0004169820@mcimail.com (Rochelle Communications) (10/11/90)
I have been following with real interest the discussion on whether IXCs can legally block calling card calls to selected foreign countries, in order to protect themselves from fraud. I want to share my experience with one of the carriers in this regards: I placed the call on my SPRINT FONcard. The call went through OK, but several days later, my FONcard account was no longer valid. I later found out that the vigilant fraud control office at US SPINT, in their infinite wisdom, determined that somebody must have stolen my card, since I have never called Saudi Arabia on my FONcard before!! Uh? US SPRINT eventually re-instated my account. They assured me that this action was taken "in order to protect me", and that they had tried to call me at home to verify the call (but did not leave a message on my answering machine). Gilbert Amine [Moderator's Note: You know who they were trying to protect ... and while I don't cotton to long distance fraud of any carrier, it seems to me they are treading in dangerous legal territory by simply cutting off your card with no notice or warning ... leaving you to accidentally find it out later. What if you had been in a strange city over a holiday weekend and without the means to otherwise make a call? I guess Sprint is not that concerned about inconvenience to their customers when their calling card is disrupted. They've also done this kind of thing (arbitrary cut off of FON Card) to young people traveling around the USA on vacation who were using cards their parents had given them for their well-being. PAT]