TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: DA Wants to Restrict Pre-Paid Cell Phones

Re: DA Wants to Restrict Pre-Paid Cell Phones

T (nospam.kd1s@cox.nospam.net)
Sat, 27 Jan 2007 23:42:26 -0500

In article <telecom26.28.6@telecom-digest.org>, tom.horsley@att.net
says:

> On 24 Jan 2007 11:56:30 -0800
> hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:

>> "To get a prepaid phone, all you have to do is plunk down your cash
>> and walk out of the store -- no paperwork necessary. Castor says
>> that's a problem for his detectives because they can't track down the
>> owner of the phone."

> Yea, that's a bitch. Cars are also a problem, why with a car someone
> can commit a crime and be miles away in very little time. I think they
> should ban everything that can possibly be used in any criminal
> activity!

> [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: One notable difference however is that
> while cars _are_ frequently used to commit crimes, the car has to be
> in close proximity to the crime scene, and theoretically at least, the
> car is easily traceable from its license plate or VIN; or God Forbid
> that the criminal presented a driver's license (for example, when
> passing a bad check). That, plus a photo of the car license plate from
> an overhead camera will frequently nail the criminal, no matter how
> many miles away he gets in a short time. With the prepaid 'untraceable'
> cell phone however, one does not need to be anywhere near the scene
> of the crime. PAT]

And a set of stolen or forged plates makes that so much more difficult.

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: You are correct on that. In the 'semi-
automatic' days of gasoline credit cards (1970's mostly) when the
dealer had to manually fill in the gas ticket and imprint your credit
card by hand, then you had to sign, Amoco made a point of writing
down the license plate number of vehicles. Then, if the owner of the
credit card refused payment and claimed his credit card had been
stolen, or forged or whatever, clerks at Amoco would look at the
microfilm reels of driver's records for the state in particular and
look up the name and address of the license plate holder. That
particular driver would then get a letter; not exactly threatening,
but not exactly friendly, either:

"Dear Mr. Jones: On (date) at (time) at (location) a (vehicle make and
model) registered to you received a fill up of gas by using a credit
card, the owner of which stated to us under oath was stolen/misused/
abused. We would very much appreciate a response from you telling us
how you think this may have happened. Sincerely, Amoco Credit
Department". Mr. Jones (if he was the purchaser) was in effect put on
notice that the collectors did not want to hear any more nonsense
about his alleged 'stolen credit card' (if the same Jones was also the
card holder). Often times however, Jones would write back to say that
his license plates had been stolen. PAT]

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