"Bugged" calling cards?

[Bill Stewart]

If you're fancy about it, and don't mind a little trademark violation,
you could even print up a nice card that *looks* like
it's from the reputable long distance company the target uses :-)

A couple of years ago, when fast-buck artists used pyramid scams
that actually involved bothering your friends in person
instead of just spamming the internet, you might have even
been able to find a calling-card business that made this easy,
because they had some business model involving advertising cards
to the people your suckers\\\\\\customers called.
The important thing is to find something that's
account-based rather than one-shot cash-up-front -
it's a lot cheaper for those companies not to need a billing system,
but sometimes the stickiness of repeat customers justifies it,
though they're more likely to send mail that doesn't list calls.

Most of those companies are gone now, but you could check the cards
for sale in your local convenience store or ethnic grocery
or lottery-tickets-and-liquor store and see if any of them
will do what you need.  Ethnic groceries are especially likely to work,
because telephone calls to third-world telcos are the most likely
to still have prices high enough to make workarounds profitable,
while US and UK prices are low enough that far fewer people care.


At 12:16 AM 09/15/2001 +0000, Dr. Evil wrote:
>The way calling cards in the US work is that the user calls an 800
>number and then enters a PIN number and the number to be called.  The
>way 800 numbers work, the 800 number operator (ie, the company that
>pays for it) gets a list of all the numbers that dialed it, because
>he's paying.
>
>It seems that it should be possible to create a "bugged" calling
>card.  You give this to someone as a "free prize" or whatever and then
>you get a list of all the numbers he calls to and from using it.
>
>Does anyone know if something like this exists, which I can buy?  I
>want to send someone a "present".
>
>Thanks