On Mar 31, 12:30*pm, Stephen Sprunk wrote:

Worse, some carriers do not present _any_ sort of prefix for Caller ID,
so int'l calls come in _looking like_ domestic calls. *For instance, I
remember a call from a former employer's Brussels office, which had 10
digits and was displayed on my phone's screen as (322) xxx-xxxx. *I
happen to know area code 322 was reserved* and realized it must have
been from somewhere in Europe, but most Americans wouldn't--and they
wouldn't know how to return that call if they missed it.

These days, many people simply press a "dial caller" button without
bothering to listen to a message or know who the caller is. This
leads to fraud, as you describe.

It also leads to missed connections, since many callers are not using
a callable number. This would include people still using a pay phone,
people borrowing someone else's phone to make the call, people calling
form within a PBX served business*, or someone not at their regular
location.

*A Centrex served line ususally gives the correct number, but a PBX
line usually gives merely the outgoing trunk that was used for the
call.


I'm not aware of any surcharged numbers other than the well-known
(within the NANP, at least) 900 and 976 numbers. *There are several
countries in the NANP that charge ridiculous int'l toll rates for
numbers, hoping that clueless Americans can be enticed into dialing
them, but that's it. *These were formerly all grouped into area code
809, but now they're spread among a dozen or so area codes, so it's more
difficult to avoid them without checking the number first.

It is now difficult the "check the number". Companies are
discouraging calls to the Operator, and are sometimes charging for
such inquiries. Some carriers (landline and long distance) don't even
have dial zero Operators and refer such calls to "customer service".

In the old Bell System days, despite continuing advances in
automation, they always insisted on having Operators handy in case
help was needed.

Returning to trains, the PATCO Lindenwold system, while automated,
always planned to have human backup readilly available in case the
machine failed. PATCO's motorman could operate the train in manual
mode if necessary, and centralized fare gate assistants could open
gates if needed.