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ozhack06.txt
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1998-04-05
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CALL CHEATS RIP OFF TELECOM
Taken from West Australian 1995
SYDNEY: Telcom is trying to stop phone cheats who pay local rate for overseas
calls. The scam which is well known amongst backpackers has been adopted by
thousands of tourists in recent years and has cost Telecom millions of dollars
in lost charges.
Backpackers have used the scheme to save hundreds of dollars during their
Australian travels.
The simple sting is allowed public phone callers to decode international lines
and removing ISD charges by using a widely available answering machine tone
dialers.
The devices - which cost as little as $30 - are normally used by peopleto tap
into their answering machines to play back recoreded messages.
But tight budgeting tourists have been using them in big citys and tourist
destinations across the national to call friends and relatives overseas for
as little as 40 cents.
A spokesman for Federal Communications Minister Micheal Lee said his office
had not been told of the scam.
Telecom admitted the organisation had a been aware of the problem for at least
six months and had begun securing phone networks to rectify the fault.
A Spokeswoman said the fraud had been achieved through a simple glitch in the
public phone network, but refused to devulge how much the carrier had lost from
undercharging.
"The (charge cheating) capability has now been barred from most payphones in
the country," she said.
"It must be made clear that this is not a prank, it is fraud and the people who
have been doing it are breaking the law."
The charge cheating method is believed to have been rife for at least three
years with tips on how to cheat the system available on computer billboards.
The tone diallers which operate from the coded sounds of push button payphones
are available in most electronics stores.
Cheats said they could make unlimited calls for long periods for 40 cents.
They simply placed the units over the phone mouthpeice and punched in a secret
code on the dialling pad.
"A friend of mine bought one in an electronics shop when he first arrived (in
Australia) six months ago and its saved both of us loads of money," said a
British tourist, who did noy want to be named.