Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Barrey Jewall Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Leaving Brief Messages With Free Collect Calls Message-ID: <11465@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 29 Aug 90 16:25:09 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Barrey Jewall Organization: Novell, Inc., San Jose, Califonia Lines: 75 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 605, Message 3 of 10 In article <11373@accuvax.nwu.edu> danj1@ihlpa.att.com (Daniel Jacobson) writes: X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 597, Message 6 of 11 >Are there any cases of people using the utterly cheapskate idea of >sending morse code via ring length to the other party? >{\Law_Abiding_Tone=on One would hope that telcos can detect this so us >regular folks' phone bills aren't subsidising all night (1 baud?) >style communication. } Maybe this is why my phone will ring about five times (seperated by a few seconds), usually at about 5:30 AM. Someone must be trying to send me a message! If I find the guy who is doing this, I would like to devise a real nasty method for ending his life. The first call rings until I pick up th phone, at which time I am treated to the merry sound of DTMF (two or three key, I think), and then he hangs up. For about the next five or six MINUTES, this idiot redials my number, lets it ring once, and hangs up and redials... Telco (Pac*Bell) says change my number, and become unlisted... Maybe I should look into an ANI here ... (Not sure about the California law on them things, anyone know? - No, don't lets start a discussion here again, but E-Mail me if you have any pertinent info.) >[Moderator's Note: Regardless of the exact methods used, whenever the >telephone service is manipulated to deliver a coded message -- be it >by a certain ringing pattern; coded messages unwittingly delivered by >the operator; or whatever -- telco says a message has been delivered. >If they cannot prove that is what you did -- or can't conveniently >prove it -- then of course they write it off. But these techniques are >as old as the phone itself, and telco knows all the tricks. PAT] Awhile ago, this used to take place: About once every two weeks, my mom would call my number, person to person collect , for some guy I've never heard of, and when I reply that he's not here, and I don't know when he will be, the operator (AT&T) usually asked if my mom wants to leave a message for him, and she replies "just have him call me when he arrives", and the operator says thank you for using AT&T, or somesuch thing, and we hang up. Then I called my mom. Doesn't seem like they care that much. BTW- My mom had never recieved a bill for these calls, in about eight years. Postscript to the MCI switchover racket: A friend of mine, who was quite happy with AT&T, answered the phone about a month ago, and lo and behold, it was MCI. Well , he was kinda busy with his SO at the time, so he hung up on the guy after learning it was MCI. He related this tale to me one night, and I recalled the discussion here a while back, and suggested it might be a good idea to check his LD carrier, well, he called the 700 number, and sure enough, MCI!!!! Took him about two months to get things straight, though. He actually took MCI for about 150 bucks in LD calls, because he was buying some property in Alaska, and was on the phone constantly that month. That's all for now, Barrey Jewall ++ "My opinions are my opinions" + barrey@novell.com ++ (rather self-evident, eh?) + Novell, Inc.- San Jose, Calif.