Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 7 May 91 09:19:48 GMT From: Robert J Woodhead Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: 50k Counts of Wire Fraud Message-ID: Organization: Foretune Co., Ltd. Tokyo Japan Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu 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 342, Message 4 of 6 Lines: 32 76012.300@compuserve.com (76012,300 Brad Hicks) writes: > I see no lies and no coercion. The people who were charged got what > they paid for, a $55 audiotex message. Is there anybody in Manhattan > who can afford a pager who doesn't know that 540 numbers are toll > calls? If there are two thousand yuppie scum who are stupid enough to > return a page to a toll number, and they do this for no reason other > than that they were asked to, how can it possibly be illegal or even > unethical? Oh get real, Brad. There was clear fraudulent intent here. Said "entrepreneur"'s intent was to trick people into calling the 540 number, collect the $55 a call, and abscond with the money. There wasn't coercion, but there was a definite lie. The fact that the intended targets were "yuppie scum" is immaterial (and an ad-hominum argument -- you should be ashamed!) to the issue. And in point of fact, "540" is much less well known that "900." This swine was using the telephone to blatantly defraud people in a callous and totally inexcusable way, and I hope he gets a day in jail on each of the 50,000 counts, served CONSECUTIVELY. I'll admit, he was an ingenious swine, but that's beside the point. If anything, this case points out the need for regulations on charge lines such that 1) they must state up front how much the call will cost, and 2) hangups within a certain grace period are not charged. RESPONSIBLE service providers are already doing this. Robert J. Woodhead, Biar Games / AnimEigo, Incs. trebor@foretune.co.jp