[Asterisk-Users] Re: Teliax billing question

[Wolfgang S. Rupprecht]

"Ryan Burke" <burke at tailorhosting.com> writes:
> Is there any other charges because of the toll free number?

I was toying with the idea of getting an 800 number too, but the issue
of a substantial per call fee for pay-phones calls has me worried.
Hopefully someone here can clarify what the deal is there.  I've seen
numbers quoted as high as a 60-cents for the payphone settlement.

    from: http://www.trac.org/news/2005/tracnotes-vol-3-22.html

    Watch Out for New 1-800 Number Scam - An old scam may be cropping up
    again for consumers with personal 1-800 numbers. Most long distance
    companies charge subscribers a per-call fee for calls placed from a
    payphone to a residential 1-800 number. This fee is then sent back to
    the owner of the payphone. While this arrangement is perfectly
    legitimate, in 2002, scammers in Berkeley, California found a way to
    take advantage of the system. They set up a phony payphone company and
    connect a bank of payphones to an automatic dialer. The dialer then
    randomly dialed 1-800 numbers until it hit a residential toll-free
    number. When the call is picked up, the scammer pocketed the 24¢
    fee. Thanks to the auto-dialer, they could quickly rack up profits
    from the scam. By the time the operation was shut down by police, they
    had netted almost a half million dollars. Reports of a similar scam
    are coming in and consumers with residential 800 numbers are urged to
    check their April and May long distance bills for mysterious
    one-minute phone calls from Denver, Colorado. If you find such a call,
    be sure to contact your phone company. For more information on this
    scam, click herei. (Thanks to ConsumerWorld.org for this tip.)

    WIRELESS WATCH

-wolfgang
-- 
Wolfgang S. Rupprecht                http://www.wsrcc.com/wolfgang/
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