Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!cica!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!wuarchive!texbell!vector!telecom-gateway From: miket@brspyr1.brs.com (Mike Trout) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Can an AOS Masquerade as MCI? Message-ID: Date: 29 Aug 89 19:33:45 GMT Organization: BRS Info Technologies, Latham NY Lines: 54 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 332, message 7 of 9 In article , stiatl!john@gatech.edu (John DeArmond) writes: > In article SINGER@almaden.ibm.com > (David Singer) writes: > >I know that some AOS companies have access to the AT&T/BOC PIN database so > >they can verify my card and charge me through my local phone company. Am I > >safe from AOSes when I call the MCI 950 (or 800) number and use my MCI Card? > NO!! you are not. If you place a call through a COCOT or a phone in > a captive envronment (hotel, hospital, etc), the AOS has the technical > ability to trap ALL routing requests and charge through their systems. > And if the AOS is sleezy (as most are), they will even imitate other > carriers. I just received my new MCI card (actually, just the same as the old one; this one gives five miles on Northwest Airlines per dollar spent on MCI), and there was some interesting accompanying literature. In "The MCI/Northwest WORLDPERKS Card Wallet Guide to long distance calling": "Use your MCI/Northwest WORLDPERKS Card Around Town...Make long distance or international calls from a touch-tone phone in your local calling area. Your calls will be free of the normal surcharge imposed by long distance carriers. Or from your hotel...First dial 9, or the appropriate number to get an outside local line. Then dial 950-1022. This way you will not be charged by the hotel for your long distance calls." But in "A Guide to Long Distance Calling with your MCI/Northwest WORLDPERKS Card:" "Calling long distance from around town. You can use your MCI/Northwest WORLDPERKS Card to make long distance calls while around town at the same low MCI rates you enjoy at home or the office. When making long distance or international calls from a touch-tone phone in your local area, your calls are free of the normal surcharge imposed by long distance carriers. This includes calls from any corner pay phone, restaurant or store phone, a business associate's office or private phone. With MCI's Around Town feature, you can save up to 80 cents on every call." "Using a hotel phone. First dial 9, or the appropriate number to get an outside local line. Then dial 950-1022 and follow the normal steps to make a call." Of course, whether any of this actually works as advertised is open to discussion. Actually, I've used my MCI card for years happily, but then I tend to use it only for non-complex domestic calls from Baby Bell pay phones. -- NSA food: Iran sells Nicaraguan drugs to White House through CIA, SOD & NRO. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Michael Trout (miket@brspyr1)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BRS Information Technologies, 1200 Rt. 7, Latham, N.Y. 12110 (518) 783-1161 "God forbid we should ever be 20 years without...a rebellion." Thomas Jefferson