I can't find any evidence of major carriers doing this. There's discussion online to the effect that this has been true, but it looks like it was mostly a weird

I can't find any evidence of major carriers doing this. There's discussion online to the effect that this has been true, but it looks like it was mostly a weird episode during the rise of cellphones where a call could be long distance but billed to the caller at normal rates, so the carrier would try to collect from the recipient. If anyone knows of a scam in which simply picking up a call can produce extra costs, they should definitely share!