30 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981

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The Telecom Digest for March 25, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 78 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: FCC sues AT&T for Nigerian TDD scams (John Levine)
Re: FCC sues AT&T for Nigerian TDD scams (Scott Dorsey)
[Obscure] Re: Nigerian scam (Randall Webmail)
Not all was lost when Apple bought Quattro (Monty Solomon)
Shameless plug (Bill Horne)

====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest.


Date: 24 Mar 2012 08:53:09 -0000 From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: FCC sues AT&T for Nigerian TDD scams Message-ID: <20120324085309.12855.qmail@joyce.lan> > Intresting factoid -- claim is that AT&T erroneously billed $16 > million to the U.S. Gov't. for non-US-origin 'relay' services calls > over several years. DOJ is seeking 'treble damages'. RICO ?? False Claims Act R's, John
Date: 24 Mar 2012 11:54:39 -0400 From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: FCC sues AT&T for Nigerian TDD scams Message-ID: <jkkqnv$7h2$1@panix2.panix.com> John R. Levine <johnl@iecc.com> wrote: > >TDD relay has a dreadful problem with Nigerians calling and defrauding >people. The FCC required that operators register users and verify that >they're in the US. The suit claims that AT&T deliberately uses a >registration scheme that doesn't keep out crooks, and as a result 95% >(NINETY FIVE PERCENT) of their TDD calls are Nigerian fraud. I have many deaf friends who tell me that they can no longer use the TDD service because as soon as people hear the announcement that they are receiving a relay call, they hang up. So, this abuse has made the service unusable for the people it was intended to help. I'm not surprised that this has become the case, and I'm not surprised that AT&T has made no attempt to stop it. However, I am very very surprised that AT&T would attempt to make the case that they didn't know what was going on. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:08:01 -0400 (EDT) From: Randall Webmail <rvh40@insightbb.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: [Obscure] Re: Nigerian scam Message-ID: <1161414109.2289837.1332605281622.JavaMail.root@md03.insight.synacor.com> From: bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com (Robert Bonomi) > >http://tinyurl.com/7of6knb > >Intresting factoid -- claim is that AT&T erroneously billed $16 million to the >U.S. Gov't. for non-US-origin 'relay' services calls over several years. DOJ is >seeking 'treble damages'. RICO ?? False Claims Act, most likely. Any entity that has submitted a false claim for payment to the USG (whether the USG pays it or not) is liable for treble damages plus attorney fees. Anybody who knows of any entity which submits a false claim can file a Qui Tam lawsuit, under seal. "The False Claims Act provides incentive to relators by granting them between 15% and 25% of any award or settlement amount. In addition, the statute provides an award of the relator's attorneys' fees, making qui tam actions a popular topic for the plaintiff's bar. An individual bringing suit pro se--that is, without the representation of a lawyer--may not bring a qui tam action under the False Claims Act (see, for example, United States ex Rel. Lu v. Ou, 368 F.3d 773 [7th Cir. 2004])." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qui_tam#False_Claims_Act
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 12:08:34 -0400 From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Not all was lost when Apple bought Quattro Message-ID: <p062408dccb93a11f53eb@[10.0.1.4]> Not all was lost when Apple bought Quattro By Scott Kirsner GLOBE CORRESPONDENT MARCH 18, 2012 Just before Christmas in 2009, Andy Miller gathered the employees of his Waltham mobile advertising start-up in an open bullpen area. The employees figured it was probably the year-end review of the company's numbers. But then Miller showed a video of Steve Jobs introducing the original iPhone. He talked about how much he admired Jobs and Apple's obsession with building great products. Then, he told the assembled troops that he was selling the three-year-old company, Quattro Wireless, to Apple Inc. The price: $275 million. "There was cheering and hugging for probably 10 minutes,'' Miller recalls. "There had been a rumor that we were selling to RIM,'' the maker of BlackBerry devices, "and people were glad that wasn't true.'' Today, there are no Quattro or Apple employees in Waltham. What has transpired in the two years since the acquisition is a case study of what happens when out-of-state companies buy Massachusetts firms, but decide not to establish a presence here. There are positive and not-so-positive elements. ... http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2012/03/18/not_all_was_lost_when_apple_bought_quattro/ http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/03/17/not-all-was-lost-when-apple-bought-quattro/lZsPDGIVoV4zWmfDOES9TK/story.html
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 21:17:30 -0400 From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Shameless plug Message-ID: <4F6E722A.10109@horne.net> I was quoted in an article written for CBS Moneywatch about being interviewed via Skype: http://goo.gl/YkUG9 Bill -- Bill Horne (Remove QRM from my email address to write to me directly)
TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly to telecom- munications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to Usenet, where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. TELECOM Digest is a not-for-profit, mostly non-commercial educational service offered to the Internet by Bill Horne. All the contents of the Digest are compilation-copyrighted. You may reprint articles in some other media on an occasional basis, but please attribute my work and that of the original author. The Telecom Digest is moderated by Bill Horne.
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