The UT Service Desk has received at least one report of an attempted 809 area code scam.

A person on campus received the following voice mail message:

Hey, this is Karen. Sorry I missed you. Get back to us quickly. I have something important to tell you.

The message was followed by a phone number starting with the 809 area code.

The 809 area code is associated with phones in the Dominican Republic. While not all phone numbers originating in the 809 area code are being abused, individuals who find messages on their voice mail from unsolicited callers asking them to return a call to the 809 area code — or to any phone number that is not readily recognized — should respond to such requests with extreme caution. It is possible that an individual could have established a pay-per-minute number similar to the more-familiar 900 number that will bill callers an exorbitant per-minute fee upon connection.

The only people susceptible to this scam on campus are those with long distance authorization codes that allow for international calling.

This particular scam is rare but well documented. You can find out more using the following links:

• 809 Area Code and Other Long Distance Phone Scams (AT&T)

• 809 Area Code Scam (Snopes.com)