Re: Anonymous phone calls...

One of the problems of using the pre-paid cards was brought to light 
recently in the Olympic incident of Harding/Kerrigan.  Harding's husband 
bought one of the cards to make phone calls and they traced the calls back to 
him via the card, since you have to present valid ID to purchase those.

Sgt Darren Harlow - Computer Security
MCTSSA, Camp Pendleton, USMC
Internet: harlowd@nwsfallbrook3.nwac.sea06.navy.mil
or another less reliable & slower: harlow@mqg1.usmc.mil
Voice: Comm: (619) 725-2970  DSN (Autovon): 365-2970
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"The views expressed are my own, and always will be..."

SGT=DARREN=S.=HARLOW%ISB%MCTSSA@nwsfallbrook3.nwac.sea06.navy.mil writes:
 > 	One of the problems of using the pre-paid cards was brought to light 
 > recently in the Olympic incident of Harding/Kerrigan.  Harding's husband 
 > bought one of the cards to make phone calls and they traced the calls back to 
 > him via the card, since you have to present valid ID to purchase those.

Maybe in Norway you do, but not here.  The Orange Cards were
completely anonymous, I think, and there's certainly no reason that a
card system couldn't be set up that is anonymous if those weren't.

--
| GOOD TIME FOR MOVIE - GOING ||| Mike McNally <m5@tivoli.com>       |
| TAKE TWA TO CAIRO.          ||| Tivoli Systems, Austin, TX:        |
|     (actual fortune cookie) ||| "Like A Little Bit of Semi-Heaven" |

On Thu, 5 May 1994 SGT=DARREN=S.=HARLOW%ISB%MCTSSA@nwsfallbrook3.nwac.sea06.navy.mil wrote:

> bought one of the cards to make phone calls and they traced the calls back to 
> him via the card, since you have to present valid ID to purchase those.
> 
> Sgt Darren Harlow - Computer Security

Hesitating to correct the USMC...

Some of the cards (there are now more than a dozen issuers) may be bought
in circumstances where your ID is linked but Western Union doesn't ask and
those who bought the Hallmark Cards with a $6 Sprint Phone Card inside
were not "carded" at many cardshop checkout counters.

DCF

Don't ask me what my grandfather Col Duncan Phillip Frissell USA
Quartermaster Corps used to say about the Marines...

> > bought one of the cards to make phone calls and they traced the calls back 
to 
> > him via the card, since you have to present valid ID to purchase those.

I bought a $10 "U.S. Telecard, Inc." Pre-Paid Phone Card from a vending
machine in the Atlanta Airport two weeks ago.  It has a PIN on the card,
and uses AT&T long distance network.  It's from some company in the
Atlanta Area.  It seems like they had three different companies
named in the recording when you call the 800 customer assistance number --
a real entrepeneur! 

There were some flyers at the vending machine, touting the card's 
features:  mainly, 1. it's easy to use 2. it uses AT&T long dist network.
Privacy or Anonymity was totally unmentioned.  Of course, privacy and
anonymity are not thought of as features with european phone cards,
either.  People buy them because they want to use the phone.

Of course, I blew my anonymity when I tested it, calling my own voicemail.

So give it a try.  Call 1-800-827-9860, PIN 480-500-0400.  For 
international calls, dial 011-county-city-number.  Cool computer
voices.  It has $9.96 left on it.  You can't use "#" on your voicemail,
because that's how you make a new call.

"For additional time or Customer Assistance call 1-800-819-6111".

p.s. these instructions (C) 1994 I.M.C. (US), INC.  Copied without permission.

also.  this card is pretty bland, black on grey.  if they put pretty
pictures of atlanta and 1996 olympic themes on them, they may have something.

C'punks,

On Thu, 5 May 1994 SGT=DARREN=S.=HARLOW%ISB%MCTSSA@nwsfallbrook3.nwac.sea06.navy.mil wrote:

> 	One of the problems of using the pre-paid cards was brought to light 
> recently in the Olympic incident of Harding/Kerrigan.  Harding's husband 
> bought one of the cards to make phone calls and they traced the calls back to 
> him via the card, since you have to present valid ID to purchase those.

I don't think so.  I've bought Western Union calling cards and nobody 
asked for anything but the money.  Every other similar card I've heard 
about was the same way.

Now what could have happened is that they traced the call to the vendor,
and *their* records were traced back.  Since you call an 800 number to
access the system, the ANI (Automatic Number Identification) would have
picked up the number from which the call was made.  I'm still not
convinced, however, because I doubt the vendor companies would keep that
information for very long--if at all. 


 S a n d y