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- Path: sparky!uunet!think.com!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!news.acns.nwu.edu!telecom-request
- Date: Sun, 15 Nov 92 15:11:49 EST
- From: andys@internet.sbi.com (Andy Sherman)
- Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
- Subject: Re: BC Tel Pay Numbers
- Message-ID: <telecom12.847.10@eecs.nwu.edu>
- Organization: TELECOM Digest
- Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
- X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
- X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 12, Issue 847, Message 10 of 17
- Lines: 47
-
- On 8 Nov 92 17:30:54 GMT, Leonard.Erickson@f51.n105.z1.fidonet.org
- (Leonard Erickson) said:
-
- > The problem in Vancouver is that BC Tel has recently started up
- > pay-per-call numbers, but they do not yet have identifiable prefixes.
- > Therefore, ankies have been calling various BBSes that have
- > call-back-verify, and leaving these pay-per-call numbers. The sysop
- > who talked to me had lost Erickson> about $50 in the last month, and
- > this has only just started.
-
- To which our Esteemed Moderator noted:
-
- > [Moderator's Note: Well, that's the price he is going to pay for not
- > wanting to personally verify his users. I know a couple BBS sysops who
- > take the trouble to at least call each user once. Having users who
- > know that you know who they are helps keep boards in nice condition. PAT]
-
-
- Pat,
-
- It must be wonderful to be so perfect and smug and sanctimonious. You
- moan and groan about the upsurge in crime, and about the downsurge in
- people taking responsibility for their own actions. Yet you
- consistantly excuse criminals who prey upon an unsuspecting public
- with tricks such as this and the beeper scam.
-
- It's one thing to expect people to know about what a 900 number is.
- But when the pager scam happened in New York, public awareness of the
- nature of 540-xxxx numbers was very low, unless you read the seamier
- ads in the back pages of the {Village Voice}. And Leonard has stated
- that BC Telecom has *NOT* made their pay-per-call numbers clearly
- identifiable. So how is somebody to know *before* they call that the
- call will cost them money?
-
- Using ruses to get people to call your pay-per-call line based on
- their ignorance is fraud, pure and simple. The a**holes who do it
- deserve the full force of the bunko laws. Your attitude that the only
- people with the technical sophistication of a contributor to this
- forum have a right to any consumer protection is insufferable and
- unsupportable in any but the most dog-eat-dog lassaiz-faire world.
-
-
- Andy Sherman Salomon Inc - Unix Systems Support - Rutherford, NJ
- (201) 896-7018 - andys@sbi.com or asherman@sbi.com
- "These opinions are mine, all *MINE*. My employer can't have them."
-
-