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From: 74066.2004@compuserve.com (Larry Rachman)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: A New Way to be COCOTted
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Date: 19 Oct 90 11:37:06 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 749, Message 2 of 11


A business associate of mine recently received a phone bill that
included two collect calls he had no recollection of. The source
turned out to be interesting one.
 
I should probably preface this by saying that this fellow has a
popular teenage daughter, which seems to result in him receiving a
certain number of ring-no answer calls on a regular basis. He's more
or less accepted these as the nature of the situation. What caught his
attention on the collect calls was that they were from the same town
he lived in, and were for in excess of $2.00 each!
 
A call to the business office resulted in the discovery that the calls
had originated at the '...payphone in front of the [local] Toys-R-Us..', 
which was (of course) a COCOT.
 
The prevailing theory is that the COCOT attempted an automated collect
call to his answering maching, and falsely assumed he accepted the
charges. (He also gets a lot of null messages on the answering
machine). As I'm keyboarding this, though, I can't help but wonder if
the call was completed by a sleazy AOS that decided an answering
machine was as good as someone saying 'Yes, I'll accept.'
 
Do AOS operators work on commission??
 
Right now, he's trying to get a hold of TeleBlab International (or
whatever) to have the call removed from the bill. Predictably, they
either don't answer, or leave him on infinite hold.
 
Interesting, though, isn't it? I thought I was safe from COCOTs
because I never went near the fuzzy things, but it seems that they
come and get you even in the comfort and privacy of your own home!
 
Anyone out there with similar experiences??
 
 
Larry Rachman                  internet:74066.2004@compuserve.com