Here’s a fresh perspective on those calls from jail. It comes from a guy who makes them. A guy, in fact, who had a head start on the other inmates because he was sent to jail for perpetrating phone scams.
In a handwritten letter to me, the guy wrote, in part: “I happen to hold a vast array of knowledge pertaining to jail phone systems.
“I was convicted of interfering with an electronic communication device.
“I learned how to make phone calls without being billed (known as ‘piggy-backing’) and how to bill an unknown, random person.”
This guy confirmed what some of my sources asserted: Inmates placing collect calls to strangers are, for the most part, looking for somebody to exploit for a free three-way call.
He wrote: “Inmates spend hours of every day ‘phishing’ for soft-hearted or naive people to take advantage of.”
