Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!pyrdc!netsys!vector!telecom-gateway From: kg19+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kurt A. Geisel) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Dangerous Phone Trick Shouldn't Work Message-ID: Date: 21 Apr 89 14:47:23 GMT Sender: news@vector.Dallas.TX.US Lines: 33 Approved: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.dallas.tx.us X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 141, message 2 of 5 An unnamed acquaintance of mine at an unnamed university [not this one] kept telling me about this trick he was using to make all his long distance phone calls. At first, I didn't believe him at all because it sounded like there was no way it would work. But, he is quite persistant at boasting about this trick and a friend confirmed that he is actually doing it. Then, I began to tell him it was a dangerous anomoly and he should stop now before it catches up with him. Anyway, here is how it goes: 1) Place a call from a pay phone, but go through the long distance operator and tell them that you want to charge to number x. 2) Give them the number of another payphone. 3) Have friend answer the payphone and agree to accept charges. 4) The call goes through (!) and presumable the payphone gets "charged"! Now, it would seem to me that the operator would be able to see right away that the number to charge to was a payphone. It shouldn't work unless this service branch is surprisingly ignorant. Furthermore, after doing for months, the phone company should eventually realize that this bills are going into the ether... Is this for real? Will they ever find out? Will this misguided person get a mysterious bill at the end of his college education for $50,453.23? Has anyone heard of such trickery working? - Kurt Kurt Geisel SNAIL : Carnegie Mellon University 65 Lambeth Dr. ARPA : kg19+@andrew.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15241 UUCP : uunet!nfsun!kgeisel "I will not be pushed, filed, indexed, stamped, BIX : kgeisel briefed, debriefed, or numbered!" - The Prisoner