An Omaha woman has been receiving calls telling her a relative has been injured in a crash. It turns out to be a scam, long-distance from jail inmates in Chicago.

Strange calls are why Shantel wants her identity hidden and caller ID shows why she's fearful. The numbers come from prison. "I have no idea how they found me. I've never accepted a call from prison."

The caller claimed to be a police lieutenant from another state calling with bad news. "Trying to tell me that I have a hurt family member in Iowa. I need to call back a dispatch number to see who it was"

The call to Shantel actually came from a pay phone inside the Cook County jail in Chicago. Prisoners pretending to be law enforcement, trying to get her to call an access code that allows them to hijack their phone line.

The Cook County, Illinois Sheriff’s Department warns of prisoners in his jail attempting to hijack telephone numbers. Instead of an emergency number, victims unknowingly dial call-forwarding. Jail prisoners then have freedom to call anywhere.

An Illinois Corrections official tells Shantel she's not alone getting calls from behind bars. "A lot of phone fraud victims have called us giving us the same complaint you've given us."

Shantel didn't call the emergency number that's really a call-forwarding code, but prisoners keep trying to fool her. "Once they got through and caught me off guard then that day I probably got six and yesterday two calls from them."

Shantel won't answer the prison ring. Instead she's making a call to Chicago. "Tell me how they got my number in the first place?”

"I don't know,” was the reply.

A phone service there will block her number on outgoing calls from the Cook County Jail. Cox Communications says this woman is not the only phone customer in our area who's received calls from the Chicago jail.

Cox customers won't be charged for any of those unwanted jail calls. The FBI has been contacted.