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From: sneaky!gordon@utacfd.utarl.edu (Gordon Burditt)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: On Who You Owe When Slammed
Message-ID: <15594@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 21 Dec 90 08:14:09 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 897, Message 3 of 10


>When calling long distance, your local telco uses a form of shorthand
>for your instructions: 1+ will be considered an abbreviation for the 
>10xxx of your choice until you tell them differently. Somehow or
>another they get those instructions incorrect. Maybe someone else did
>legitimatly ask to use Pat, but the telco got the digits transposed on
>the work order and mistakenly thought you wanted to use Pat. Maybe Pat
>mistakenly or deliberatly told them you wanted to use his service.

What would it take to slam, say, 10288, over a large area (say, all of
Pac*Bell territory) to route to the carrier normally specified as
10976 (International Pornophone and Pornograph - even 0, 411, 611, and
911 act like a 900 number)? for a major fraction of a month?  Would
this, done in a fairly simple way, also take everyone with AT&T as a
default with it? (If the default carrier is stored as '288', it
probably would).

Do you still think I have to pay IPP for phone calls dialed with 10288
(assume that somehow I could prove it) but I got IPP instead of AT&T?

Technically, how difficult would it be for a local phone company to do
this by accident?

How difficult would it be for an outsider employed by IPP to do this
remotely from, say, West Germany, assuming somehow he managed to bribe
someone for necessary numbers and access codes?  How about using a
midnight visit to a few (not all) CO's in the area?  How about a
carefully forged memo or piece of code supposedly from someone at
PacBell or Bellcore?  If local phone companies are so easily taken in
by outsiders changing default carriers, they probably can be talked
into re-arranging carrier codes by outsiders, too.

I suspect that at least two weeks would pass before any customers got
past Standard Customer Service Excuse #487 and any technical people
would start investigating unauthorized programming changes.  Part of
that would be the delay before anyone got their bills and noticed the
difference.

>The answer lies in forcing the local telco to *confirm* these changes
>in writing or otherwise rather than by some petty method of
>withholding fees for services in fact rendered.

The answer lies in requiring the local telco to accept change requests
from the subscriber, only the subscriber, and no intermediaries
claiming to act for the subscriber (allowance may be made for the
legal representative with power of attorney to act for someone
incompetent).  AND they should confirm the changes.


Gordon L. Burditt
sneaky.lonestar.org!gordon