| 'Dr. Phil Show' Gets Ripped Off by Con Artist |
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 TELECOM Digest Editor (ptownson@telecom-digest.org)Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:00:00 CDT
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We get 'Dr. Phil' on Channel 7 on CableOne here in Independence each weekday at 3:00 PM. It just now came on today, and the good doctor is complaining that his name and reputation has been ripped off by some Nigerian-407 style con artists. Someone got a toll free 800 number listed as 'Doctor Phil' and when anyone calls 800 directory assistance for (the real) Dr. Phil, the directory robot operator gives them the number for the bogus 'Doctor Phil'. The person on the other end claims to be the producer of the show, and asks for money to set up an interview with him. Naturally, the money (at least a few hundred dollars, typically a thousand or more) has to be wired to the con-artist on the spot. He has an FBI investigator and others looking into it. Thus far, it has been traced to somewhere in Houston, TX, where the calls terminate on various phone lines. Two victims thus far have wired money to the scammer in Houston, each of them from desparate elderly people who were convinced to send large amounts of money to the bogus 'Dr. Phil'. On television they are trying to lure the con-artist out into the open. The scammer claims the money should be wired to 'Esther Hernandez' who is (the bogus) Dr. Phil's secretary. More details on this in the next issue of the Digest. Now I want to go in and watch the rest of it on television myself.
PAT |
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