When it comes to scams, the Better Business Bureau is vigilant about warning consumers. Now, it's the victim of one.

In recent weeks, thousands of consumers and companies have reported that they've had suspicious emails, purportedly from the BBB. The emails include attachments or links that, if opened, could give online thieves access to personal or business computers.

Cailin Peterson, spokeswoman with the Northeast California BBB office in West Sacramento, said the FBI is investigating.

The emails started the week before Thanksgiving, Peterson said, but accelerated recently. In a recent two-day period, the West Sacramento BBB office said it had about 100 callers reporting the scam. Nationally, she said, the Council of Better Business Bureaus has received "thousands" of scam reports since late November.

The culprits use a variety of subject lines, such as "Complaint from your customer" or "RE: BBB Case No. ..." The senders are names like: "riskmanager@bbb.org."

The public is asked to forward any suspicious BBB emails to: phishing@council.bbb.org.

For more details, call the bureau at (916) 443-6668 or www.necal.bbb.org.

– Claudia Buck

ON YOUR GUARD

Hang up on unsolicited calls from jails, prisons

Residents notified The Bee they are getting calls purporting to be from inmates of Folsom State Prison or Sacramento County's Rio Cosumnes Correctional Facility.

While some calls may be simply the inmate dialing a wrong number, people who get them have options.

Paul Verke, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said calls from state prisons begin with a recorded message that identifies the institution and says an inmate is calling.

Verke said recipients can request through the recording from the inmate to not receive any calls from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. They also can contact the department's Inmate Ward Telephone System coordinator to block the calls, at (916) 358-2551, or: tammy.irwin@cdcr.ca.gov

Sacramento County sheriff's officials say people receiving calls from jail inmates are given the option of accepting or declining the call and are not directed to press a number.

Some phone calls that purport to come from jails and prisons are part of a scam in which the person receiving the call is typically told to dial a sequence of numbers that begins *72 to forward the call. This sets up a call-forwarding scam that turns the victim's phone line over to the inmate.

Anyone receiving such a call is advised to hang up and notify their phone company if it appears they have been wrongly billed for long-distance calls or collect calls from a correctional facility.

– Cathy Locke

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