TELECOM Digest     Fri, 29 Jul 2005 00:13:00 EDT    Volume 24 : Issue 343

Inside This Issue:                             Editor: Patrick A. Townson

    Beware of Phanton Stock Regulators With Internet Scams (Reuters News)
    Elderly Americans Hurt by Internet Scams (Reuters News Wire)
    Senator Unveils Bill to Helping SBC, Other Telcos (Reuters NewWire)
    Google Says Microsoft Lawsuit is Nothing But Charade (Eliz Gillespie)
    Credit Reports, was Re: AT&T Customers Taken By AllTel (Danny Burstein)
    Bell Canada Cell Scam? (retrosorter)
    Re: Regarding Local Government Offering Wireless ISP (AES)
    Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones (Joseph)

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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
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we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime.   Geoffrey Welsh

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and the name of our lawyer; other stuff of interest.  


----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Beware of Phantom Stock Regulators on Net, Officials Warn
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 22:22:29 -0500


Con artists are setting up Web sites for fake U.S. regulatory agencies
to lure stock investors, many from overseas, into fraudulent
transactions, officials from New Jersey to Montana warned on Thursday.

These "phantom regulators" -- with names like the International
Compliance Commission and the Securities Protection Agency -- have
been brought to the attention of actual regulators, the officials
said.

"The U.S. securities markets are known around the world for being
among the safest ... Con artists are trying to cash in on our good
name abroad to lure unsuspecting investors into risky penny stocks and
advance fee schemes," said New Jersey Securities Bureau Chief Franklin
Widmann.

For instance, investors in Britain, Australia and New Zealand were
targeted by a company called Royal Acquisitions Inc., which offered to
buy shares of worthless stock, but asked for an upfront fee, officials
said.

To make their pitch more convincing, Royal Acquisitions referred
investors to a Web site for the "International Securities Regulatory
Commission," said regulators in Montana, where the company and the
commission were purportedly based.

There is no Royal Acquisitions or International Securities Regulatory
Commission doing business in Montana, the Montana Securities
Department said.

"We continue to get e-mails regularly from investors around the world
asking about the legitimacy of Royal Acquisitions and the
International Securities Regulatory Commission," said Karen Powell,
deputy Montana securities commissioner.

This month the Missouri securities commissioner issued an order
against the "Securities Compliance Department," which claims to be a
regulator based in Kansas City.

Missouri officials said the case involved an Australian woman who was
bilked out of $121,000 by a group called Century Group Mergers and
Acquisitions.  The woman said a man telephoned her claiming to be from
the Securities Compliance Department and asked her to send more money.

In Massachusetts, state regulators said they have filed a complaint
against RJL International Ltd., after receiving numerous complaints
from overseas investors.

RJL agents were contacting investors and offering to buy their shares
for up to 200 times the market price, but asking for an advance fee,
state officials said.

"At least one investor submitted $19,000 to RJL, after which all
communications with the firm ceased," said the Massachusetts
Securities Division in a statement.

Rather than using a Web site, RJL encouraged reluctant investors to
telephone the "International Public Shareholder Protection Service,"
an entity that does not exist, officials said.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

------------------------------

From: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Elderly Americans Lose Millions in Internet Scams
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 14:24:29 -0500


Scams involving Internet auctions, as well as identity theft,
lotteries, prizes and sweepstakes, top the list of fraud complaints by
older Americans, who lost $152 million to con artists last year,
U.S. officials told a Senate panel on Wednesday.

Internet-based scams are growing and now account for about 41 percent
of fraud complaints the Federal Trade Commission receives from people
over 50, Lois Greisman of the FTC's consumer protection division told
the Senate Committee on Aging.

"This figure is all the more dramatic when one considers that
Internet-related fraud represented only 33 percent of all fraud
complaints from this age group in 2002," she said.

Older consumers reported being defrauded of more than $43 million last
year through Internet scams, with on-line auctions topping the
complaint list, she said.

But more old-fashioned scams continue to take their toll. Lottery and
sweepstakes frauds, in which victims are asked to pay "taxes" or other
fees to claim prizes, cost older Americans $35 million last year,
Greisman said.  People over 70 are particular targets of that kind of
scam, she added.

Another popular scam involves fake credit card protection or discount
drug services, she said. Others involve scam artists saying they need
bank account information for Social Security or Medicare benefits.

"What is most disturbing is that these scams routinely top the FTC's
annual list of consumer frauds in the nation," said Sen. Gordon Smith
(news, bio, voting record), an Oregon Republican who chairs the Senate
Aging Committee.  "It seems that even though we are aware of their
use, scam artists remain successful in pitching old scams to new
victims, perpetuating a cycle of victimization."

Anthony Pratkanis, a psychology professor at the University of
California who has been on a team of researchers examining elderly
fraud, said con artists steal using the weapon of "social influence"
to create a sense of trust rather than a gun or knife.

Research shows that not just the "frail and lonely" fall victim to
scams, he said. Active people who are leaders in their communities can
also fall prey.

"We find that con criminals profile their victims' psychological and
other characteristics to find their Achilles' heel ... to construct
the exact pitch that is likely to be most effective," he said.

In one example, con artists told a potential victim that to ask
questions or hang up the phone while they were trying to verify
account information was against the law.

Pratkanis said his research group was developing tools to help the
elderly defend themselves against fraudulent pitches.

U.S. Postal Service inspector Zane Hill said scam artists know that
many elderly people feel isolated and a telephone call from anyone is
welcomed.

"Experienced con artists understand elderly citizens' vulnerabilities
and know what buttons to push when they have them on the telephone,"
he said.  ((CONGRESS-SCAMS, editing by Americas Desk; Washington
Newsroom, 202 898 8300)

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited. 

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

------------------------------

From: Reuters News Wire <reuters@telecom-digest.org> 
Subject: Senator Unveils Bill to Aid SBC, Other Telcos
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 14:27:10 -0500


Legislation aiding telephone companies in their efforts to provide
video and other high-speed data services was proposed on Wednesday by
Sen. John Ensign, who claimed his goal is to boost competition.

Ensign, a Nevada Republican and chairman of the Senate Commerce
subcommittee on technology, innovation and competitiveness, called his
72-page bill a starting point as Congress considers overhauling the
1996 Telecommunications Act, which aimed to promote competition in
voice services.

"Changes in technology necessitate that we update these rules if
America is going to be competitive in the face of global competition,"
he told reporters.

Cable and telephone companies are battling to expand their profits by
signing up as many customers as possible for a suite of communications
and entertainment services but the Bells have complained they are at a
disadvantage.

Ensign pointed out that the United States has slipped to as low as
16th in the rankings for deploying high-speed Internet service, called
broadband. He also said consumers are hungry for more choice in
communications and entertainment.

Under the bill, companies that want to offer video services would no
longer have to get permission from local or state officials, a boon to
companies like Verizon Communications and SBC Communications Inc.
which are rolling out video.

The measure would also eliminate in 2011 requirements that the four
big local telephone companies, known as the Baby Bells and including
Verizon and SBC, resell their phone service to other competitors at
regulated rates or make parts of their existing copper networks
available to competitors.

The Bells argue they must abide by laws for traditional phone service,
slowing the deployment of broadband services, and that they could be
required to obtain permission from thousands of local authorities to
offer video.

"This will provide much needed clarity as SBC invests in
next-generation broadband services," said Tim McKone, senior vice
president for federal relations at SBC, the No. 2 U.S. telephone
carrier.

Ensign said he would now begin seeking the support of other lawmakers
for his measure, but gave no timetable for moving the legislation
forward.  Analysts have said the chances of passing a bill this year
were slim.

However, not all were quick to embrace the bill. Sen. John Kerry, a
senior Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee from Massachusetts,
said that while he had not read the entire bill, he had some concerns.

"It does conflict with a few of the views I espouse," he told
reporters, without elaborating.

Ensign's measure would prevent companies from limiting where consumers
surf on the Internet as well as ensure Internet phone service cannot
be blocked by broadband providers.

Local and state authorities would still be able to collect up to 5
percent of gross revenue from pay television services and local
governments could continue managing rights of ways.

Copyright 2005 Reuters Limited.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily.

------------------------------

From: Elizabeth M. Gillespie <ap@telecom-digest.org>
Subject: Google Says Microsoft Lawsuit is Nothing But a Charade
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 14:32:27 -0500


By ELIZABETH M. GILLESPIE, Associated Press Writer

In a simmering legal tussle, Google Inc. is asking a judge to reject
Microsoft's bid to keep a prized research engineer from taking a job
at the Internet search company, saying the software titan filed its
lawsuit to frighten other workers from defecting, or making trouble.

Microsoft Corp. sued Kai-Fu Lee, one of its former executives, and
Google last week, claiming that by taking the Google job, Lee was
violating an agreement he signed in 2000 barring him from working for
a direct competitor in an area that overlapped with his role at
Microsoft.

"This lawsuit is a charade," Google said in court documents filed
before a Wednesday hearing in Seattle. "Indeed, Microsoft executives
admitted to Lee that their real intent was to scare other Microsoft
employees into remaining at the company."

Google countersued last week, seeking to override Microsoft's
noncompete provision so it can retain Lee.

"In truth, Kai-Fu Lee's work for Microsoft had only the most
tangential connection to search and no connection whatsoever to
Google's work in this space," the Mountain View, Calif.based company
said in court documents.

Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez heard arguments in the case in
Seattle on Wednesday, and said he expects to issue a ruling Thursday.

Google's filings include details about a conversation Lee had with
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, suggesting that the software company is
becoming increasingly concerned about Google siphoning away talent --
and perhaps intellectual property.

In a July 15 meeting, Lee said, Gates told him, "Kai-Fu, (CEO) Steve
(Ballmer) is definitely going to sue you and Google over this. He has
been looking for something like this, someone at a VP level to go to
Google. We have to stop Google before this gets worse."

Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake declined to comment on Gates'
statement directly. "Our concern here is the fact that Dr. Lee has
knowledge of highly sensitive information both of our search business
and our strategy in China," she said.

Lee claims that Google didn't recruit him and has not encouraged him
to violate any agreement he had with Microsoft.

Microsoft counters that Lee's job with Google gives him ample
opportunity to leak sensitive technical and strategic business
secrets. Microsoft noted that Lee attended a confidential,
executive-only briefing in March, dubbed "The Google Challenge."

"In short, Dr. Lee was recently handed Microsoft's entire Google
competition 'playbook,'" Microsoft said.

Lee joined Microsoft in August 2000, after he helped establish the
company's research center in China. At one point, Microsoft said, he
was in charge of the company's work on MSN Search.

Microsoft and Google, along with Yahoo Inc. are locked in a fierce
battle to dominate search, both online and through desktop search
programs. Google has begun offering new services, including e-mail,
that compete with Microsoft offerings.

Microsoft said it paid Lee well in exchange for his promises to honor
confidentiality and noncompete agreements. The company said Lee made
more than $3 million during nearly five years in Redmond, and that he
earned more than $1 million last year.

Microsoft claims there is "an extremely close nexus" between the work
Lee did at Microsoft and what he will be doing at Google.

Google argued otherwise, insisting that Lee is not a search expert and
noting that his most recent work at Microsoft was in speech
recognition.

On the Net:

Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com
Google: http://www.google.com

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

NOTE: For more telecom/internet/networking/computer news from the
daily media, check out our feature 'Telecom Digest Extra' each day at
http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/more-news.html . Hundreds of new
articles daily. Listen to Associated Press News Radio and view stories
at http://telecom-digest.org/td-extra/AP.html . 

------------------------------

From: Danny Burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
Subject: Credit Reports, was: AT&T Customers Being Taken Over By AllTel
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 19:29:33 UTC
Organization: PANIX Public Access Internet and UNIX, NYC


In <telecom24.342.15@telecom-digest.org> Steve Sobol
<sjsobol@JustThe.net> writes:

[ snip, snip, snip. Go out and buy the book already ]

> But when all is said and done, and resolved, pull a credit report
> anyhow.  You are now entitled to one free report per year - that was a
> law in certain states before, but it is now a *federal* law, with all
> US citizens being entitled to the free report.

Pretty close, but not quite yet. Soon ...

The Feds mandated free access, but on a sliding map. It started with
the west coast Dec 2004 and is making its way across to the Atlantic.

Most of the US is already covered, but the east coasters have to wait
until September, 2005.

> http://www.annualcreditreport.com/

and ...

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/credit/ycr_free_reports.htm

_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
		     dannyb@panix.com 
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: But by the time the original party 
refuses to pay the thousand dollars, gets placed with an agency (if
that happens, which I doubt) we will be around to September already.
Anyway, she is from Texas, I do not know if that is east coast or
west coast for the purpose of when credit bureau files will be
available or not.  PAT]

------------------------------

From: retrosorter <hrichler@sympatico.ca>
Subject: Bell Canada Cell Scam?
Date: 28 Jul 2005 16:26:07 -0700


I know many people who bought Bell cell phones in Canada and found out
months later that they were charged for browser costs of several
hundred dollars that they had inadvertently accessed that and they
didn't even know they possesses these features. Is this some sort of
scam? None of these people say they wanted any browswer features and
claim they were not informed by salespeople when they bought their
phones that the feature existed and could be inadvertently
accessed. Shouldn't Bell, or any cellular company, be obliged to tell
consumers that this could happen? I know it is detailed in the
documentation but for me this is not adequate consumer protection.

Any thoughts?

------------------------------

From: AES <siegman@stanford.edu>
Subject:  Re: Regarding Local Government Offering Wireless ISP
Date:  Thu, 28 Jul 2005 14:27:16 -0700
Organization:  Stanford University


In article <telecom24.341.5@telecom-digest.org>, John L. Shelton
<john@jshelton.com> wrote:

> I sent the following letter to Newsweek magazine after they posted an
> editorial in favor of letting local government offer wireless Internet
> access:

> In your 2005, July 18 issue, Steven Levy wrote "Pulling the Plug on 
> Local Internet."

> Mr. Levy suggests that it is right for cities to offer competitive
> Internet services, perhaps because they can offer lower-cost options,
> and don't "focus excessively on the affluent."  . . . . 

> Government has no business making rules that it applies to others,
> then "competing" in the same market. If a local government wants to
> establish an independent competitive entity, it should bow out of
> regulation. If it wants to regulate, then it shouldn't play.  . . . .

> Our cities will best be served by open competition in all areas --
> phone, TV, Internet, and others. . . . . 

What "internet services" are these cities proposing to offer, exactly?

If it's things like email services, file storage, programming, remote 
computing, other "data processing" services, then there may be some 
merit to your argument.

But if it's just _access_ -- that is, just a raw connection to the 
internet, which residents can then use to communicate with and purchase 
services from any other host on the internet, then I have to express 
violent disagreement with you.

The Internet is, truly, the "information highway" of today, with all
the basic characteristics of any other highway.  It's basic
infrastructure, a vitally important basic component of modern society,
just like ordinary roads, highways, bridges and tunnels. (And as an
aside, that's essentially all that Al Gore ever said, and he was
absolutely right.)

Governments have always built roads and highways, including local
roads that connect to the interstate highway system; and there's no
reason they shouldn't build local electronic roads to connect my house
and others to the Internet information highway -- in fact, there's
every reason they should do so.

(And conversely, if any phone, cable or fiber company is going to be
given a franchise to lay cables or fibers over public right of ways in
my city in order to connect to my house and others in order to provide
electronic services, it should be an absolutely basic requirement that
these companies allow me to purchase from them, at a fair and minimal
rate, nothing but connection rights over those cables or fibers to the
Internet, without my having to purchase _any_ other services from
them.

(And, in any decent society, these companies should be required to
provide these services at the same cost to any reasonable location in
the city -- not just cherry pick the high commercial value areas.)

Or is it your view that private companies should be able to build
private toll roads to anywhere they want in a city or state -- and
that in fact, cities should be banned from building public roads that
would compete with such private toll roads in any locations where
companies might want to build such private toll roads?

Conversely,.


[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: The message from Mr. Siegman stopped
at this point, sort of an illogical stopping place with the word
'conversely' as though he intended to say more. What you see above
is what I got here. AES, did you get prematurely aborted somehow?
PAT]

------------------------------

From: Joseph <JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Residents Fight to Keep Analog Cell Phones
Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 17:38:40 -0700
Reply-To: JoeOfSeattle@yahoo.com


On Thu, 28 Jul 2005 03:40:34 -0700, Tim@Backhome.org wrote:

> As to Cingular I don't believe they have an analog fallback option in
> their system.  It might be down to Verizon now and I suspect they have
> plans to cut away from that, but are being held back by GM's old
> analog-based OnStar system.

Cingular most certainly does have analog AMPS in the areas that they
had TDMA/AMPS or in the areas that they acquired by acquiring AT&T
Wireless.  The only areas where Cingular didn't originally have AMPS
analog backup were the areas such as California/Nevada and the
Carolinas which were GSM from the outset.  That's moot anyway since
Cingular absorbed AT&T Wireless and the systems that they used.  AT&T
Wireless used all three technologies AMPS analog, TDMA (IS-136) and
GSM.  Cingular of course is making every effort to transition all to
the "orange" side (original Cingular) and to make the "blue" side
(originally AT&T Wireless) to have all customers eventually be on the
orange side.  Cingular and the former AT&T Wireless (now Cingular
blue) both use TDMA IS-136 and AMPS analog in addition to GSM.

------------------------------


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