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From: canremote!nigel.allen@uunet.uucp
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Calling Card Validation
Message-ID: <5343@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 18 Mar 90 05:23:00 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 184, Message 7 of 8


In Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 105, message 9 of 9, the moderator
wrote.:

 > Moderator's Note: Anyone wishing to learn how to (ahem!) 'verify'
 > questionable card numbers -- as if there were any reason to do so
 > unless you were a telco accepting them for services rendered --
 > can consult with JH in other media.

Actually, operator service providers (long distance companies usually
associated with privately-owned pay telephones or hotel phones, that
usually do not own their own long-distance lines and often charge
substantially more than AT&T) would like to be able to validate
calling cards that people key in to pay for their calls. Operator
service companies aren't telcos, nor are they facilities-based long
distance carriers.

Didn't one OSP get in trouble for verifying calling card numbers by
improperly accessing an AT&T or BOC calling card database? As I
understand it, when the OSP wanted to verify a number, it would
attempt to place a call over the AT&T network using the calling card
number, and hang up before the called number started to ring.  (I
suspect that OSPs can purchase calling card verification services
through a service bureau, but the OSP in this case was getting
verification for free.)

Things weren't this complicated before divesture. :-)


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