Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!ria!uwovax.uwo.ca!telecom-request From: floyd@ims.alaska.edu (Floyd Davidson) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Houston Chronicle Cellular Fraud Story Message-ID: Date: 16 Mar 91 04:45:28 GMT Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Organization: University of Alaska, Institute of Marine Science Lines: 21 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 208, Message 1 of 14 > We just had a case where some people came to town and set up > three-way conference calling between Houston, Iraq and Kuwait,'' said > the chief financial officer of one cellular service provider. That > fraud can total up to $30,000 in 24 hours.'' Hmmmm. 1440 minutes in 24 hours, so the combined cost of calling Iraq and Kuwait is about, ahhh, $22 a minute, or $11 to either one alone per minute. That is fairly sensational. It should have been written up in the {National Enquirer}. Floyd L. Davidson | floyd@ims.alaska.edu | Alascom, Inc. pays me Salcha, AK 99714 | Univ. of Alaska | but not for opinions. [Moderator's Note: It does seem a bit steep, doesn't it! Even if you took an entire weekend -- 48 hours -- you'd be looking at $5.50 per place/minute, which is still too high, considering international phone charges are $2-3 per minute maximum. What does the cell phone cost per minute? And is the connection left open all the time; never closed once in 24 hours? Someone gave Joe some bum information, I'm afraid. PAT]