ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609230146
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE
SOURCE: ELIZABETH SIMPSON LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
NOTE: Below
JUDY FARMER thought her phone block would prevent her son from dialing pay-per-call numbers. Then she got a bill for $1,000. Judy Farmer couldn't believe her eyes when she received a $1,000 phone bill last month with a long list of sex chat line numbers.
Her shock was not so much that her 17-year-old mentally disabled son had made those types of calls - he'd done it before to the tune of $500 - but that blocks she put on her telephone a year ago didn't prevent a repeat performance.
Farmer soon learned that she was one of thousands of phone customers scammed by dial-a-porn companies.
The National Consumer League, telephone companies and federal agencies are reporting a wave of customer complaints as operators of horoscope, psychic and sex lines drop 900 numbers in favor of international numbers. The switch was in response to 1993 U.S. regulations that require full disclosure of pay-per-call costs.
Farmer's 22-page bill reveals that most of the numbers are international calls to places like the Dominican Republic, Guyana, and Sao Tome, an island off the west coast of Africa.
None of them have the familiar 900 prefix that usually signals a pay-per-call number. But the charges are: $93 for a 19-minute call, $44 for a 13-minute call, $34 for a seven-minute call.
``I was assured that these blocks would take care of the problem,'' said Farmer, who is disputing the charges.
The Federal Communications Commission alone has received more than 10,000 consumer complaints during the last three years about such calls.
The international numbers circumvent U.S. regulations that require a company to first reveal how much the call will cost and also give the caller a chance to hang up before the charges kick in.
The overseas numbers also bypass 900 blocks that parents put on their phones. In some cases, companies are using 800 or local numbers that refer callers to the costly overseas numbers.
``A lot of people are losing money, and they are feeling like they've been duped,'' said Cleo Manuel, director of public information for the National Consumer League in Washington.
The other factor that often fools phone customers is that some of the international numbers don't require a customer to dial the international code ``011,'' making it look like a regular long-distance call instead of an overseas call. Other numbers may start with an 800 number, but then ask callers to punch in additional numbers that end up transferring them overseas.
Many of the numbers Farmer is contesting have an 809 area code, which is the code for the Caribbean.
``Hi and welcome,'' says a sultry voice on a recording that answers one of the numbers. ``You've called the hot new line where everyone is tuning in and turning on. Because of the mature topics discussed on this line, you must be over 18. If you're not, hang up now. This gig is definitely for adults only.''
Tyler Gronbach, spokesman for LCI International, the long-distance carrier that Farmer was using, said they have received similar complaints over the past year from parents. LCI investigates each contested bill on a case-by-case basis.
``If it's a call that someone dialed accidentally, we can sometimes give them a credit; but if there's a series of calls, it needs to be evaluated individually,'' he said.
Farmer said the phone company told her that her son probably got the numbers off late-night television shows, and may have dialed the numbers directly or been referred to overseas numbers from local or 800 numbers.
``I know there are more parents out there who have a false sense of security with these blocks,'' Farmer said. ``Every time the phone company figures out a way to protect us, someone else finds a way around it.''
Farmer has asked LCI International to drop the charges, and also complained to Bell Atlantic, who put the blocks on her phone.
Neither company has offered to credit her bill.
``When we offer the block for 900 calls, we do not guarantee it will prevent all pay-per-call charges, because companies are very creative in finding ways around the block,'' said Paul Miller, a Bell Atlantic spokesman.
Parents who have had the same problem as Farmer have a couple of options to prevent the international calls, according to Miller.
They can put a block on all toll calls. Another type of block restricts long-distance numbers but allows customers to dial 800 numbers.
A service Bell Atlantic just began offering to its Virginia customers this year allows the customer to block specific numbers, an entire area code such as 809, or all international calls.
``There's no fail-proof way to prevent someone in your home from making these calls,'' said Lee Ann Kuster, public relations director for AT&T. ``The best thing you can do is educate your children not to make this type of call.''
Attempts to reach the operators of the sex-line companies by calling the numbers on Farmer's bill resulted in a circuit of recorded responses. The FCC also has had difficulty tracking down the companies.
LENGTH: Medium: 96 linesby CNB