Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!killer!vector!nobody From: john@jetson.UPMA.MD.US (John Owens) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Pacific Bell Calling Card Blunder Message-ID: Date: 20 Jan 89 15:15:47 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 37 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 23, message 4 I have a few comments on the question of PINs on calling cards, after which I'll actually answer the posted question. :-) There's one major difference between calling card PINs and ATM PINs, which is the scope of charges and effects of having the PIN compromised. With a stolen ATM PIN, someone can empty your bank account, and if any recourse is possible, it will be after the fact. In the mean time, you're left with a serious cash-flow problem. With a calling card PIN, someone can make phone calls that are charged on your telephone bill, which you can contest before the money actually leaves your control. In addition, since card reader phones are quite rare, and the vast majority of calling card use is not card reader use, there's practically no purpose to a calling card without a PIN printed on it. Anyway, opinions aside: > As I have already destroyed the offending card and plan to cancel it > (I have been using it regularly for AT&T long distance; it seemed to > work just fine) and replace it with an AT&T card, can someone explain > what the practical differences, if any, are between the AT&T card and > a calling card issued by a telco? I'm not sure that "cancelling" your calling card would be very useful. AT&T gets its PIN number for you from your telco, so any change they would make would (eventually) propagate to AT&T, and if they do disable it, AT&T might not have a hassle-free method of assigning you a number independently. Besides, AT&T isn't allowed to carry intra-LATA calls, and you still want to make local calls from payphones without change, don't you? The only real difference I know of, besides the International Number being on the AT&T card, is that AT&T card reader phones (with the video displays) won't take BOC cards, and that the card reader phones placed by BOCs don't claim to take AT&T cards. And, finally, the AT&T card DOES print the PIN on the card, as do all other long distance carrier cards I've seen.