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By MEGHAN V. MALLOY
Staff Writer 01/17/2008

Staff Writer

A Skowhegan business owner said Wednesday he was the target of an apparent telephone "spoof scam."

Todd Smith, owner of Maine Fire Equipment Company Inc., said he received a phone call Wednesday morning from an angry man in North Carolina, claiming that Smith's company had called and offered a credit card solicitation.

"We aren't even in the credit industry," Smith said. Maine Fire Equipment Co. sells and services fire extinguishers. "I told him I could sell him a fire extinguisher, but not help him with his credit card."

Apparently, the man in North Carolina was not the only one to get a "phone call" from Smith's business.

"I'd say as of right now, we have gotten 200 phone calls from people across the nation saying I called them, threatening to turn them in to the FBI over their credit," Smith said Wednesday night. The calls, he said, came from all over the U.S.

"A lot of them were from the Midwest," he said. "Lots of people from Texas and Alabama, too."

Smith said he called Verizon, who told him his company was the victim of a "spoof scam," in which scammers hack into a phone line and use it to make unlawful calls to hundreds of people at once.

Verizon officials were not available for comment Wednesday night, though Smith said officials from their Unlawful Call Center had assured him the matter was being looked into as of Wednesday afternoon.

"I hope whoever did this picks a new number tomorrow, honestly, that's how I feel right now," Smith said. "It has been just a horrible day."

Smith said he called back the most irate callers to calm them down and explain the situation.

"Most of them were receptive," he said. "But I tell you, before today, I would have never believed that this could happen."

Verizon urges victims of scams like this to call their fraud center at (800) 518-5507.

Meghan V. Malloy -- 623-3811 Ext. 431

mmalloy@centralmaine.com

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