Return-Path: Received: by massis.lcs.mit.edu (8.7.4/NSCS-1.0S) id HAA09770; Thu, 16 Jan 1997 07:57:25 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1997 07:57:25 -0500 (EST) From: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu (TELECOM Digest Editor) Message-Id: <199701161257.HAA09770@massis.lcs.mit.edu> To: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Subject: TELECOM Digest V17 #14 TELECOM Digest Thu, 16 Jan 97 07:57:00 EST Volume 17 : Issue 14 Inside This Issue: Editor: Patrick A. Townson Nomination of Hedy Lamarr (Dave Hughes) Internet Service Causing Network Overload? Hmmm (Jay R. Ashworth) 831 Announced For 408 Split (John Cropper) China Eases Internet Blocks (Tad Cook) Florida Boiler Room Scam (Tad Cook) TELECOM Digest is an electronic journal devoted mostly but not exclusively to telecommunications topics. It is circulated anywhere there is email, in addition to various telecom forums on a variety of public service systems and networks including Compuserve and America On Line. It is also gatewayed to Usenet where it appears as the moderated newsgroup 'comp.dcom.telecom'. Subscriptions are available to qualified organizations and individual readers. Write and tell us how you qualify: * ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu * The Digest is edited, published and compilation-copyrighted by Patrick Townson of Skokie, Illinois USA. You can reach us by postal mail, fax or phone at: Post Office Box 4621 Skokie, IL USA 60076 Phone: 847-329-0571 Fax: 847-329-0572 ** Article submission address: ptownson@massis.lcs.mit.edu Our archives are located at mirror.lcs.mit.edu. The URL is: http://mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives They can also be accessed using anonymous ftp: ftp mirror.lcs.mit.edu/telecom-archives/archives A third method is the Telecom Email Information Service: Send a note to tel-archives@mirror.lcs.mit.edu to receive a help file for using this method or write me and ask for a copy of the help file for the Telecom Archives. ************************************************************************* * TELECOM Digest is partially funded by a grant from the * * International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland * * under the aegis of its Telecom Information Exchange Services (TIES) * * project. Views expressed herein should not be construed as represent-* * ing views of the ITU. * ************************************************************************* Finally, the Digest is funded by gifts from generous readers such as yourself who provide funding in amounts deemed appropriate. Your help is important and appreciated. A suggested donation of twenty dollars per year per reader is considered appropriate. See our address above. All opinions expressed herein are deemed to be those of the author. Any organizations listed are for identification purposes only and messages should not be considered any official expression by the organization. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: dave@oldcolo.com (Dave Hughes) Subject: Nomination of Hedy Lamarr Date: 16 Jan 1997 05:58:01 GMT Organization: occ Reply-To: dave@oldcolo.com If yoy agree with this nomination of mine for an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Pioneer Award for Hedy Lamarr, then send a simple email to pioneer@eff.org seconding it. Some *real* telecom history for you youngsters. (I remember her well) As soon as I get the Patent scanned in, including the downright aesthetic diagrams, in Spenserian Script, they will be posted to wireless.oldcolo.com Dave Hughes ------ January 15th, 1997 TITLE: Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil's 1942 Co-Invention of Secure Spread Spectrum Radio Technology ORGANIZATION: None. Hedy Lamarr is 82 years old, retired and reclusive, living in Florida. George Antheil is deceased. CONTACT: For Hedy Lamarr, Anthony Loder, son. % Phones, USA 2304 Sautelle Blvd Los Angeles, CA, 90064 Telephone 310-445-3100 office He is in contact with his mother, and will travel to accept an award on her behalf if she is unable. For George Antheil, Peter Antheil, son 1951 Nolden St Los Angeles, CA, 90041 Telephone 213-255-7097 If he is unable to attend, another son, Chris Beaumont, who lives and works in the Bay Area can do the same. Chris would like to be informed in any event, and would attend. Telephone 415-431-2986, webweaver@best.com email. REASON: I nominate actress Hedy Lamarr (named in 1940 the 'most beautiful woman in the world'), and Musical Composer George Antheil, (called in the 1930's the American 'bad boy of music') for an EFF Pioneer Award in 1997 for their co-development and original invention of the frequency hopping principles of Spread Spectrum radio in 1942, 20 years before it was put to effective use by the United States Navy in torpedo guidance systems, and 40 years before it was permitted by the FCC to be used in commercial radios, which it is now, by over 40 companies, and expanding rapidly due largely to the very great increase in power of digital signal processors over the past 25 years. In a very little known episode of radio technological history spanning several years between 1937 and 1942, this very bright young anti-Nazi Austrian born woman, known to the world only for her beauty and acting talent, and George Antheil, an accomplished American symphony composer who was as a musical innovator collaborated in 1941 to design a novel frequency hopping spread spectrum communications scheme and were awarded U.S. Patent Number 2,292,387, August 11th, 1942, under the name 'Hedy Keisler Markey' (her married name) and George Antheil, for a 'Secret Communications System.' Which patent was then available for study by the US military hotly engaged in technological invention during the early years of World War II. While it cannot be completely known, for reasons of military classification, and now receding history, to what extent this invention and public patent of 'prior art' inspired developers for the US Military which has since made spread spectrum and frequency hopping a key part of clandestine, non-jammable, non-interceptable military communications, and furthered the development of this technology, it is clear that this was the seminal description of a revolutionary form of wireless communications, which was true pioneering. Spread spectrum is THE basis for the communications security of the strategic $25 billion MILSAT Defense communications system) The US Military released some of its work into the public domain only in 1981, where, in 1985 the FCC was able to offer US Industry the legal right to manufacture radios incorporating its principles. The hard fact is that it was Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil giving it concrete form, who formally described this technology - even now considered 'new' - long before its current - and growing - use by the radio and computer industry. The only reason the invention was not used much earlier on a broad basis was that the US did not possess the cost-effective computing power to incorporate its principles that are dependent on 'processing gain' of digital signal processors. Now, of course, the spectacular rise in price performance of micro-processors over the past 25 years has made the technology of spread spectrum and frequency hopping a viable, and still revolutionary advance in digital communications. It became known by journalists who occassionally have dipped into this unusual story and confirmed to me by the inventors decendents, and the statements to me by occassional technological researchers that the ideas brought to the United States from Austria by Hedy, who picked up fragments of technological ideas from her German-military-supporter arms merchant husband in Austria, were the well-spring of the invention. She left her Austrian husband and came to America, so concerned about the coming Hitler threat, that, as a patriotic act after meeting George Antheil she determined to 'give' these ideas to the US Government to help win the war. George Antheil, had a reputation - earned in such musical productions as "Ballet Me'canique" (1927) where airplane propellers were used as percussion instruments in Carnegie Hall - for his technological inventions. Together Hedy and George, on paper on the floor in her and her then husband's (Markey) house, sketched out an 88 unit scheme (the number of keys on a piano) of radio frequency hopping that could be controlled by piano-roll strips. Which was the intellectual basis for their Patent for a 'Secret Communications System' which they applied for on June 10th, 1941, six months before Pearl Harbor. They never received any compensation for their Patent, in part because of the 17 year expiration of Patent right, nor any formal awards for their invention, although there was talk of such recognition for Hedy Lamarr, after George Antheil's death in 1959, from the Congress, and IEEE. Partly because this recognition was so belated, and she had lost her beauty and willingness to appear formally in public, she demurred from accepting, if she was required to attend a public gathering. It is important to respect her wishes in this matter, if an EFF award is given. But they do not diminsh the remarkable, and well ahead of its time, technological achievement incorporated into this patent. MY REASONS FOR THIS NOMINATION.: As the Principal Investigator for several National Science Foundation (NSF) Projects involving digital forms of wireless communications for Education, and for 3d World data communications, I am aware of just how counter-intuitive, and un-obvious are the principles, as well as methods underlying the operations, of spread spectrum radio communications. Even today, 44 years after this young woman, not operating out of a research or university center, grasped and articulated the novel technical ideas underlying spread spectrum, and which she pursued to the point of a formal US Patent the offering of these ideas to the public, very few, even technically savy American understand today how, and why, spread spectrum works, or its significance in providing a revolutionary form of high speed, quite secure, non-interfering (shared spectrum) data communications. Even the articulate and prominent George Gilder has trouble promoting these revolutionary ideas, and I know who hard it is to make people believe that it works. Yet, in the seeds of its concepts, which only now are being exploited both in the FCC Part 15 no-licence (free) communications realm, and the commercial high density cellular telephone realm (Omnipoint, who can offer 490,000 user service in Manhattan per square mile) as well as still in the classified government communications realm, we are moving toward the end of permitting millions of consumer-level data radios to operate in the same physical space. (confirmed by numerous research Theses at academic institutions, the most recent of which is by Timothy Shepard, MIT, July, 1995) This invention was individual American technological Pioneering at its best. Formal recognition is overdue on the merits of the invention alone. Also contributing to my reasons for making this nomination, is that the contrast in the public mind, of a woman, a beautiful one at that, whose native intelligence and willingness to act on her political convictions and technological insight, even though her career was as far from technological development as one could imagine, and during a period of an uncertain, international, personal future, makes this story one which can also capture the public imagination, and further the cause of technological 'pioneering' by women. If Hedy Lamarr could do it... It is documented that Hedy Lamarr also attempted to take a position under Dr. Kettering who formed the first "National Inventions Council" for the US Government, rather than act. But being a woman, with an assured career in acting, she was disuaded from following that path. Although it was Dr. Kettering who suggested that Hedy and George pursue a Patent. The story can be an inspiration and encourage other young women, apart, and even in spite of their other talents or attributes, and young men with other, unrelated, careers, to pursue and contribute technological ideas for the common weal. For those older American men who remember, (and probably were in love with, Hedy Lamarr in her Hollywood salad days), her while many of them were fiddling with their crystal radio sets during the glory years of American radio invention, not knowing what a seminal contribution she made, will reaffirm for many Americans just from how many diverse sources have come American technological 'pioneering' - one of the glories of this inventive country. SUBMITTED BY: David R Hughes 6 N 24th Street Colorado Springs, Colorado 80904 719-636-2040 dave@oldcolo.com OTHER DOCUMENTATION: Enclosed: 1. Copy of US Patent 2,292,387 Awarded August 11th, 1942 2. Xerox of article in {Stars and Stripes} November 19th, 1945 2. Extract from IEEE online documentation (www.spectrum.ieee.org) 3. Text of Article in {Forbes Magazine}, May 14th, 1990 ------------------------------ From: jra@scfn.thpl.lib.fl.us (Jay R. Ashworth) Subject: Internet Service Causing Network Overload? Hmmm Date: 15 Jan 1997 22:25:01 GMT Organization: University of South Florida In the current context, I thought you folks on the Digest might find interesting a new marketing offer I saw in the local paper, in a _full-page_ ad yesterday: GTE (Florida, the local LEC hereabouts) is offering flat-rate dialup PPP service, like so many other telcos. A quick traceroute suggests that the national backbone provider whom they are reselling is Sprint, but don't quote me on that. :-) In any event, their latest offer is interesting. Like the other carriers, they will give you a discounted flat-rate on their service is you switch to them as your LD provider. Unlike the others, they will _also_ give you the killer deal ... Ready for this? _If you put in a second line to access it with_. Kinda puts the whole "internet calls screw up our load calculations" argument in a whole new light, doesn't it? Cheers, Jay R. Ashworth jra@scfn.thpl.lib.fl.us Member of the Technical Staff Unsolicited Commercial Emailers Sued The Suncoast Freenet Pedantry: It's not just a job, it's an adventure. Tampa Bay, Florida +1 813 790 7592 ------------------------------ From: John Cropper Subject: 831 Announced For 408 Split Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 17:28:58 -0500 Organization: LINCS Reply-To: psyber@mindspring.com And the New Number is . . . 831 Plan Filed to Split 408 Area Code SAN FRANCISCO -- An area code relief plan has been submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission that would split the 408 area code and create a new area code -- 831 -- to serve part of that area. The 408 area code currently serves the South Bay Area Peninsula and Central Coast areas of California. California Code Administrator Bruce Bennett submitted the 408 area code relief plan today to the Commission for review and final approval. Bennett said the plan is supported by the telecommunications industry and reflects customer input received during four public meetings in October 1996. Introduction of the new 831 area code, which will be California's 22nd, is planned for July 11, 1998, and is needed to meet the rapidly growing demand for additional phone numbers in the 408 area code, which currently serves the majority of Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito and Monterey counties and very small portions of San Luis Obispo, Merced, Stanislaus, Alameda and San Mateo counties. Customers in New 831 Will Need to Change Area Code Portion of Phone Number Bennett said the new 831 area code's introduction will not affect customers seven-digit phone numbers. However, customers in the new 831 area code will need to change the area code portion of their phone number beginning July 11, 1998. As proposed, the plan would split off the northern portion of the current 408 area code generally along the Santa Clara County line and place the central and southern part of the existing 408 area code in the new 831 area code. The details are as follows: The 408 area code would continue to serve most of Santa Clara County and very small portions of San Mateo, Santa Cruz, Stanislaus and Alameda counties. Some of the communities in this area include: San Jose, Saratoga, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Milpitas, Los Gatos, Morgan Hill and Gilroy. The new 831 area code would serve most of Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties and very small portions of San Mateo, San Luis Obispo and Merced counties. Some of the communities in this area include: Santa Cruz, Aptos, Watsonville and Boulder Creek in Santa Cruz County, Carmel, Monterey and Salinas in Monterey County and Hollister, Pinnacles and San Juan Bautista in San Benito County. The Commission is expected to issue a final decision on the 408 area code relief plan by March 1st. Persons who wish to comment on the plan may write to the: California Public Utilities Commission President P. Gregory Conlon 505 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco, CA 94102 Bennett said two 408 area code geographic splits were presented to the public for comment during meetings in October. The two plans were similar, except one kept only part of Santa Clara County in the 408, instead of most of the county as is currently the case. The Santa Clara County split would have divided San Jose into two area codes, with only the downtown, the airport and other business areas remaining in the 408. Both plans called for placing most of the rest of the existing 408 area in the new area code. "The plan that split San Jose would have allowed the newly configured 408 area code to last four years longer," Bennett said. "But people felt it would be very disruptive to the San Jose area to have two different area codes. Local officials also liked a plan that generally followed county lines because it offered an easily recognizable boundary." As proposed, the new 831 area code is estimated to last more than 20 years, while the reconfigured 408 would have enough numbers to accommodate growth through the year 2001. Price of Calls Not Affected While customers who receive the new 831 area code will have to change the area code portion of their telephone number, the new three-digit code will not affect the price of telephone calls in any of these areas, Bennett said. "Call distance determines call price and is not impacted by the creation of a new area code," he said. "What is a local call now will remain a local call regardless of the area code change." The 831 area code is part of a series of new-style area codes introduced in North America beginning in 1995 that can be any three digits. This has special implications for certain types of telecommunications equipment, which must be reprogrammed to recognize the new-style area codes, Bennett said. "Historically, area codes always had either a "1" or "0" as the middle digit for identification purposes, but all of those codes are gone. The new number combinations allow area codes to be any three digits from 220 to 999, creating an additional 5 billion phone numbers. Make Sure Equipment Can Accommodate The New Area Code "Because of this, it's important for customers to know that PBX (private phone) systems, auto-dialers, alarms and other telecommunications equipment will have to be re-programmed to recognize these new-style area codes," said Bennett, adding that people should check with their equipment vendors to see if their equipment needs to be reprogrammed. Bennett also noted that when the new 831 area code is introduced in July 1998, there will be a six-month "permissive" dialing period during which callers can dial either the old or new area code. The 408 area is the latest in a series of regions in California requiring area code relief. Today, California has 13 area codes, more than any other state. Plans call for doubling that number from 13 to 26 over the next four years to keep up with the state's record telephone number consumption. That consumption is being spurred by several factors, the two primary being the high-technology explosion of fax machines, pagers, cellular phones, modems for Internet access, and data communications networks like ATMs and pay point services, all of which require phone lines. The other factor is the onset of competition in California's local telephone service market, with each new provider requiring a separate supply of telephone numbers. At least 10 of the 13 new area codes will be introduced by mid-1998. In addition to 408, California areas which have already been designated as requiring new area codes are: 310, 818 and 213 in the Los Angeles area, 619 in the San Diego, Palm Springs and Inland County areas, 415 in the San Francisco Bay area, 916 in Northern California, 510 in Contra Costa and Alameda counties, 714 in Orange County and 209 in the Fresno and Stockton areas. Plans for the 408 area code were collectively developed by a telecommunications industry group representing more than 30 companies, including Pacific Bell, AT&T, MCI, Sprint, AirTouch, Evans Telephone, Pagenet, AT&T Wireless, MFS Communications Co., Teleport Communications Group (TCG), the California Cable Television Association and others. Running at reduced capacity due to * John Cropper, LINCS server BIOS failure. Web page will * PO Box 277 NOT be updated until January 20th. * Pennington, NJ USA 08534-0277 ************************************** Inside NJ: 609.637.9434 Check out our new homepage: * Toll Free: 888.NPA.NFO2 (672.6362) http://www.the-server.com/jcbt2n/ * Fax : Temporarily Offline lincs/ * email: psyber@mindspring.com ------------------------------ Subject: China Eases Internet Blocks Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 11:02:24 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) China eases Internet blocks, keeps careful watch BEIJING, Jan 15 (Reuter) - Beijing has loosened controls barring Chinese Internet users from accessing foreign news sources but is keeping watch for politically suspect content on the worldwide computer network, an official said on Wednesday. Blocks imposed last year on Internet Web sites operated by CNN, the Wall Street Journal and other news providers had all been removed, industry experts in the Chinese capital said. "Some newspapers, magazines, articles and publications (on the Internet) that were sensitive to the mainland were blocked ... but after checks they were reopened," said an official of the State Council, or cabinet. "Time was needed to clarify matters," said the official, who declined to be named. China is eager to be part of the technological revolution of which the Internet is part, but officials have long been concerned that the information superhighway could bypass strict communist control of the media and fuel internal dissent. One Beijing-based Internet expert said China's ultra-conservative State Security Bureau ordered the blocking of scores of news sources last year. "This whole list of news sites was downloaded all at once, so that on the same day every major newspaper web site was blocked," said the expert, who declined to be identified. The mass bans appeared to have drawn fire from the more liberal Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT) and other departments, forcing officials to seek a new consensus on how to bring order to the Internet's anarchy, he said. "I get the feeling that not everybody in the MPT was happy about the State Security Bureau telling them how to run their network," the expert said, adding that the blocks had been gradually lifted as the new consensus emerged. The State Council official said China's computer mandarins were maintaining their watch on politically suspect or pornographic material in cyberspace, but were trying to take a selective approach to blocking offending sites. "For example, a university's (Internet) address has a great deal of content, but that doesn't mean that if some of the content was unwelcome then the whole unversity would be blocked," he said. Chinese telecommunications officials have said the installation of controls to curb pornography or unacceptable political material has allowed an easing of limits on the number of Internet accounts. Industry analysts say it is unclear how many Chinese regularly surf the net, with most estimates ranging from around 100,000 to 150,000, but all agree the number is growing fast. The easing of controls was an encouraging sign of Chinese enthusiasm for Internet development, said Bruce Dover of PDN Xinren Information Technology Co, a joint venture by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp Ltd and China's People's Daily. "In the past we have been worried they might just pull down the shutters," Dover said at a briefing to launch a new online service supplying Chinese-language information technology news and data. China was embracing the Internet, not trying to strangle it as observers had once feared, he said. The Beijing-based Internet expert said that while it was technically relatively simple to curb access to specific sites, China was discovering the difficulties of controlling Internet content -- a lesson being learnt by governments worldwide. "If there is one specific source of information then it's easy to block that ... (but) content comes from more than one source," he said. "You can block a source but you can't block an idea." ------------------------------ Subject: Florida Boiler Room Scam Date: Wed, 15 Jan 1997 11:32:52 PST From: tad@ssc.com (Tad Cook) Florida Man Jailed, Faces Charges in Telemarketing Scheme By Scott Burgess, The News, Boca Raton, Fla. Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News Jan. 14--Police said they were not surprised at the type of telephone scam Bryant Crowder is charged with perpetrating. But police said they were surprised at the neighborhood phone calls were coming from that bilked hundreds of people out of thousands of dollars around the country, said John Calabro, a Broward Sheriff's Office detective who is a member of the Attorney General's Telemarketing Fraud Task Force. "In all the time I've investigated (telemarketing fraud), I've never found one in such a nice neighborhood," Calabro said, of Crowder's home at 21663 Town Place Drive in Boca Raton's Town Place Club Villas. After a yearlong investigation, the FBI handed the case over to the statewide prosecutor's office because the $250,000 law enforcement officials believe Crowder has scammed from people was not large enough to prosecute at the federal level, said Lisa Porter, the state prosecutor handling the case. Police arrested Crowder Saturday at Town Center at Boca Raton and charged him with racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and organized scheme to defraud in excess of $50,000. He was taken to Palm Beach County Jail where he remains on a $50,000 bond. Crowder was a charismatic person, who lived an expensive lifestyle, Calabro said. "One of his gimmicks was to try and pass himself off as Deion Sanders' brother when he would go hang out at these expensive clubs around Boca Raton," Calabro said. According to police the scam worked like this: Crowder would purchase mailing lists from groups called lead agencies. These lists compiled the names of people who purchased items from different companies and included home phone numbers, dates and items of purchase. With those lists and operating out his home, Crowder or the small group he recruited would call people and tell them had won a large sum of money, usually between $100,000 and $300,000. Because boiler room operation took names from real mailing lists, the scam had an air of legitimacy because the telemarketers would use real company names and even know what item the person had purchased from the company. He would then tell the victims that they needed to send a cashier's check to cover taxes on the prize. Crowder had the person then mail the check to one of many mail drops in Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade counties as well as Atlanta. Once he received the check, Crowder would have someone else cash the check for him, making it difficult for police to track him down. Since Crowder operated the scam out of his home, it was even more difficult to prove what he was doing, Porter said. However, the statewide prosecutor's office in Fort Lauderdale gathered a number of pieces of evidence when it served a search warrant on Crowder's Boca Raton home. Police accused Crowder of operating similar scams in Tamarac and Dade County and said they expect to arrest more people in connection with the tax scam during the next few weeks. "We're not done arresting people," Calabro said. "Though nobody else lives in such a nice house." Marginalia: Don't get ripped off If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The Better Business Bureau of Palm Beach County offers this advice to people who receive unbelievable phone calls offering grand prizes. For more information, call the organization at (561) 686-2775. Legitimate sweepstakes contests and prize promotions do not require a purchase or payment. If you are asked to pay money up front, whether for "processing," "delivery," "taxes," or "duties," approach the offer with extreme caution. Only invest in offers you are familiar with and that offer complete, verifiable data. A reputable company will always mail you information if you ask. Don't respond to any offer before checking the company out with the Better Business Bureau, state and local consumer protection agencies or the Florida Attorney General's office. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: A guy and his wife living in Glencoe, Illinois -- you can't do much better in life except possibly living in Winnetka (both villages are just north of me) -- was running a mail-order sex scam for years making tons of money in the form of twenty, fifty and hundred dollar bills in cash via his post office box for several years. They were mailing out quality photographs of a very pretty young lady in various obscene postures and poses to mailing lists they obtained from various adult mail order sources. A letter enclosed indicated the young lady was in financial difficulty and had resorted to selling pictures of herself. The letter hinted, with- out making any real claims, that she might go to personally visit the guys who responded. In her unsolicited first letter with the photos, she said that, "as an airline stewardess, travel around the country is easy for me ... maybe we can meet for lunch and whatever." Well these guys (I hate to call them dumb; maybe lonely and naive is a better description) from all over the USA would send in tons of cash for more pictures along with letters telling 'her' how to reach their house and the best times to show up, etc. They had a list on the computer of who gave money and how much. They would keep on sending out letters to those guys with more photos asking for more money. Quite a few of the guys respnded a second and third time with still more cash ("it is hard for me to cash checks because I am travelling so much") before they finally caught on. Then, they were too embarassed to tell anyone about what happened to them. By no means do scams all originate in poor neighborhoods. PAT] ------------------------------ End of TELECOM Digest V17 #14 *****************************