Today's question:

Dear Answer Man, it's time for you to expose another Internet hoax. I received an e-mail that warns about a phone scam where you're asked to call a number from the 809 area code for some important purpose, then you get billed an exorbitant sum if you call it.

Is this a true hoax being perpetrated, or is the e-mail itself a hoax? -- Jeff L.

This e-mail is a golden oldie, Jeff. It almost makes me wistful for the early days of e-mail, when friends and family members first started forwarding questionable messages in the mid-1990s.

It's true, as far as it goes, that if you do as directed and call a number in the 809 area code, you're calling the Dominican Republican. The other two numbers listed in the e-mail are 284 for the British Virgin Islands and 876 for Jamaica. For whatever reason, calls to those places can be dialed without an international prefix because the U.S. and Canadian area code system is used, and businesses on those islands aren't required to inform callers of costly fees.

But is this an active hoax? Was it ever an active hoax? Do people really make long-distance calls to unfamiliar area codes, just because someone tells them to? On that latter point, I'm sure at least a few people do, but I don't think this is an alarming international hoax.

The moral of the story: Don't make phone calls to unfamiliar numbers, and obviously don't believe everything you get in e-mail.

In case you didn't know, the Answer Man knows everything. Send questions to P.O. Box 6118, Rochester, MN 55903 or answerman@postbulletin.com.

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