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$14,000 phone bill had him sweating

 
Published Oct. 9, 1992|Updated Oct. 12, 2005

When Herbert L. Schwinzer opened his GTE phone bill Wednesday, he thought somebody was playing a big joke on him. Surely, he couldn't have made the $14,000 worth of long-distance calls he was being billed for.

"I thought I was going crazy when I saw that," said Schwinzer, 84.

It wasn't a joke, and it wasn't even a mistake. But it was part of a calling-card scam.

Back in June, Schwinzer said, a woman who identified herself as a GTE employee called him. Schwinzer said she asked him if he had ever loaned his long-distance calling card to anybody because someone tried to place a call with his number from Orlando. He answered no. Then the woman asked him for his personal identification number.

"When I gave it to her, she said, "Yep, it shows up on the computer,' " he remembers. "I really had no reason not to believe it wasn't legitimate."

Schwinzer, who lives in Largo, said he didn't use the card for three months, and nothing unusual showed up on his monthly bill. But when he tried to use the card while on a trip to Michigan in September, he was told the card was invalid. He began to suspect something might be wrong.

When he opened the 73-page bill Wednesday, his suspicion was confirmed.

There were phone calls placed to Tacoma, Wash., and Minneapolis, among other cities. There were calls from as far away as Kuwait and all across Europe, including Luxembourg, Germany and Spain. Schwinzer thinks his number had been sold because there were several calls placed to different cities on the same day. One phone call, from France to Rochester, Minn., totaled more than $200.

GTE spokesman John Strickling said calling card scams like the one that victimized Schwinzer are not unusual.

"These scams affect telephone companies across the country to the tune of several million dollars per year," Strickling said.

When Schwinzer notified GTE what happened, he said, a representative initially told him he might have to pay for part of the bill.

"I was sweating bullets for about 30 minutes there," Schwinzer said. "I'm 84 years old. I thought I might be paying for this bill for the rest of my life."

It turned out Schwinzer had to pay only about $35 that he actually did owe.

If fraudulent calls are found on a customer's bill, the charge is removed at no cost to the customer. Then, as in Schwinzer's case, the phone company works with law enforcement officials to investigate the scam, Strickling said.

The bottom line is that unless it is an operator-assisted call, customers should never give out their personal identification numbers over the phone, Strickling said.

Herbert Schwinzer agrees. "I've learned my lesson," he said. "I'm not quite so trusting now."