[comp.dcom.telecom] Wanted: Stories of Corporate Toll Fraud

djcl@contact.uucp (woody) (03/10/91)

[This was found on the Telecom Library BBS, New York ... readers can
check this out at their own risk...]

 02-08-91 03:17:46
 From: KEITH MAYDAK
 Subj: TOLL-FRAUD
 
OUR FIRM IS INTERESTED IN TALKING TO COMPANIES THAT WERE VICTIMIZED BY
TOLL-FRAUD.  WE ARE DOING A RESEARCH REPORT FOR SEVERAL FORTUNE 500
FIRMS. YOUR HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED - COMPLETELY CONFIDENTIAL!!!
800-969-1CSA ... call anytime ask for "KIRK" CALL US RIGHT NOW TO
DISCUSS WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU.


[Moderator's Note: Posted as is, without reference to punctuation and
upper/lower case convention, etc. You figure it out. I know of one
very outlandish case here in Chicago during the 1979-83 period: United
Airlines is based out of Chicago. A certain seven-digit Chicago number
accessed the Unitel (United Airlines Telecom) network. No password, no
screening, nothing. Just dial it, and get unrestricted Unitel dial
tone. Dozens of three digit codes of the form 1xx connected to
tie-lines all over the USA and Canada, which in turn produced dial
tone from local PBX's and Centrex networks at airports everywhere.
They in turn had three digit codes which were tie-lines, WATS lines,
you name it. Chicago-area phreaks used it with impunity for maybe
three years. UAL either did not know it, or didn't care.   PAT]

fec@mhuxo.att.com (F E Carey) (03/15/91)

KEITH MAYDAK wrote (on the Telecom Library BBS):

> Subj: TOLL-FRAUD

> OUR FIRM IS INTERESTED IN TALKING TO COMPANIES THAT WERE VICTIMIZED BY
> TOLL-FRAUD.  WE ARE DOING A RESEARCH REPORT FOR SEVERAL FORTUNE 500
> FIRMS. YOUR HELP WOULD BE APPRECIATED - COMPLETELY CONFIDENTIAL!!!
> 800-969-1CSA ... call anytime ask for "KIRK" CALL US RIGHT NOW TO
> DISCUSS WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU.

Good luck.  Most companies are extremely reluctant to disclose such
losses.  This is one reason that loss estimates range so wildly - from
under a million per year to over a billion a year.

I'd suggest you start with the Communications Fraud Control
Association Rami Aburhamdeh, Executive Director, 7921 Jones Branch
Drive, Suite 300, McLean, VA 22102 (703/848-9768.

Recent court cases are another source of loss info and these should be
public records.  For a recent case see the Leslie Doucette case.  She
was sentenced last summer to 27 months in prison.  She was running
some kind of voice mail fraud scheme.  Sorry I can't give a case
number but it was heard in U.S. District Court in Chicago.  I would
expect the victims to be identified in court records.