Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: Steve Forrette Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: US Sprint Visa/FON Card Message-ID: <2458@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 29 Dec 89 09:58:00 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: TELECOM Digest Lines: 24 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 599, message 3 of 9 I just got a mailing from US Sprint today announcing their combined FON card/ Visa card. It has a picture of it - one card that is a Visa as well as a calling card. More pictures show a woman using it at a clothing store to buy stuff, and another showing a man using it at a payphone and touch-toning the number. The brochure says the one number on the card does it all. I though that I MUST be missing something, so I called Sprint customer (dis)service to find out what the scoop was. They said that as far as they knew, the brochure was right - one number does it all. I asked them how they planned to provide security if every merchant and their employees where I shopped knew my calling card number. They said it was secure; since the back of the card is not copied onto the carbon, they would not know the dialing instructions! I mentioned that I'm sure that someone posing as a customer would have no problem getting that information from their operators or customer service people. The response was that they don't give out dialing instructions to just *anyone*. They verify name and address first. I know that I'm going to sleep well with them looking after my account so diligently. Perhaps they figure that the 2% or whatever they're going to pocket off of the purchases will cover the fraud losses. Sounds pretty stupid to me. Any thoughts?