From:
http://cbs13.com/consumer/call.kurtis.kurtis.2.687222.html SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ― Voicemail is an easy target for thieves looking for a way to make free phone calls. You may not realize thieves have a way to hack into voice mails, figure out your password and change the outgoing message to accept collect calls. Kurtis Ming tells us it's more common than you would think.
Paul Gordon battled AT&T for months. "Ultimately this dragged on and they disconnected our 800 number which hurts for a small business," explain Paul.
Turns out, thieves figured out his password. In 48 hours they charged $13,000 in international calls to suspicious locations.
"Virtually all of them were terrorist or terrorist related countries," says Paul. "The phone company never once had any level of investigation; showed any level of concern."
This is how it works: Hackers call your voicemail, and if you have an easy password like "1 2 3 4," they access your phone system and change your voicemail to say something like "operator, I will accept the charges."
They can then make international calls, sticking you with the bill.
It also happened to Carol Lashman, she was stuck with $3,500 in charges.
"It was shocking," she says. Both Paul and Carol's carriers told them they were responsible for the bill. But Bill Nuesbuam with the Utility Reform Network says that isn't true.
"You should not be held liable for that transaction, that's basically what the law says," explains Bill.
Carol was sent to collections and Paul's carrier was after him for payment.
"They basically told us to go pound salt and ultimately took us to collections," says Carol.
After the CBS affiliate in San Francisco got involved, Sprint reversed Carol's $3500 bill and AT&T reversed Paul's $13,000 bill.
"And in 24 hours the matter was resolved," says Bill.
Here's what you can do to prevent this from happening to you: Don't use the default password and make your password difficult. If possible, block international calls and check your outgoing message from time to time, attacks usually happen on the weekends or holidays.
