Phone-Firm Sleuth Gets Line on Cheaters : Her Acting Skills Combat Growing Use of Stolen Identification Codes
Marie Bowen is pretty sneaky about tracking down people, but she says she has to be. Bowen, who investigates phone fraud for U. S. Americall, a small long-distance service in Sherman Oaks, says that stolen identification codes once endangered the company’s survival.
Just over a year ago, U. S. Americall, which has annual sales of more than $6 million from 9,000 customers, all of them in Southern California, was incurring fraud losses of $30,000 a month. Now those losses are down to $2,000 monthly, largely because of Bowen’s work, company officials say.
Bowen, 38, a former dancer and stage actress, simply does what comes naturally to her. She phones the people who received the illegal calls and plays roles, faking voices, making up situations--anything to keep them on the line.
Probing for Leads
The “game,” she said, is to get them to provide clues leading to the culprit.
“If I’m trying to get information, I’ll say ‘Hi, I’m Judy, Leroy’s cousin,’ ” Bowen began, alternating between her native Boston accent and a Mississippi one.
“Then they’ll say, ‘Who’s Leroy?’ and I’ll answer, ‘Well, I just ran into him at the airport,’ and you just get them talking.
“They won’t know what you’re talking about, and they’ll say, ‘I think you’ve got the wrong number.’ And I say, ‘Well, no, are you sure?’ ”
Although Bowen’s methods may be unusual, her job is not; most telephone companies have security departments. In 1984, long-distance firms in the United States lost $120 million to fraud, according to the Washington-based Assn. of Long Distance Telephone Companies.
Phone-Bill Hopscotch
The growth of alternative long-distance carriers--such as MCI, Sprint and smaller companies like U. S. Americall--has made phone fraud a booming business. Many customers play phone-bill hopscotch, skipping from one company to another and never paying any bills, industry officials say.
In addition, anyone who knows a local phone number giving callers access to a long-distance service can use trial and error or an automatic dialer to find a legitimate customer’s code number--called an access code--to place calls.
Teen-age computer hackers and shady sales forces account for the biggest losses. Thousands of dollars in phone charges can be racked up in hours, according to Jerry McAndrews, executive director of the telephone association.
Some unscrupulous hackers--who use phone lines to communicate with each other--post access codes for companies like MCI or U. S. Americall on electronic bulletin boards, information centers for computer buffs. Thousands of potential abusers can see those numbers, and many take advantage of them, McAndrews said.
Losses can build up quickly in “boiler rooms”--companies that sell phony oil leases, gems and even overpriced photocopier toner by telephone. “You get 100 people, all using your access codes, trying to cover their tracks and at the same time not paying for their calls,” Bowen said. “You’ve got to catch those guys fast.”
Most telephone companies monitor their systems to spot suspicious patterns.
“If a $50-a-month user is ringing up a $1,000 a day, we call up the customer and make sure it’s him,” Bowen said. “If it’s not, that line is shut off.”
Finding out who made the calls is much harder.
Investigators try to find a pattern to the numbers called. If the caller is a computer hacker, some numbers may be for electronic bulletin boards, and calls may have originated from many cities around the country. If it’s a boiler room, the calls could all be to retailers or offices.
Call the Numbers
Investigators then call the numbers, looking for information leading to the individual placing the calls.
“Marie likes to pretend to be someone else more than most, because it’s what she’s best at,” said Roy Costello, who polices fraud for General Telephone of California in Thousand Oaks. “She’s got the imagination to keep people on the phone.”
Once the investigator has an idea of who might be making the calls, the next step is to contact police to get proof that would stand up in court.
With evidence showing that a crime has likely been committed, police can request a court order to allow them to monitor outgoing calls on an individual’s phone line.
Costello, who stands taller than six feet and weighs more than 200 pounds, said he always tries to meet suspects face to face. A veteran of the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara county sheriff’s departments, he said, “I’m not new to this.”
Intimidates ‘Crooks’
Costello said he intimidates suspects. “You’re dealing with crooks, and you’ve got to treat them that way. Most people don’t think stealing phone time is the same as stealing cars.”
Nevertheless, authorities have done little to prosecute long-distance cheaters, McAndrews said, and most cases are handled as theft or computer fraud. He said there should be tough federal laws, carrying stringent penalties, specifically for phone fraud.
Bowen has brought a handful of cases to authorities, leading to one conviction and two pending cases.
A Reseda man pleaded guilty in February to two counts of grand theft for making $20,000 in calls on U. S. Americall and $30,000 on Sprint.
The man, Earl Johnson Jr., used pirated code numbers to sell business supplies such as pens and note pads, was sentenced to 90 days in County Jail and three years on probation. He is to begin serving the sentence in April, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald H. Carroll, the head prosecutor in Van Nuys.
To Pay Back $13,110
Johnson agreed to pay restitution of $13,110 to U. S. Americall, according to the company.
One of the pending cases involves a ring of unlicensed private investigators in the Los Angeles area that Bowen said placed more than $35,000 in calls over a 12-month period.
Many of the calls were aimed at gathering confidential information from the state Department of Motor Vehicles and from the TRW Information Services Division, the credit reporting agency. Gary L. Taran of Beverly Hills and John Hall of Canoga Park were charged this month with violating state computer fraud laws.
The other case involves a 15-year-old Woodland Hills boy who allegedly pirated access codes and posted them on electronic bulletin boards. Police seized the boy’s phone records and are itemizing the information before presenting the case to Juvenile Court, according to Detective James K. Black of the Computer Crimes Unit of the Los Angeles Police Department.
U. S. Americall has yet to get any money back in those two cases.
No Investigation Training
Bowen said she doesn’t have any training in fraud investigation, although she sees show business as good preparation. After graduating from high school in Lynn, Mass., she moved to New York, where she danced with the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall for two years.
Off-Broadway Roles
She said she appeared in some off-Broadway shows, played bit parts in soap operas and worked with a community acting group. Five years ago, she left New York to seek fame and fortune in Hollywood.
While continuing to perform in small roles, Bowen started working for U. S. Americall shortly after the company was started two years ago. At first she divided her time between sales and collections, then became involved last year in fraud investigations.
Bowen works out of her Sherman Oaks home with a telephone and reams of computer printouts. “I can’t work in an office,” she said. “I don’t want people to hear my games.”
