Sikeston police are warning residents concerning a phone scam artist targeting the area.

The scam is perpetrated when the victim receives a call from a person claiming to be an AT&T service technician and to be conducting a test on the phone lines in the area.

The scam artist then asks the victim to press 9-0-# and hang up.

Pressing those buttons can give the scammer access to a victim's phone line and unlimited long distance. This ploy is typically run on businesses with PBX phone systems or those that can transfer customers to other phone numbers, such as hospitals, government offices, insurance companies, telemarketers and hotels.