PA Turnpike E-ZPass phone scam

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So I had to call E-ZPass customer service yesterday... got their number off the letter they sent me. I dialed 877-736-6727, just like the non-mnemonic translation of the number was printed on the letter. The call got answered by an automated system that said they had a special offer just for me if I was over 50. I had to press # to decline the offer, at which point I was extended another offer to receive a $100 'rebate card' that was "redeemable at major retailers like Wal-Mart and Target..." and all I would have to do was let them charge my credit card for $1.95. I half absent-mindedly pressed the option for more information about this exciting offer, and as I was waiting for someone on the other end to pick up my finely-tuned bull puckey detector snapped me out of my daze.

I promptly hung up and re-verified that the number I had called was the same as the number on the letter... it was, so I called again. I got the same offer for callers over 50, but when I tried to decline it before the recording was finished on the other end, the system balked at me for 'giving an unexpected response'. Now the alarms were going off like crazy in my head. I listened to the rebate card offer again, and when I declined, the system gave me a message that I recall being something like 'sorry you're such a loser that you don't want our shiny rebate card' and then told me to hang up.

I called a third time, and this time I dialed 877-PENNPASS without dropping the last digit... I got through to the real E-ZPass customer service line, updated my credit card information with them, reported the scam, and was done. The customer service agent didn't seem exactly knowledgeable, so I have my doubts as to whether the scam actually got reported up the line...

I seem to recall having heard that phone carriers were going to start supporting numbers longer than ten digits at some point, but I never would have imagined that truncating the number that you dial back to ten digits would re-route your call.
 
Wow, weird. I actually have to update my credit card information with NYS E-ZPass.

Also, I didn't know that phone numbers could accommodate an extra digit.
 
11-digit dialing isn't part of the NANP yet, and won't be for at least 20 years, last I read.

Something is wrong here.
 
According to their website the first number you listed is the correct one. Something seems off with your story. Are you sure that is the number you dialed?
 
Perhaps this was a case of mixed up 888/877/866/855, etc? That's a form of social engineering, and an easy mistake to make.
 
I can tell you it wasn't a mixup of the 800/877/888 type. That was the first thing that I verified when I questioned the number in the first place.

I went back and looked at my phone history - it looks like I either made exactly the same fat-finger mistake twice, or I managed to misread the number in the same way twice. Either way, the number on my phone history is 877-736-6762... so I'd bet good money that it's specifically intended to catch people who are mis-dialing the PA Turnpike's E-ZPass customer service number.
 
It's not your mix up. It appears deliberate.

I had the same experience when I dialed just the ten digits, just a couple of minutes ago. I had to dial the 877-PENNPASS (all 11 digits) to get the real EZ Pass people. PENNPASS is warning people about internet phishing scams. I would surmise that their 10 digit phone number has somehow been compromised.
 
Hmm, I just called both 10 and 11 digit numbers and am directed to the same one. Maybe this is a call routing issue?
 
The phone switches are already routing your call by the time you hit the 11th number, so it makes no difference if you keep dialing.
 
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