There are e-mails that get fowarded all the time on this topic, and for good reason. This is a real scam that can happen to you, but only if you have call forwarding available on your home phone. There is another version of the scam that can only happen to you if you have a certain type of business phone system - more on that later.

Here's how it works:

Inmate in a Chicago prison calls a Missourian named Igor. He tells Igor that a loved one has been in an accident. Igor is then instructed to dial a number to speak to the officer on scene through his radio. He is to hang up and dial *72 or 72#, followed by a phone number. This actually forwards the consumer's phone to that phone number, which belongs to an acquaintance of the inmate.

The inmate then makes a collect call to Igor's number - which forwards to the acquaintance's phone, a long distance call. The acquaintance answers the phone and accepts the collect call - which is billed to guess who? Igor, because the collect call was placed to his number.

If that's confusing, don't worry about it. All you need to remember is: don't ever start dialing numbers just because a stranger on the phone tells you to.

If this happens to you, report it to the police and if you like, file a consumer complaint with our office.

PS: There is another version of this e-mail going around that says you are instructed to dial 90#, #90 or some other combination. But that is only a threat if you are at a business that uses a phone system requiring you to dial 9 for an outside line. And most businesses are not susceptible to this anymore because of changes to the way most phone systems operate.