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From: TONY@mcgill1.bitnet (Tony Harminc)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: 50k Counts of Wire Fraud
Message-ID: <telecom11.366.3@eecs.nwu.edu>
Date: 16 May 91 19:40:14 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 366, Message 3 of 11

There's been quite a bit of discussion about who's to blame in the
"pager calls with chargeable call-back numbers" scam.  But I am amazed
that it appears that many (all?) US phone systems allow seven-digit
calls to be billable.
 
Here there is a rule (unwritten but pretty strong) that you can't be
billed for a seven-digit call.  You have to knowingly dial 1 (or 0) in
order to call a billable number.  This applies to 976 as well as
long-distance calls.
 
Are you USAers happy with the possibility of paying for seven-digit
calls?  Why is there no 1+ requirement to let you know ?  It seems a
little silly that everyone should have to remember a huge list of
prefixes in order to avoid placing expensive calls, whether 540 or 976
type, or just normal toll calls within the NPA.
 

Tony Harminc