was propelled by info about a Rutland-area senior that obtained nearly 30 call from the 876 location code in less than a months time. This is simply the current in a worrying of amount of cases of telephone scams or [see also 'union avoidance' ]iginating from the 876 area code have be [see also 'wage and hour laws' ]en reported in Vermont, according the Vermont Lawyer Generals workplace and FairPoint Communications.

Vermonters receiving an unforeseen phone call from area code 876 should be [see also 'wage and hour laws' ] on high alert. These calls are probably from hoax developers, said Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell. We are delighted to join forces with FairPoint Communications, law enforcement officials, neighborhood authorities, seniors companies, and others to alert the public about so-called Jamaican rip-offs. Cash sent to these crooks is chosen great. Joint efforts, like this, are vital to protecting against destructive losses.

The Attorney General reports that his workplace obtains greater than 1,000 phone calls per year on phone cons, of which about 20 percent include telephone calls from Jamaica.

Over the last 2 years, some Vermonters who notified his office about frauds emerging in Jamaica reported losses be [see also 'wage and hour laws' ]tween numerous hundred dollars and $ 18,000, with numerous in the variety of $ 2,000 to $ 6,000.

While this is the 1st circumstances reported to the Rutland Police of a telephone hoax or [see also 'union avoidance' ]iginating from location code 876 in Rutland, police be [see also 'wage and hour laws' ]lieve there are a lot more victims who are scared or [see also 'union avoidance' ] ashamed to come forward, said interim Rutland Police Chief Jim Baker. If you have actually obtained suspicious phone calls from unfamiliar amounts please contact neighborhood authorities or [see also 'union avoidance' ] your telephone company. Together we can stop this scam and safeguard our seniors.

FairPoint launched the Be careful: Rip-offs from Area Code 876 campaign in late March in reaction to these scams and developed a website, http://www.bewareof876.com for techniques on preventing phone cons. The announcement acquired nationwide and international attention, prompting extra media insurance coverage that forced the Jamaican federal government to establish a task force to attend to the 30,000 calls made from Jamaica into the UNITED STATE attempting to defraud American residents every day.

An Associated Press report noted conservative estimations that place the yearly take from Jamaican hoaxes at $ 300 million, up from about $ 30 million in 2009.

We understand that Vermont retired people are regular targets of hoaxes or [see also 'union avoidance' ]iginating from location code 876. Our objective is to assist shed light on the harassing treatment of retired people and provide sources to household members, law enforcement and senior companies to identify and protect against these hoaxes, said Mike Smith, Vermont state president of FairPoint Communications. We just recently developed http://www.bewareof876.com to supply extra tools and resources and have developed an engaging Public Service Announcement that is accessible to download.

The hoax works as follows:

Seniors receive a telephone call from an 876 spot code, which is typically mistaken for a toll-free amount and are congratulated for winning the Jamaican lottery, new automobile or [see also 'union avoidance' ] new house. They are then are directed to send a charge, typically $ 150 ? $ 250, according to Sorrell, purportedly to process the lottery payouts. They are advised that once the charge is gotten, cash can be [see also 'wage and hour laws' ] wired to their bank account and the car may be [see also 'wage and hour laws' ] provided to their house.

Several times the caller can advise the victim that a representative of the lottery is in the spot and as very soon as the procedure fee is obtained, somebody can deliver a check to their home. Scammers typically utilize Google Planet to establish nearby landmarks and make the hoax much more credible.

A key to the scammers results is persuading victims to guarantee not to advise their household members and to make it a huge surprise. If the scammers feel they have a potential victim, the phone calls will increase in regularity, producing hundreds of phone calls.

The cash is requested with a cord from Western Unison, Green Dot Card or [see also 'union avoidance' ] in an inventive method such as putting $ 100 statements in each page of a magazine.

We very worried about the proliferation of new rip-offs targeting older locals in Vermont, said Greg Marchildon, AARP Vermont state director. Sadly, seniors are even more susceptible than others in this regard as they are more commonly residence to respond to the phone, are typically relying upon of others and several times have resources they can effortlessly access. Were pleased to assist alert Vermonters as to just how to prevent be [see also 'wage and hour laws' ]ing a victim, and we support the Be careful: Cons from Spot Code 876 campaign and any type of law enforcement efforts to attend to this problem.

For more information about frauds emerging from location code 876, visit: http://www.bewareof876.com.

To report a scam, file a complaint with the Lawyer Generals Customer Help Program at: http://www.uvm.edu/consumer, or [see also 'union avoidance' ] deliver a complaint to: Customer Support Program, 146 University Place, Burlington, VT 05405, or [see also 'union avoidance' ] FAX: -LRB-802-RRB-?656-1423. Call CAP toll-free in Vermont at 800-649-2424 Receive consumer protection notifies on twitter at: vtconsumers.

About FairPoint Communications, Inc.

FairPoint Communications, Inc. is a leading communications company of broadband Internet access, nearby and long-distance phone, television and additional high-capacity data services to consumers in communities around 18 states. Through its quick, reputable fiber network, FairPoint delivers high-quality information and tone networking communications answers to housing, business and wholesale consumers. FairPoint supplies VantagePointSM services with its resilient IP-based network in northern New England. This advanced fiber network provides carrier Ethernet links to support the surging bandwidth and performance demands for cloud-based applications like network storage space, catastrophe recovery, distance learning, medical imaging, video clip conferencing and CAD/CAM along with typical tone, VoIP, video clip and Web accessibility answers. Added information about FairPoint items and services is readily available at http://www.FairPoint.com. You can easily additionally link by having FairPoint on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/myfairpoint) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/myfairpoint).

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