Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: 28 Jun 91 18:05:43 GMT From: Ehud Gavron Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Telescam: Be Careful Who You Send Checks To Reply-To: sunquest!alpha!gavron@uunet.uu.net Message-ID: Organization: Sunquest VMS Internals, Tucson AZ 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 498, Message 3 of 9 Lines: 53 In article , pad@groucho.att.com (Patricia A Dunkin) writes: > Yesterday at work I got a call from a computer that claimed to be "The > Award Notification Center" (no other identification) and telling me to > call 312-733-7000 between 9AM and 9PM Eastern within 24 hours to claim > my "award." The recording also gave me a claim number, B44. > Oh, and they never did ask for the claim number -- if someone else > wants to use it, I wouldn't object. :-) I sure decided to (what the heck, work was slow on a Friday...) The young lady who answered informed me I had won one of: A 32" Sony color TV $2000 in cash Two airline tickets to Jamaica $1000 US Savings bond. My bonus prize (guess what, I won a bonus ;-) was seven days in Orlando Florida! (WHAT? in the middle of the summer??? I enjoy arid Arizona, thanks ;-) The company was identified as ACS - American Consumer Services, claiming to offer discounts on consumer purchases. Their yearly fee is $199. They *did* ask me "do you have a checking account" and enjoyed the "yes" answer. They say this promo is part of their membership drive. I have no idea which one of those prizes is worth the $199 but I suspect since "you'll get the membership material in 21-24 working days, and your prize in 30-31 working days" that by that time they would no longer exist. Ehud Gavron (EG76) gavron@vesta.sunquest.com [Moderator's Note: We covered this organization in detail a couple months ago, as Randy Borow will no doubt recall ... :) And who is Randy Borow you ask? ... Yes, I've had several inquiries in the mail in the past few days since the reference to 'the Randy Message' appeared here. Our mailing list is growing by leaps and bounds, and it is now dawning on me that at least a couple dozen of you were not here when Randy's now infamous gaff appeared in these columns. We had run a message from John Higdon discussing the Chicago telemarketing scam and some of us contributed what we knew. Randy Borow, then an employee of AT&T used his ability as an employee to pull records on this company and send them in a message to the Digest. His message made for fascinating reading, but angered his superiors at AT&T who fired him as a result of his revealing confidential customer information. PAT]