From: udi@cs.washington.edu (Udi Manber)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Calling 1-800 Can Cost You a Fortune
Date: 7 Jan 93 08:57:37 GMT
Organization: TELECOM Digest
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 13, Issue 12, Message 4 of 13

If you always thought that 1-800 numbers (in the US) are toll free,
think again. With new technology and the lack of regulations, people
are finding new ways to make money.

I learned this the hard way after being charged for (apparently)
dialing the wrong 800 number.

It took me a month and a half and probably 20 phone calls to find out
this story.  I'll try to make it short.

It is possible, and apparently perfectly legal, to set an 800 number
such that when you call you hear a recording that tells you that there
will be charges for the call.

The call is then transferred to a "station to station" call (quote
from someone I talked to, but probably the wrong term) with arbitrary
charges.  That domain was reserved until recently to 900 numbers but
through call forwarding (or some other mechanism) it can be done from
any number!  (If you haven't already guessed, most of these numbers
are adult phone lines.)  The idea (if there ever was one) is that you
will have a fair warning and can hang up, but this is not enforced and
is not always done.  There are such numbers out there that will charge
you whatever they feel like when you happen to dial them, and they are
regular 800 numbers, and maybe even regular local numbers (not 976 or
other special prefixes).

The possibilities for scams are endless (I list some below for your
reading pleasure), and the most scary thing is that it is so difficult
to do anything about it.  I talked to the billing company (INTEGRETEL
which is an umbrella billing company for lots of outfits), US West
(more on that later), ATT (who really has nothing to do with that and
hate it just as much as I do), and the Washington state utilities
commission.  

Everyone essentially said "just pay it, nothing we can do about it."
Only after several conversations with the commission, and calls from
them to US West (initially US West would not even take my complaint),
I was told that US West now has a policy of removing such charges
(coming from INTEGRETEL) for anyone who complains.  When the next bill
came, I found that they didn't.  I called again, and no one knew
anything about that policy.  After more calls I was finally put in
touch with someone probably higher up at US West who seemed to know
what he was talking about.  According to him (and two people at the
commission), there is nothing really they can or going to do (besides
handling complaints).  They will remove the charges -- and he
apologized for the operators and supervisors who did not know about
that policy -- but will not prevent this from continuing.  (He also
told me that he got hold of some of those 800 numbers and indeed some
charge you from the first second no matter what you do.)

Washington State has a recent law regulating 900 numbers, but there is
nothing about 800 numbers (they're free, right?).  I don't know if
this is a local idea or whether it is all over the place.  I was told
several times that there are no rules anywhere that say that 800
numbers are toll free.  It's just something that everyone "knows".  US
West feels that they cannot discriminate against businesses that use
their lines, and cannot prevent that use without a specific law.
Since in this case the 800 number led to an out of state call, the
utilities commission can't do anything.  Everyone agreed that this is
probably a great scam, but ...

The beauty of this scam is that you are so far away from the people
who are making it (you can't even find out who they are).  They get
your local phone company to bill you and the phone company feels they
have to do it.  Complaining is so hard, most people would prefer to
pay the charges (I definitely spent more time than it was worth), not
to mention that it is part of the phone bill and many people wouldn't
notice (it appears as a long-distance call).  And in the worst case
they will not get your money.

So here are some scam ideas (these are all fiction; do not try it at
home):

You can get an 800 number that is one digit away from a widely used
800 number and rip off anyone who makes a mistake (maybe that's what
happened to me, they would not tell me the number).  How about setting
your own 900 number so that you can forward calls to it by all those
who try to sell you something.  Wouldn't that be great?  They: "How
are you doing this evening Mr. Manber?"  Me: push a button and voila
"You have reached the toll line explaining why unsolicited calls are
bothering me. You will be charged $15 per minute starting 15 seconds
ago. Please stay on the line..."  (I think, by the way, that this is
possible...)  I was told that there were cases where people's calls
got transferred *out of the country* after making local calls.  You
can put ads for information on how to make $10 a minute - just call
1-800-747-6337.  That's 1-800-rip-offs!  [This is an imaginary number
- don't call please!].  How about tricking modems into calling those
"local" numbers?  Or going into lots of public places and asking "can
I use your phone for a local call?"  (You wouldn't block 800 numbers
or local calls!)

I have never seen this mentioned anywhere.

I am really curious to know how this forwarding is physically done and
whether anyone knows of any discussion on that at the FCC (who is
probably the only agency that can do anything about it).  Since I
spent quite a bit of time already, I'd like to know any additional
information anyone can give me about this (and similar) scams.


Udi Manber (udi@cs.washington.edu)


[Moderator's Note: We have discussed this here on many occassions in
the past. Integretel will give you the name of the client they are
billing for if you are persistent enough. The bad thing about outfits
like Integretel and their clients are they make it hard on the honest
operators of information and (yes, even phone sex) services. They
don't seem to care that the public paints all such services with the
same brush.  PAT]