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I've received those stupid "Last Chance! Your Car Warranty Has Expired" mailings. And I've received the Car Warranty Renewal telemarketing calls. I once asked them why they were calling me since I was on the National Do No Call list and they said: "Well, you pressed 2 when we called so you must have wanted our call"! I've reported them, each time, to Do Not Call and have listed them on one of the many telemarketer-number posting sites like whocallsme.com and 800notes.com. Finally, it looks like justice is happening.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle. one or more of these firms has been busted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Here's another look at the consumer aspect by (fellow Syracuse University alumnus) Herb Weisbaum at MSNBC.
Phaking Phone Numbers
This ability to "spoof" the Caller ID text (just like spammers "spoof" the FROM: text in their emails), as displayed on your phone and mine, is not something new to Voice Over IP calling. Caller ID text editing has been a feature for digital business trunk line (known in-the-biz as PRI lines) users for some time and this ability is useful because a business using one of these trunks might have several sub-entities each requiring its own CallerID text; some phone systems can even display the private DID number for each employee when that employee makes a call. And very strong laws need to be made to punish abuse of this capability.
The reason that The Nefarious prefer VoIP accounts is that the editing is easier to do and, like a Hotmail email account, these accounts are much cheaper, more
disposable, and harder to trace. Folks like you and me, with landlines
and cellphones, cannot edit what shows up when we call someone - we can
tell the phone company how we want it to appear and, if they think it's
legit, they will comply. They also now have a RECORD OF IT.
One argument for allowing the unsupervised editing of CallerID text, as mentioned in the SF Chronicle article, is for people who NEED to obfuscate their numbers. The example provided (by a company who provides software to allow this!) is a doctor who calls patients from her cell phone but doesn't want the patient to know the cell phone number. My surgeon had no problem giving me his cell phone number, so I guess it's an individual issue, but it can be handled easily by a smart entrepreneur who offers a service allowing doctors (e.g.) to call in, then dial out again - the CallerID will be that of the service. The doctor's own office can easily install a modern phone system allowing him to call in and then back out again; his office CallerID will be displayed - which is ideal - and not his cell phone number. Seems to me that the outbound phone can have CallerID blocking turned on. CallerID can be blocked per-call or globally on your landline (see this article by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse), As for cell phones, the PRC says (see item 12 in the article) that, in most cases, you cannot block your CallerID. I called Verizon Wireless today and they said they CAN do this so it's possible for a doctor (e.g.) to get a cell phone that shows RESTRICTED on the called party's display.
The Bottom Line
is to not do business with telemarketers, to not assume that a caller ID is who/what it says it is (unless it's somone you already know - it's highly unlikely that a telesleaze firm will randomly happen to pick your mother's phone number to display), and to generally look at any phone call from someone you don't know with skepticism until you're SURE they're legit. And, as Herb Weisbaum says, if the seller pushes you to "buy now because the offer expires today!" and/or won't send you a proposal/contract/prospectus first, hang up on them. And no matter how legit they are, if they called you and you were registed with DoNotCall.gov (and they aren't an excepted non-profit, political, or polling organization), they broke the law. Log the call at DoNotCall.
Keywords: caller ID, telemarketing, callerID, Voice Over IP, VoIP, vishing, phishing, CallerID faking, Caller ID editing, spoofing, callerID spoofing, caller ID spoofing, PRI
If I hadn't been working on Michael Shames' new Range Extender (blog to come) I would not have known that one of the PDA phones on my Verizon Family share plan was being charged $15/mo too much for Internet access.
First let me say that I'm not picking on Verizon. If money was no object I'd have phones on T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, and Cricket as well, so I could compare quality and customer service. But I don't, so Verizon is all I know. I've been on their network (under at least 3 former names) since the late 1990's and I like CDMA and I like the coverage overall. In my experience, their customer service is no worse than other larger companies and better than some.
So, there I was, on the phone with a Verizon data rep, trying to configure Michael's femtocell when he pointed out that there are 2 plans that let a SmartPhone like my Omnia, my friend's Treo, the Sage, the Touch Pro, etc. connect to the Internet and get web pages, get email, download files, do remote access of Windows computers, and other things like you'd do from your home Internet connection. Same for BlackBerry phones but they call it something different. The $30 plan (I'm rounding here) does everything I'd need and allows unlimited usage (5GB if connected as a modem ("tethered" - see blog posting, 4th paragraph) to a laptop or other device). But my plan and my friend's plan have had data for a couple years now. Turns out in January 2009 they came up with this second plan and, at least in my experience, didn't go out of their way to let users know about this. As I understand it the difference between the plan is pretty much whether you're going to use Verizon's network to sync your phone to your PC remotely - same as connecting your phone to your PC via ethernet and synchronizing your files and email but instead you're doing this wireLESSly via the Internet. This isn't something I nor my friend do so we could use the $30 vs the $45 plans.
Tethering Equalizes Things
For reasons not plain to me, if you elect to tether your Smartphone to your laptop so the phone can provide Internet connectivity, the plans wind up costing the same:
Unlimited Data Usage plan: $45 + $15 to tether = $60
Email and Web for Smartphone Plan: $30 + $30 to tether = $60
So in my case it didn't make any difference - it's $60 either way. But my friend does not tether so he's been charged $15 more per month than he should have been since January. I will take this up with Verizon and let you know how they handled it.
Plan to Look at Your Plan
This is a good time to suggest that, whatever your carrier, you log in to your web site, or call them, and confirm that you really understand what plan and options you've got. Once you're SURE you're clear (and don't be timid if you're not - they really seem to make this whole process counterintuitive for the consumer) you should write it down in your own words, with the name of the rep if you spoke to someone, for future reference.
In trying to find out what the 2 data plans are on Verizon's web site, to prepare this post, I went all over Hell's Half Acre and could find nothing. I finally got a Verizon rep on the phone and we determined that these data plan names aren't listed along with the voice plans. This is because, believe it or not, if you buy a Smartphone, you MUST buy a data plan. You might say "Big Whoop" since most people buying Smartphones WANT data. But one could conceivably buy a SmartPhone just for Word Mobile and only wish to sync mail and contacts via USB cable. They'd still have to buy a data plan.
To see what these plans are, you'd need to go to http://www.verizonwireless.com then picka phone (Phones > PDAs&Smartphones), then Add To Cart then Pick A Plan (the default will suffice for research) then, finally, you can see the data plans. For reference, here's what they say:
Unlimited Data Usage:
Synchronize your mobile PDA or Smartphone to your PC with PDA/Smartphone from Verizon Wireless, providing over-the-air synchronization of e-mail, contacts, calendar, and tasks. Service available within the NationalAccess or, with certain devices, the Mobile Broadband service area.
Email and Web for Smartphone:
Use your PDA/Smartphone for personal email and Web surfing.
* Access up to ten POP3 and IMAP email accounts, including Yahoo!® Mail, AOL® Mail, Windows Live® Hotmail®, and Verizon.net.
* Easy email account setup.
* Unlimited Web Browsing
* Voice Usage: Per your voice calling plan.
The difference isn't real plain to ME. Bottom line - if you have a Verizon Smartphone and you don't tether and you're not doing sync or using this in a business environment, be sure you have the $30 plan and consider asking for a refund retroactive to your January 2009 bill if you never needed the $45 plan.
Federal stimulus checks in the amount of $250 are on the way to senior citizens and others who receive Social Security and other federal benefits, but to no one's surprise, the scam artists are slithering out from under their rocks with schemes to grab the cash -- and worse.
The one-time payments, authorized by Congress, will be delivered the same way those who receive benefits normally get their checks -- by regular mail or Direct Deposit.
Con artists have devised a number of ways to extract the money from seniors -- some with even more ominous motives than just stealing the money.
They're sending mail stating that bank account information is needed in order for the person to receive their check. NOT TRUE!
They're working the phones telling seniors they need to give out sensitive information like bank account numbers and Social Security numbers in order to get their payments. NOT TRUE!
They're sending e-mails with links for people to find out if they qualify. NOT NECESSARY!
The facts are that people who are eligible for the payments, do not have to do anything to receive them. No one should be contacting them about the payments.
UCAN advises everyone -- NEVER give out sensitive personal or financial information unless first checking on the source that is asking for it.
If you think you are eligible for this one-time payment, and haven't received it by June 4, contact Social Security at 1-800-772-1213.
If you get something suspicious in the mail, online or receive a suspect phone call, get in touch with Social Security's fraud hotline at 1-800-269-0271 or go online to www.socialsecurity.gov/oig/hotline/.
These payments were designed to give seniors -- not crooks -- a boost during these tough economic times.
Cell phone users along the Mexican border from San Diego to Brownsville have reported being billed for international roaming calls that originate in the United States.
A current Sprint customer was charged for overlapping international roaming calls and charged for calls that appear to be made at the same time on both sides of the border. Many of the alleged calls were to the same unknown numbers for which the customer and his family had no connection. UCAN checked the billing history and also called the unknown numbers to see if these numbers were connected to the customer or his family in any way. Furthermore, the customer's bill showed a 6-minute call at 12:54 pm, a 1-minute call made at 12:56 pm, a 10-minute call made at 12:57 pm and another 1-minute call made at 1:05 pm. The first call overlapped the 2nd and 3rd calls by 3 minutes. The 3rd call overlapped the 4th call by 2 minutes.
If you are a Sprint customer near the border and charged international roaming for calls made while in the United States, or similar issues, please let us know by filling out our Telephone Bill Complaint Form. Please also fill out the complaint form if you have been a victim of international roaming to Mexico while in the United States while using another cell phone provider, such as Verizon, T-Mobile or AT&T (formerly Cingular).
From west to east, border crossings include the following:
So I'm sitting there at the car wash, trying to get my Omnia smartphone to tether to my laptop via Bluetooth (for Internet access via my cellular provider) when I see the attached Bluetooth Device Selection window. Scary stuff, eh kids?
For the uninitiated, I was trying to get my laptop to discover my phone. Just like you can tell your laptop to show you all the WiFi signals in the area, you can see all the Bluetooth devices within range. When you see your phone, headset, PC, etc, in the list, you pick it and then "pair" with it. The 1st 2 items I was already paired with but the 3rd one was a surprise: a cell phone with a Bluetooth device name of YOU GOT VIRUS.
Well at first I was a little concerned about my phone but I shut it off and rescanned and the potentially deleterious disconcerting device remained. I spoke up to the other folks waiting for their cars and asked if anyone had a BT phone and a couple people said they did but nobody seemed to care, which surprised me.
Chances are good that whatever phone had this name was not infected. I asked San Diego Verizon data tech and wireless guru Rene Wilcox about this subject the other day in conjunction to another post I've put up about people being tracked surreptitiously using the GPS in their phones (http://www.ucan.org/blog/telecommunications/communications_technology/who_needs_a_private_eye_when_youve_got_a_cell_phone). I wanted to know if she knew of any way that a rogue application could be installed and launched without your knowledge assuming you have your phone on your person all the time. She said no. If you downloaded something nefarious from the web, it would ask for permission to be installed. What if someone tried to pair their device with your phone via Bluetooth? Most devices ask for your OK and need a passcode though it's a good idea to tell your phone not to be "discoverable" unless you are pairing it.
I asked about the Paris Hilton Address Book Affair. She said that she knew of no way that someone could download a person's address book or other phone contents by Bluetooth without some prior access - for example if a person stole the phone while the owner wasn't looking, paired it to their phone, downloaded info, then returned it undetected. But she made a important observation: if you take your phone to have the data copied to a new phone, at any cellular store, for any carrier, the data remains in the computer device that does the transfer, even after you are done at the store. So, if you're a celeb, be sure that the machine is cleared or shut off before you leave.
So, in this case, rather than being infected, I suspect that the owner named the phone YOU HAVE VIRUS as a joke (and was sitting there smirking as I asked around) or maybe a geek buddy did it while she wasn't watching. Even still, it caught me off guard. Not something you run across every day.
BTW: according to TabloidColumn.com http://www.tabloidcolumn.com/paris-hilton-hacked.html (a trusted source of major breaking news), a 17 year old hacked into Paris Hilton's T-mobile online account, not into her phone.
UCAN has some information to pass on to you about how to complain about the property tax reassessment letters many residents have been receiving recently. If your letter came from a PO Box in Los Angeles, the L. A. Department of Consumer Affairs provided us with the letter they are sending to all applicable consumers. This letter provides you with specific information, instrucitons and a contact phone number. By filing complaints with our city and state agencies, we provide the documentation they need to investigate and prosecute, as needed:
Dear Homeowner:
PROPERTY TAX REASSESSMENT SERVICES
Thank you for contacting us about the solicitation you received from a property tax reassessment service. With the recent decline in property values, many companies are sending these kinds of solicitations to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers.
Be aware that you do not need to pay a company for these services. The Los Angeles County Assessor's office has reviewed over a half-million Los Angeles County properties bought between July 2003 and June 2008 to determine if they need to reduce the assessed value due to falling home prices. This was done free of charge.
The Assessor's office will send letters by the end of June to all 500,000 owners whose homes were reviewed to notify them of the results. If the home qualified for a reduction, the Assessor will reduce the value of the home and notify you by mail. Check the Assessor's website at assessor.lacounty.gov to see if your home was part of the review.
If your home was not part of the review, you can submit a Decline-In-Value Reassessment application to the Assessor's office free of charge. Contact the Assessor at (888) 807-2111 or assessor.lacounty.gov for the application and more information.
California law requires that mailings like the one you received must clearly state they are NOT from a government agency. These letters often look official and are written with deadline warnings that consumers mistake for a real government form. The Los Angeles County Department of Consumer Affairs is investigating these solicitations and will take appropriate action.
If you have already paid these fraudulent companies, call the Department of Consumer Affairs' Real Estate Fraud Program at (800) 973-3370 to file a complaint.
Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.
Sincerely,
Maybe you've dropped your landline and ported to it the number you've had for decades like I have. Now you're reliant on your cell phone much more. Now the call quality at your home or business is more significant - I mean a quick call to order Chinese is not a big deal (unless they miss the “not spicy!” part during a dropout) but a half-hour call to your Mom peppered with “hello? hello?” can get old fast. If you have Internet access where you are, you may have an answer to this problem depending on your cell carrier.
Prompted by an article by Jonathan Sidener in the April 19 2009 San Diego Union-Tribune, I wanted to tell you about the concept of having your OWN cell site.
The reason that this whole thing is called “cellular” is that it was designed to use geographically small areas of radio coverage. In comparison, the old mobile phone system they had before (IMTS, http://www.privateline.com/PCS/mobilephonepictures.htm ) had radio towers up on mountaintops so they'd go as far a possible. Analog cellular and the current PCS system have lots of small radio “footprints” and if you look at a map of these areas they look like cells in a beehive. As you move around town you get “handed off” from one cell to another so the carriers have better control over the calls.
Obviously, it makes economic sense for the carriers to spend money and put up towers where they will serve the most customers. If your home or office is shadowed from the closest tower or is simply in The Boonies, you may have little or no coverage. Now, you can install a “femtocell” in your home to add or enhance coverage there. Think of this box as a WiFi Access Point except that it works on the cellular service frequencies and is made to talk to cell phones and not WiFi clients.
Your Personal Cell Tower Phones Home
Once your cell phone finds the femtocell in your midst, the unit carries your voice to and from your cellular carrier via the Internet. This might introduce a little bit of delay or occasional dropout if your voice packets are competing for resources with web pages, email, attachments, and other things going over your Internet connection at the same time. But it's surely better than dropped - or NO - calls and the faster your Internet connection, the better the calls will sound.
Different carriers have different offerings and plans. Info from various people and web sites:
T-mobile: not in the near future
AT&T: apparently in the works but the local data rep didn't want to comment.
SPRINT “Airrave”: The rep at the San Diego area Carmel Mountain store says it's $100 for the unit + $5/mo (rental fee) for a maximum of 3 simultaneous calls and a maximum of 50 EINs (individual phones) that can be used with it. Doesn't work with Air Cards but I'm not clear if it supplies Internet to an Internet enabled phone like an iPhone. This snippet from their web site seems to say that such phones are supported at about 20% the speed of full EV-DO:
Does the Sprint AIRAVE support Sprint Mobile Broadband (EVDO)? AIRAVE does not currently support Sprint Mobile Broadband (EVDO) data speeds. Your mobile device will continue to receive Sprint Mobile Broadband (EVDO) services directly from the Nationwide Sprint Network while within range of the AIRAVE. [If no EVDO is available nearby] Your mobile device will use the AIRAVE for data services with a maximum data throughput of 153.8 Kbps.
Verizon Network Extender: $250 to purchase, no fees, no contract. Covers 5000 sf. Lindsey Sanford, San Diego data rep, says they are available overnight and will provide Internet to a smartphone but not to an Air Card. I hope to get my hands on one and will supplement this posting with speed info.
ADDENDUM (5/21/09): Read about my TeleGeekazoid fun with a Verizon Network Extender here
In what is perhaps the most exciting energy development of 2009, UCSD is coordinating a multi-agency effort to develop substitutes for gasoline, diesel and ethanol at a cost of as little as $2 a gallon. In fact, this research is so powerful - so exciting - and so deserving of your support that I'm reluctant to write another word about this. JUST GO THERE NOW. In terms of national security, global wealth, and historical importance, this urgent research may be the most important scientific effort since the Manhattan Project ... and it all revolves around using San Diego's sunshine and abundantly available brackish water supplies to grow algae -- one of the most basic life forms on the planet. Best of all, Algae is literally a "green" fuel that does far less damage to the environment than hydrocarbons derived from oil or coal.
If you are concerned about breaking America's growing dependency on environmentally toxic imported oil from countries that loathe us, then VISIT SD-CAB, the San Diego Center for Algae Biotechnology, NOW.
Under current California law, if you don't pay AT&T a hefty monthly fee to keep your phone number private, they will publish your phone number and either make it available, or sell it to every telemarketer and con artists who is willing to pay for it. UCAN and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse are fighting the practice. On April 22, the groups co-authored a Letter of Support for SB437, which will prevent the practice.
Background:
In May 2007, AT&T started charging a $1.25 a month "protection" fee to keep your phone number unlisted -- an increase of 346% over the original monthly fee of 28 cents.
AT&T claims this covers the costs associated with not printing your number in the phone book, not making your number available to online searchers, and for not selling your phone number to telemarketers. AT&T has been able to get away with this because of slacker regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission who have a history of ignoring abuses by AT&T.
It sounds a little like an old-school protection racket doesn't it? How much would you pay AT&T to not do other things? What happens if they start charging you monthly fees for NOT burning down your house or NOT stealing your credit numbers?
SB437 will forbid AT&T from charging you "protection" money to keep your private information private. Article 1 of the California Constitution guarantees a right to privacy. Unfortunately, Governor Schwarzenegger failed to honor his oath of office to defend your constitutional right to privacy when he vetoed SB437 after it passed in the Assembly and Senate.
UCAN supports SB437
In April, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (a project of UCAN), and UCAN wrote the Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee with a letter of support for Sb 437. Let's hope the Governor doesn't veto it again. But don't hold your breath ... AT&T has been a very generous donor to Mr. Schwarzenegger.
Our suggestion? Why not send AT&T a bill for not using their phone service.
| Attachment | Size |
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| SB437-Pavley-UnlistedNumber-NoChg-090422[1].pdf | 91.82 KB |
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