20 May Face Charges in Phone Calling Card Fraud

At least 20 suspects are expected to be charged this week with telephone calling card fraud in a Huntington Park case that authorities and industry representatives say may be the largest crackdown on such black market calls ever conducted in Southern California.

Huntington Park police teamed up with LDDS Metromedia Communications, the nation’s fourth-largest long distance company, to target pirated long distance calls from pay phones in the city.

Usually, brokers stationed at phone booths place the calls using stolen calling card numbers. They charge clients a flat fee that is a bargain compared to commercial rates.

Authorities arrested at least 20 suspects during a sweep last Sunday, said Detective Shawn Moore. Most placed calls to Mexico using the services of the middlemen who had stolen numbers.

The most serious violators--those who allegedly peddled the stolen numbers and pocketed the fees--could face up to a year in prison and fines of up to $10,000, Moore said. People who paid the brokers for the illegal calls are expected to be charged with misdemeanors.

At least five of the 20 arrested were brokers, Moore said.

Telephone fraud costs the communications industry $3 billion annually, said John Elerick, senior investigator for LDDS Metromedia, based in Jackson, Miss. More than half the losses involve calls made from pay phones using stolen calling card numbers.

The practice is particularly widespread in immigrant neighborhoods. Often, the calls are placed to families back home.

For users, the savings can be substantial. A broker using a stolen number may charge $10 or $15 for a lengthy call that may cost five or 10 times that amount.

The Huntington Park operation targeted suspects using pay phones from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday along Pacific Boulevard in the city’s downtown business district. Company officials used computers to pinpoint phone booths where the illegal calls were being made, and police moved in and arrested those making the calls.

“While they were on the phone to their mom back in Mexico, we could arrest them for using a bad card,” Moore said.

All the Huntington Park calls, it turned out, were charged to a single number belonging to a Texas firm.

Those dealing in fraudulent cards may acquire the numbers in a variety of ways, officials say, including spying on callers as they punch in numbers at pay phones and eavesdropping as users inform operators of numbers.