Show Mountain Bell prosecutes credit card offenders A year old Richfield man was recently sentenced to 90 days in Jail and fined for placing 29 worth of long distance distance distance dis dis- tance telephone calls and charging charging charging ing them to a fictitious credit card cart number This seemingly stiff sentence for obtaining telephone service by fraud reflects a new get tough attitude by Mountain Bell to deter crime by numbers A relatively small expense before 1968 the cost to the Bell System for fraudulent credit card numbers and unauthorized use of third party numbers has risen to an time all-time high In 1968 the Bell System lost on phony or stolen credit card number calls and calls billed to unauthorized third third party party numbers That figure rose to In 1970 and In 1971 Toll fraud has cost Utah 70 so far this year One of the reasons for the therise therise therise rise of toll fraud Is the publicity publicity publicity pub pub- antiestablishment establish anti given by ment newspapers These papers publicized what they said sald were the telephone credit card numbers numbers numbers num num- bers of certain Hollywood stars who were angry with the telephone telephone telephone tele tele- phone company Supposedly these stars were asking people to make long distance calls and charge them to their credit card numbers Although not a very plausible story It was sufficient to Induce people to charge many millions of dollars in long distance charges to these fictitious num num- bers Previously people caught using a phony credit card number number number num num- ber were given a good tongue- tongue lashing by ity men and required to make restitution to the telephone company In return the company company company com com- pany did not prosecute them But in mid 1971 that stance changed We are aggressively investigating In Investigating investigating in- in and prosecuting these fraudulent phone users This is not an attempt to recover recover recover re re- re- re cover lost revenue through the courts but an attempt to deter the spread of crime by numbers numbers numbers num num- bers said Mountain Bell Se Security Security Security Se- Se Supervisor Bill BUl Martin Five Utah residents have been arrested and three convicted In May and June of this year for toll fraud Two of these cases Involved billing calls to someone else's telephone num num- ber Operators are trained to detect de detect detect de- de phone credit card numbers numbers numbers num num- bers through a coding system Integrated in the card number In addition the cards filled outon out outon outon on operator handled calls are reviewed by Centralized Traffic Investigation if there Is a question question ques ques- tion Uon on billing When fraud Is detected and the guilty party identified the Security department will then question the suspect or sign a complaint for his arrest Our get tough policy is working For instance the 1971 figures for toll fraud were down from 1970 Martin said |