Called said there was a family member in jail: wanted me to hang up and press *72 and call another number back. Called 15 times in one day! I changed my phone number and my new number no longer accepts collect calls!
Came in from work and my phone was ringing. I looked at the number on the caller ID which read 402-978-7565. Pick up the phone, and it said I had a collect call from Newton county jail. The person said there was a family member being held by the Feds and he wanted me to call another number. I immediately recognized it was "scam-ish" and told them the phone call was being traced and recorded. I told them that if they were perpetrating a fruadulent act that I would have the call forwarded to the authorities. I told them it was in their best interest to hang up, or give me the information. I'm working with my local phone carrier to find out how these calls can be traced to the owner and I fully intend to submit to the FBI and FCC
I got a call from this same number three times last night (8.12.08). The first time I picked up, a recording was asking me to accept a collect call from Newton Correctional Facility on behalf of "...." (insert your name here). The guy didn't say his name, he only said, "Me." There was a lot of background noise, along with other voices. Of course I didn't accept the call. This is a classic forwarding scam and they can tag you for thousands of dollars. I don't know how he got my number, but then again, it IS a scam from prison - that's why those guys are there. They buy and sell cell phone numbers to try these scams until they find a sucker who will forward his. The only Newton Correctional Facility in the U.S. is in Iowa, but the area code is out of Nebraska. Doesn't matter, just don't take the call and they'll go away. Or take it and tell them you know what they're doing and hang up. Either way, they'll move on. See snopes.com under prison phone scams for this one.
Automated collect-call from 300 miles away at 9:30pm, supposedly a correctional institution (prison) but more likely a scam. Tried to hang up on it, but with automated calls for some reason the phone line doesn't like to disconnect right away, when you pick up the phone again after a few seconds they're still there. After reading the other posts here, and the Snopes.com webpage another person here mentioned, I'll be reporting the call.