Credit card fraud happens almost everywhere. Drawing a circle around a neighborhood and zapping it is what's known as redlining, and when the neighborhood is defined by its racial composition, it's bigotry and discrimination. And did you read Hugh's posting about the 7pm to 8am coin curfew in Czechago? They *allow* credit card calls after those hours, so the credit card fraud issue is at best a red herring. Wake up, how much evidence do you need that it's a simple matter of bigotry and classism? This stuff is real. The bottom line is, in the information age, access is power; hence the continuing little maneuvers to dis-access the disenfranchised. Too much access, like too much democracy, makes some people very nervous. Think about it, stop engaging in denial. If what we're fighting for makes any difference at the bottom level of the grassroots, it's the right to drop a quarter in the slot and make a call without having one's name in a consumer database. That's basic privacy and anonymity for you. And it's all that a whole lot of people can afford. -gg