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The Telecom Digest for June 05, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 142 : "text" Format
====== 29 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ====== |
Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we
are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because
we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands
against crime. - Geoffrey Welsh
See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.
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Date: Sat, 4 Jun 2011 01:47:02 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: E-Mail Fraud Hides Behind Friendly Face
Message-ID: <p06240809ca0f76d25942@[192.168.182.16]>
E-Mail Fraud Hides Behind Friendly Face
By MATT RICHTEL and VERNE G. KOPYTOFF
June 2, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO - Most people know to ignore the e-mail overture from a
Nigerian prince offering riches in exchange for a bank account
number. That is a scam, plain to the eye.
But what if the e-mail appears to come from a colleague down the
hall? And all he asks is that you add some personal information to a
company database?
This is spear phishing, a rapidly proliferating form of fraud that
comes with a familiar face: messages that seem to be from co-workers,
friends or family members, customized to trick you into letting your
guard down online. And it has turned into a major problem, according
to technology companies and computer security experts.
On Wednesday, Google disclosed that it had discovered and disrupted
an effort to use such pinpoint tactics to steal hundreds of Gmail
passwords and monitor the accounts of prominent people, including
senior government officials. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton said Thursday that the F.B.I. would investigate Google's
assertion that the campaign originated in China.
Such tactics were also used in an attack on a company called RSA
Security, which security experts say may have given hackers the tools
to carry out a serious intrusion last month at Lockheed Martin, the
world's largest military contractor.
The security specialists say these efforts are a far cry from more
standard phishing attempts, which involve spraying the Internet with
millions of e-mails that appear to be from, say, Citibank in the hope
of snaring a few unfortunate Citibank customers. Spear phishing
entails sending highly targeted pitches that can look authentic
because they appear to come from a trusted source and contain
plausible messages.
As such, the specialists say, the overtures are becoming very
difficult for recipients to detect.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/03/technology/03hack.html
Date: 3 Jun 2011 13:52:25 -0400
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Need some help
Message-ID: <isb70p$9p6$1@panix2.panix.com>
ABLE1 <royboynospam@somewhere.net> wrote:
>>
>> What is the amp driving? Which taps on the transformer are being used?
>
>That is the problem, The terminals are not labeled. Wish they were.
What do they look like? What continuity do you measure between them?
>Was hoping to find info on the speaker numbers.
>>> Connected to multiple speakers that are labeled D31201-0500 VRC8 with
>>> a multi-tap Txfmr L50411-0010.
>
>I have to assume that it is 70.7volts. It seems the most logical.
>Have not been given the green light as yet to replace the amp.
>
>I plan on installing a Bogen 100 Watt Amp, it has taps for 25 and 70 volts.
>I could play it save and connect to 25volts and test and if output is
>surprisingly low the jump up to 70volts. Shouldn't hurt any thing at
>25volts.
Why not look at the transformer in one of the speakers and see what the
primary is set up as?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 20:22:17 -0400
From: tlvp <tPlOvUpBErLeLsEs@hotmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Pre-paid SIM cards in the US
Message-ID: <op.vwizbfbvitl47o@acer250.gateway.2wire.net>
On Thu, 02 Jun 2011 21:54:58 -0400, Paul Robinson <paul@paul-robinson.us> wrote:
> ...
> So if his phone will work on T-Mobile, buying a pre-paid phone,
> getting it set up, then moving the sim card to his old phone should
> allow him to use it on the pre-paid number in the U.S. When he goes
> back to Europe, switching the sim card back should put him back on his
> old number. At least that's how I understand it.
Once the ambiguities in this exposition have been resolved correctly
(*which* of the two SIMs does "the sim card" refer to each time?
what does "it" refer to each time?), this advice is correct. Details:
Proviso: the existing phone must work on US T-Mobile's frequencies.
Then: buying a pre-paid T-Mobile phone with SIM and setting that up,
then moving that new T-Mobile SIM into the visitor's existing phone,
visitor will have a local US T-Mobile phone number through that phone.
Later, back home, after switching SIMs again so that original SIM is in
visitor's existing phone, that phone will once again revert to the
original or "old" number.
But it should be possible to snag a pre-paid SIM alone, without cheap
phone to go with it, more economically, no?
Cheers, -- tlvp (who's still hoping for answer to an analogous question
for use in Canada -- Vancouver, BC, more exactly -- for a coupla' weeks'
GSM data usage exclusively).
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 11:15:31 -0700 (PDT)
From: Joseph Singer <joeofseattle@yahoo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Caller Pays vs. Called Party Pays (was Re: DSL Reports: AT&T Caps Have Arrived)
Message-ID: <269001.86490.qm@web161516.mail.bf1.yahoo.com>
Thu, 02 Jun 2011 09:58:34 -0400 tlvp <tPlOvUpBErLeLsEs@hotmail.com> wrote:
> That's where European operators treat their clients much nicer --
> inbound calls and inbound messages arrive at no charge to the
> recipient (in the case of the Polish operators Orange and Play, in
> fact, even after your starter SIM's stored value has gone to zero,
> you can receive for at least a year from your SIM's date of first
> use).
Let's not get into the old saw of "their system is better than ours."
In Europe and other countries where the subscriber doesn't pay to
receive calls the calls are not free. The initiator of the call pays
for all call charges and always at a non-negotiated rate. Whatever
the tariff is that's what the caller pays and very often at a rate
that's even higher than an international call to a regular
number. Most people in North America get calling plans that give them
a surfeit of available minutes or get a plan that gives them enough
minutes that they can make just necessary calls.
Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2011 20:39:41 -0400
From: tlvp <tPlOvUpBErLeLsEs@hotmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Vancouver (CA) prepaid (paygo) GSM data SIM advice sought
Message-ID: <op.vwg5gfizitl47o@acer250.gateway.2wire.net>
A month hence, in Vancouver (near the UBC campus) I'll be needing
cellular internet access through a Sierra Wireless USB Connect 881
dongle (unlocked) and some economical Canadian GSM cellular data
SIM provider -- but which? Rogers? Fido? Bell? other?
Recommendations urgently sought! TIA. And cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP
Date: Thu, 2 Jun 2011 18:45:26 -0700 (PDT)
From: Paul Robinson <paul@paul-robinson.us>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: A sample of phone fraud, or Scamming People for fun and (lots of) profit
Message-ID: <3d580733-1389-441d-8ce0-43be58d219c5@dq9g2000vbb.googlegroups.com>
There is an actual pay telephone in The Plaza at Prince Georges
Shopping Center on East-West Highway in Hyattsville MD. It's roughly
across the street from the Prince Georges Plaza subway station on the
Metrorail Green Line. It specifically states it does not permit
incoming calls, but that's okay, lots of other pay phones don't
either. By using one of the tools of the trade, I discovered its
phone number: 301-853-8103.
It's a COCOT, i.e. it's not a Verizon pay telephone. Now, if you were
actually going to use it to dial a number and pay in cash, its rates
are very reasonable, 50c for a local call of 10-minutes or less
(Verizon charges 50c for local calls but puts no time limit on them.)
$1.00 will get you a 10-minute call anywhere in the country that's not
local.
Now, the phone states that for collect calls its rates are 50% of
AT&T. And this is where the fun comes in. And the fraud. To be sure
I got it right I wrote all prices quoted to me down.
I don't really have a place I can call collect to check it out, but I
can check the credit card rate since that's probably going to be
similar, since they have to pay a processor for the charge. I
personally can process any credit cards that someone wants to pay me
through Google Payments, they charge me 3 1/2% plus 35c and no monthly
fee, so for anything up to $10, call it 50c. (Large scale billers
would get even better rates.)
So let's say that they also have to pay the mall something on the
credit card surcharge so let's add another quarter, and let's say
they'd have to add something to ding you for the convenience, so let's
up it another quarter, so presumably a credit card or collect call
would run like $2 for 10 minutes, or maybe they ding you further and
charge $2 for 5 minutes, I doubt the charge the phone company would
make for processing a collect call could be much more than a credit
card processor.
So I try calling a local call, but it really shouldn't matter where
I'm calling because rates have been postalized; you either pay about
$20 a month for a phone line and 5c a minute for non-local calls or
you pay about $40 a month and nothing for calls anywhere in the U.S.
and Canada. Even less if you put in a VOIP box and route calls over
that.
To be sure it's a local number I try itself. I dial 0+301-853-8103.
The automated attendant asks me if I want to call collect, credit
card, speak to an operator or get the rate for the call. I press 4 to
get the rate. It asks me whether I'm calling collect or credit card.
I try credit card.
The price of the call for the first 3 minutes is: $23.93 and extra
time is $3.45 for each additional minute. For $23 I can walk into a
7-11 and buy a cheap Net-10 or TracFone cell phone and get about $12
change; they will charge $10 plus tax whether I buy it with cash or a
credit card, and for that $10 I get a charger, initialization of the
phone and a phone number assignment, and the first 20 minutes of talk
time, incoming or outgoing. All I need to do is plug the phone in
somewhere for a while to get the battery going. And I have 60 days to
use the 20 minutes before the phone becomes inactive; I'd have to buy
more time if I wanted to keep it running.
Well, they also announce another service on that phone, 1-866-866-
CALL, who, when I get through to their operator, she can't look up
calling the phone's own number billed to a credit card, so I give her
my cell phone number 703-225-xxxx which although it's in Virginia it
is still a local call. That will cost $14 for the first 3 minutes.
Then I tried 1-800-CALL-ATT, which is AT&T's old dial-through
service. Someone else is running it but they use AT&T's network, they
say. For a credit-card billed call they will charge $12.75 for the
first three minutes and $1.75 for each additional minute.
Note, these would be automated calls, not using an operator.
Well, I remembered the way you dial an actual number over a network,
10-10-288 which would use the AT&T network. So I tried
101028803018538103. I get a bong and the AT&T name, so I've actually
gotten AT&T. It asks me whether I want to use a credit card or
collect. But there's no way to find out the rate, but I can speak to
an operator. Apparently the phone isn't passing the number and when I
gave the AT&T operator the phone's own number for a credit-card billed
call it didn't like that, so I gave him my cell phone number.
The AT&T Rate for a credit-card billed, user-dialed (local) number is:
$6.80 for the first one minute, $1.84 each additional minute, plus
tax, making a 3-minute local call on AT&T cost $10.48. (It's probably
the same for any number called but this is an example.)
Now, gouging people is one thing, it's a ridiculously high rate, but
if you put out a service, you can charge anything you want. However,
what you can't do is make a provably false statement in doing so, that
is clear fraud.
In my original example, charging a credit card user a surcharge for
what the credit card company is charging plus the regular cash rate,
and even if they charged 100% more and charged $1 for 5 minutes, would
have made a 5-minute call $2 and even if they charged a $2 surcharge
instead of $1, at $3 for 5 minutes, or even if they charged $1 a
minute plus a $2 surcharge would have made their rate honest at 1/2 of
AT&T's rate.
But it's not. Their rate is not 50% of AT&T's rate, their rate is
250% of AT&T's rate. And that is fraud because the statement on the
phone is provably false.
If they didn't claim their rates are cheaper and then charged the
ridiculous rate of $23 for 3 minutes and $3.45 each minute after I'd
say they were gouging people - they are - but if they want to do that,
as long as you can find out their rate in advance it's not an issue.
But if you found out AT&T's rate, then took them at their word that
their rate is 50% of AT&T, you'd be expecting to be charged $3.40 for
the first minute. Even if they didn't discount the additional minutes
and charged the same, $1.84, it wouldn't be that bad but technically
otherwise it should be 95c a minute, not $3.45. There would still be
a lot of profit there at $3.40/95c. At these rates it would be 1/2 of
AT&T; it's honest even if still ridiculously high but still
acceptable.
But intentionally defrauding customers is not.
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
Paul Robinson <paul@paul-robinson.us>
http://paul-robinson.us (My Blog)
"The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that no
one learns the lessons that history teaches us."
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2011 08:28:19 +1000
From: David Clayton <dcstarbox-usenet@yahoo.com.au>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: There's no easy escape from cellphone risks
Message-ID: <pan.2011.06.02.22.28.16.684202@yahoo.com.au>
On Thu, 02 Jun 2011 08:17:15 -0400, Monty Solomon wrote:
>
> There's no easy escape from cellphone risks
>
> By Hiawatha Bray
> Globe Staff / June 2, 2011
.........
> Still, the threat of brain tumors - no matter how slight - is troubling to
> WHO scientists. Americans average about 20 minutes of cellphone talk time
> per day, according to data from CTIA, the cellular industry's trade
> association.
>
> That doesn't sound like a lot. But researchers were alarmed by a study
> that found an increased incidence of brain tumors in people who used their
> cellphones for an average of 30 minutes per day.
>
> ...
>
> http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/06/02/no_easy_escape_from_cellphone_risk/
One issue that might arise from these studies is he evolving changes in
radiation intensity which must have varied since the beginning of
cellphone networks.
In the beginning when there were far fewer base stations than there are
now, the handsets must have been forced (on average) to transmit at hight
power levels which would have had commensurate increase in any negative
effects as outlined in these studies. Nowadays one can make the judgement
that with more cell base stations (installed to meet the steadily
increased demand) then - overall - handset transmit power should have
diminished for a lot of users. There will be many exceptions in less dense
service areas, but the general concept should be valid.
The bottom-line may be that the effects - which take a long time to arise
- may be less harmful than a decade or so ago for the same overall time of
phone usage with the device next to your skull.
--
Regards, David.
David Clayton
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Knowledge is a measure of how many answers you have, intelligence is a
measure of how many questions you have.
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