spencer@med.umich.edu (Spencer W. Thomas) (06/25/91)
Our paper, a few days ago, ran an article titled "Prisoners cheat phone company on costly calls." It attempts to explain a scam that some "guests" of the state are using to make free LD phone calls. I don't understand the purported explanation. Maybe one of you can explain it for me. LANSING -- Some Michigan prison inmates are making unlimited free long-distance calls thanks to a nearly foolproof scam. The practice ultimately could cost consumers thousands of dollars when future phone rates are set by regulators, officials said. Word of the ease with which inmates can make free phone calls has spread quickly. The result? Long waiting lines at some prison pay phones. "It's really a big problem," said Connie Henslee, telecommunications coordinator for the Corrections Department. "It's driving the phone company nuts because it's costing them a lot of money." Although the phone company doesn't know exactly how much the fraud costs, officials estimate one-third of the tool calls that go uncollected in the state can be traced back to prison inmates. Here's how inmates and corrections officials describe the scam: An inmate makes a collect call to a friend whose phone has a three-way calling feature. The friend then pushes a button on the phone and dials the phone company, with the prisoner still on the line. When the phone company comes on the line, the customer is slient as the inmate orders a new phone under a phony name. "We have no way of knowing it's an inmate who has called collect," Michigan Bell spokesman Dean Hovey said. Dan Bolden, deputy corrections director, said he doesn't know how big the problem is, but said even state officials in Lansing offices get calls from inmates using the scam. "It's a constant battle to keep up with those folks," Bolden said. "I've seen a prisoner run up $1,000 phone bills." Spencer W. Thomas HSITN, U of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 spencer@med.umich.edu 313-747-2778 (8-6 E[SD]T M-F) [Moderator's Note: I suspect they are ordering new service at the address of a confederate on the outside. Then they call collect to 'their' new number; the confederate okays the charges and dials out calls for them to wherever they really want to call. Then when the service gets cut for non-payment, so be it ... order new service! But whatever happened to requiring a deposit and pulling a credit bureau file on the subscriber-applicant? Any other theories? PAT]
0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin) (06/27/91)
reports a scam conducted by Michican prisoners ordering a new account with the aid of an acomplice who connects them to the common carrier's business office via three-way-calling: > When the phone company comes on the line, the customer is slient as > the inmate orders a new phone under a phony name. Our Moderator opines: > [Moderator's Note: I suspect they are ordering new service at the > address of a confederate on the outside. Tten they call collect > to 'their' new number; the confederate okays the charges and dials out > calls for them to wherever they really want to call. Then when the > service gets cut for non-payment, so be it ... That sounds too elegant and complex to Certainly, the LEC would soon tag any local address that has had several bad accounts! Rather, I suspect the "new service" is more likely to me a calling card account opened with some of those fine, upstanding telemarketers we so often hear about peddling long distance accounts. After all, there's a fertile field of several hundred of them to work, and they are so anxious for accounts their credit checking is minimal, if at all for most of them.
Colin Plumb <colin@array.uucp> (06/28/91)
In article <telecom11.491.3@eecs.nwu.edu> spencer@med.umich.edu (Spencer W. Thomas) writes: > An inmate makes a collect call to a friend whose phone has a three-way > calling feature. The friend then pushes a button on the phone and > dials the phone company, with the prisoner still on the line. > When the phone company comes on the line, the customer is slient as > the inmate orders a new phone under a phony name. > "We have no way of knowing it's an inmate who has called collect," > Michigan Bell spokesman Dean Hovey said. I think that what's happening is that the business office is saying "yes, we'll pay" to the operator asking who'll accept the charges, and somehow the call gets charged to them. The prisoner makes a phony business transaction (ordering service to a bogus name), and the business office hangs up. They are now talking to their friend, and the business office is paying. Colin
smp@uwm.edu> (06/28/91)
In <telecom11.491.3@eecs.nwu.edu> spencer@med.umich.edu (Spencer W. Thomas) writes: > When the phone company comes on the line, the customer is slient as > the inmate orders a new phone under a phony name. I tend to agree with the Moderator on this one. I know that when I recently moved to Milwaukee, I was asked just about everything about my life history that I can remember in order to get phone service. :-) I even had to send in a $40 deposit prior to placement of the order. This was BEFORE they would complete the order processing, not before they would turn on the phone. What a world, what a world. Fido: 1:154/600 | myamiga!smp@fps.mcw.edu | rutgers!uwm!fps!myamiga!smp