(Ed. note——-rhe Grinnell College stu—
dents who admitted involvementin ca-
ses oi telephone toll iraud agreed to
discuss their situation only aiter re-
ceiving assurances that their identi-
ties would remain secret.)

by John Wylie
Two investigators tor the General
1' Telephone Company oi the Midwest

Ptio‘l‘o coumsv cci‘.‘ m co
THOMPSON

d,

CRAIG

have been on theGrinnellcampus sin-
ce Tuesday investigating an estimated

20 to 25 cases oi alleged telephone
toll iraud,

J. Kenneth Thompson, Director oi
nnblic iniormation ion the iirm, said
Wednesday that the company may
have been deirauded oi as much as
$3,000 by Grinnell students. lleadded
that this represents between one and

. two per cent oi the total student long
distance telephone traiiio.

The Scarlet and Black has learned
that at least iour Grinnell students
contacted by General Telephone invea
stigators have admitted making teles
phone calls using irandnlant methods
to avoid toll charges,

Alter being conironted by investi—
gators, the Scarlet and Black was
told, the students admitted making
the calls, and agreed to pay iorthern,

Itu io‘nr shidents told the Scarlet
and Black that, alter admitting their
guilt to the investigator and agreeing
to pay ior the cans in question, they

, were toldthetelephonecompanywould
not press charges.

(Under lowa law, telephone toll Ire
and involving less than $100 isamis-
demeanor punishable by a line oi up
to $100, a jail term oi up to 30
days, or both. lithe amount involved
is over $100, the violation is a let—
ony, punishable by a nrisonterm oiup
to live years, a line oi up to $l,000,
or both.

Telephone toll lrauds which cross
a state line are violations oiiederal
law, and carry potential ielony pens
alties identical to those contained
in the lowa statutes).

Prosecution

Robert Craig, chiei oi the Security
Division oi General Telephone, said
Wednesday that he “decides each case
on its merits” in determining whe-
ther a suspect in a telephone toll
iraud case will be prosecuted.

“in some cases, we will allow a
person to avoid prosecution it they
admit complete guilt, make iull re»
stitution, and promise never to at
tempt to deiraud the telephone com—
pany again. in other cases,the indi-
vidual‘s word is clearly worthless.
and we begin prosecution under the
appropriate state or tederalstatute.”

' Craig added that the telephone com-
pany‘s primary goal in dealing with
toll iraud is prevention. Thompson
noted that whenever a call is made
through the General Telephone Sys-
tem “we’d like to be paid ior it.”

Craig stressed cooperation oi sus-
pects as one key to avoiding pro-
secution, and said that the amount
at the alle ed iraud is not always
the determi ng iactor,

“I once prosecuted an individual
over a $1.30 charge. Why? First,
there was no evidence that he won-
ldn’t do the same thing again Se-
cond, he lied to us. Third, he was
obnoxious, impolite, and deiiant. l-le
lett us no choice except to prose-
cute, We got a conviction, too .7 he
was lined $100, spent ten days in
tail, and was ordered to leave the
state,”

“On the other hand, there was a
case involving between $700 and 0300
in which we did not prosecute. The
individual involvedwasunmarriedand
pregnant, and had made the calls
in desparation in an eiiort to get out
oi her predicament.

“We agreed to let her repay. We
had to contact her parents and ask
them tor the money But we didn't
prosecute her because we didn't ieel
prosecution would serve the cause
oi yustice in this case. We are iirm,
but we aren’t inhuman."

Reasons
Craig estimated that “fully 90%”
of the individuals he has investi-

that can possibly go wrong will go
wrong. i will say that we have other
test equipment constantly checking on

r_—___—.K'
Toll Fraud: What Is The Law?

TITLE 18, SECTION 1343, United States Code: FRAUD BY WIRE, RADIO,
TELEVISION.

 

Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artiiice .

to deiraud, or ior obtaining money or property by means oi ialse or iraud-
ulent pretenses, representations, or promises, transmits or causes to
be transmitted by means of wire, radio, or television communication in
interstate or ioreign commerce, any writings, signs, signals, pictures,
or sounds for the purpose 0! execuling su h scheme 01 artifice, shall be
iined not more than $1,000.00 or impri oned not more than five (5)
years, or bath.
CODE OF IOWA
713.39 FALSE USE OF CREDIT CARDS. Itshallbe unlaqul for any person
knpwingly to obtain or attempt to obtain credit, or to purchase or attempt
to purchase any goods, property or service, by the use of any false, iic-
titious, counterfeit or expired credit card, Ielephone number, credit num-
ber or other credit device in any case where Such card, number or device
has been revoked and notice 01 revocatinn has been given to the person
to whom issued.
/

713.40 FRAUDULENT USE OF WIRE SERVICES. It shall be unlawful for
any person to obtain or attempt to obtain, by the use oi any iraudulent
scheme, device, means or method, telephone or telegraph service or
the transmission of a message, signal or other communication by tele-
phone or telegraph, or over telephone or telegraph iacilities with intent
to avoid payment oi charges theretor.

713.42 PENALTY’“. Any person who violates any provision of section
713.39 or section 713.40 shall be guilty at a misdemeanor, ii the violation
invnlves less than $100, and upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of
not more than one hundred dollars or imprisonment tnr nnt more than
thirty days, or by both such tine or imprisonment. ii the violation involves
more than $100, any person who violates any section bisection 713.39
or section 713.40 shall be guilty at a ielony and, upon conviction shall be
punished by a line or not more than one thousand dollars or imprison-
rnent oi not more than tive years, or by hotti such iine andimprisons
ment.

*Paraphrase oi recently revised statute,

t Sourc » General Telephone Company

\_____f

gated ior toll iraud attempt to make
iraudulant calls either to save money
or to avoid having an accurate re»
cord made oi the caus

“The most common example oi not
wanting a record oi the calls me
volvei romances, The two people are
in diiierent schools, and their par—
ents pay the phone bills Since they
don’t want their parents to see the
big phone bills lengthy calls would
involve, they useaphony credit card "

He added that most students who
violate telephone toll iraud statutes
are unaware oi the seriousness oithe
crime. “They realize that it is more
serious than a parkingticket, butvery
iew realize that they could be deals
ing with a ielony.”

Craig said that many students involv
ved in toll iraud are also involved
in drug use, Speaking oi students in
general, and not speciticauy oi Grin—
nell College students, he said hehad
oiten entered a room to talk to a

student about possible toll iraudand

”discovered the air thick with pot
smoke.” ,

He said that, although he is not a
law eniorcement oiiicer, he will tu»
rn any iniormation oi illegal drug
use over to iederal narcotics oiils
cials.

 

Process

Thompson explained that suspected
toll iraud is involved in “only atrir
okle" oi the telephone charges in-
vestigated by the General Telephone
Company.

Any time a customer disputes a
toll charge on a telephone bill (“De-
nies All Knowledge" or DKA in the
telephone company's Jargon), hesaid.
an investigation is started to deter»
mine the source at the call. Each
investigation runs through the come .
pany's Centralized Toll investigation

RECORDING CALLS

I1 call, whethermadethrough HONESTY

THE GRINNELL SCARLET at BLACK FEBRUARY 15, 1974 PAGE 3

Jo" Fraud: The $1000 Phone Call

the ANI systems, and that any er-
ror will be detected before M can
cause much trouble."

Thompson compared these lnvestis
gations to an internal audit. “We
know an error has occurred somer
where in the sysIem. It is the job 01
CTI to determine where the error
occurred, and to See that it is cor-
rected.”

If none at these problems account
for the faulty hill, an investigation of
possible I011 fraud is initiated, Th-
ompson said,

DI the 33,000 CTI investigations hes
gun in the General Telephone system
in January, only about 6,000 will be
seriously investigated as possible
cases of toll Iraud, Thompson said.

Craig said thaI incidents at Ioll ire
and have declined Somewhat in re
cent years, College campuses like
Grinnell account for a number 0!
these frauds, he explained. because
they house a number at people who
live in distant cities,

General Telephone OI the Midwest
serves a number oi community col-
leges in lowa and Nebraska, be said.
and the incidence DI toll iraud Is
very low at these institutions.

But there are more toll fraud ins
cidents at the larger, residential
campus at the University at Miss
onri at Columbia, served by General
Telephone through a CENTREX sys—
tem (which allows Students to dial
their ‘Dwn long distance calls lrom
their dormitory telephones).

Craig said use at Iraudulant credit
cards or unauthorized use oi third
party numbersrare the mamr toll
(rand problems. Misuse oi pay tel-
ephones is a lesser problem tor
the company, Craig noted.

At Grinnell, be said, virtnauy all
the suspected fraud cases involved
ont-ol-state calls, mostly to the East
Coast. He added that, although most
of the Grinnell cases involved about
$20 in charges, one case appeared
to involve between $600 and $800 in

apparent toll iraud,
lvlisiniorniatdon

The iour Grmnell students (two men
and two women) who agreed to tell
the Scarlet and Black why they had
attempted to deiraud the telephone
company told very similar stories.

All said that they attempted to use
illegal means to avoid payments ior
telephone calls because they wanted
to save money.

Allsaid they realized that telephone
toll iraud was illegal, but all said
they did not realize that their ac-
tons constituted ielonies.

Another male student who admitted
making iraudnlant telephone calls but
who says he has not been contacted
by investigators said he “had al-
ways been tol .. that calls made th—
rough a college switchboard could
not be traced.

Craig smiled when told oi this,
and oi similar student ideas about
the diliiculty oi tracing telephone
calls.

”Investigatively, none oi this is
diiiicult to track down, It takes so—

me work and some time, but it isn’t ’

reauy that diiiicult, Besides, we've

got all the time in the world to

complete our investigations,"
Prevention

All the oiiioials oi General Tele—
phone contacted hy the Scarlet and
Black were emphatic in stating that
their goal is the prevention oi tele-
phone toll iraud,

Craig noted that publicity about the
serious consequences oi telephone
iraud “inevltably bring a number oi
people to our oiiice wanting to con»
less and pay up,”

PRICING A CLUNKER
STANFORD, CAuStaniordUniver-
sity's bookstore is now oiiering
customers a chance to consult a
used car bluebook, showing average
prices, beiore lacing a used car
salesman. "

cirleiaad abet photobynongnilsey ‘

Eileen Schmidt, (leit) an operator tor the General Telephone Company,
records billing details oi an operator-assisted long distance call. Working
in the company's switching center at lbln Main Street, operators record
each call on separate cards. Calls are timed using a manual clock (on
desk, right ioreground), and a system oi lights on the switchboard allows
each operator to handle several calls simultaneously. Each card standing
on edge represents a call in progress. Mel Storbeck (right) adjusts the
automatic switching equipment in the same building which handles cus-
tomerdialed long distance calls. Each call is routed through one oi sixty
“Ticketer” units (like the unit Storbeck is adjusting), which connects
local callers with distant telephones. Alter a call is completed, billing
iniormation is recorded on punched paper tape by equipment like that
located behind Storbeck. Each call requires about three inches oi paper
tap .

an operator or dialed directly, is
recorded on an individual card or
section at tape.

Many DKA cases are Iraced to ’

operator error in recording billing
iniormation. Other common errors
involve- accidental mistakes by cus-
tomers in giving credit card or third
party numbers to operators and,very
rarely, mechanical iailure in the
Automatic Number identiiication
(ANI) system used to record users
dialed toll calls.

“I won't say we are 100% erroriree
when using ANI," Thompsonadmitted.
”Murphy's Law says that anything

PROVO, UTe-CampuspoliceatBrr
lgham Young University got an unr
usual letter recently,

The writer said he sometimes pa-
rked his car illegally, but has not
yet been ticketed, With the letter
was $20.

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