This morning 9/11/09 prior to our business opening, three phone calls came into a toll-free number and landed in voice mails. This is what was recorded:

Message 1 5:13am: 20 seconds of loud static, then a computerized female voice says: pay phone 718 380 9034, thirty-seven dollars and twenty-five cents, alarm 4, alarm 8, alarm 15.

Message 2 6:11am: 20 seconds of loud static, pay phone 718 426 4270, two-hundred, twenty-four dollars and no cents. Alarm 4, alarm 6, alarm 7, alarm 8, alarm 15, alarm 16.

Message 3: 7:13am: Repeat of message 1.

These pay phone numbers are not familure. We have an alarm company but calls are not noted this w ay. I have no clue what this was. Any ideas incase it continues???

Thanks, Rhonda

It may help to know that 718-380-xxxx is in New York under the Verizon network.

The calls calls are coming into Wisconsin.

sounds like the smart payphones can call and give you an alarm. Maybe find out who owns the payphones and ask if they programed your number in them.

I have searched until I'm blue trying to find any information about the two listed numbers. I can't find a thing. They are obvioiusly unlisted. Hmmm... Quite a stumper.

I think Bditech is right and since they came in over your toll free number my guess is they where supposed to be programed to dial a number one digit off from yours

I would think whoever owns them will dispatch to check to see why their not reporting in

Do you think these are actually pay phones calling in to report how much money they've taken in and what issues they are having with the alarms? Pretty unique system if that is it. If it's legit, I'm sure they will figure it out.

Those phones (COCOTS) are very legit. That is exactly the problem you are having. They are not programmed correctly and are calling to report the daily tally and condition of the phone. This should be very easy to track down.

I don't know how much they can help, but the number for Verizon Public Communications is (800) 782-8355 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM M-->F Eastern.

Thank you very much to everyone who gave me input and tips. How quickly one persons dilema becomes a quick fix by some great people. :bow: Thank you! Rhonda

COCOT pay phones were designed to do this. A great feature. We had over 600 phones and every day some, not all, would report so we could dispatch techs if needed.
Was a great business.

I tried calling the Verizon Public Communications line of 800-782-8355 but I get a recording to submit an email or a fax. I am in the process of making out an email.

We had 74 calls through the weekend from these two telephones. Apparently, no one is alarmed that they have not heard from these telephones.

Thanks again.

Rhonda:

You might want to check with your long distance service provider. They may be able to block calls from these numbers. At a minimum, they can block calls from this area code as a temporary measure until you can get this matter resolved. At least your company won't be paying for the calls during this time.

Thanks Ed, I'll do that as well. Rhonda

Verizon will be useless and unsympathetic.

You can find out who owns the numbers if you are willing to do a little legal work at your local court house.

You need to open a small claims case, with a docket number (costs very little) then when you get a call, dial *57 and local law enforcement will get a read out of the number. You can then subpoena the LEC to divulge who the owner of the number is.

Probably too much hassle considering that you have nothing to gain except good will from someone on the other side of the planet, but that's how it works.

This method is the one we use when trying to trace telemarketers.

With the size of your company you should have a rep with your dial tone provider I would get them involved and see what they can do to help you out .

From USSearch

Number: (718) 380-9034
Name & Address: Available in Report
Location: QUEENS, NY
Carrier: VERIZON NEW YORK, INC. - NY

The email to Verizon is a good starting point.

one other point , when you do talk to verizon ask for a supervisor and tell them you are documenting the calls and will contact the New York PSC unless its resolved soon .

that will usually get their attention

Besides threatening to contact the PSC, threaten to file a "Presidential complaint" with the President of Verizon.

Sam

I almost used the PSC in my first email but I really wanted to see if there was a company left in the world that would respond to a calm, friendly, first request. We'll see.

"Janice" did call me during the one 10 minute moment that I was unable to take the call. I am waiting for that call back.

I'll give it 24-hours from my first request to get bucky.

I've had to keep making the toll-free customer service mailbox larger to hold all of the calls. I don't want to delete any of them until this is resolved.

Thanks much!

Since they are not coin phones owned by VZ, I renew my doubts that VZ will be willing to talk to you, or to intervene. They simply provide the dial tone. The fact that they are COCOTs won't have any bearing on VZ's attitude or policy. You need to get the name and local reach number for the company who owns the machines. But I've been wrong once or twice before. I hope I'm wrong this time.

I see that you have contacted Verizon, but according to Google there is a department in the New York City government that regulates pay phones. They may be able to give you contact information for the owner of the sets.
https://www.nyc.gov/html/doitt/html/consumer/consumer_payphones.shtml

There is also contact information for a NYC payphone association on the same web page.

According to the NYC website 212-639-9675 is the POTS number to allow out of New York City calls into the NYC 311 system to contact this department.

Well... I am getting the run around as many of you made point of.

Verizon refuses to even acknowledge that the two numbers are in their network. They are pushing me around like a ping pong ball.

My vendor says they can block the numbers but they need to know what numbers are calling. I cannot say that it is the pay phone numbers as it is probably a number behind those numbers.

I tried starting a Fraud complaint with ATT just incase there is something else happening but they may not get back to me for a while.

I will try the New York pots line Payphone Assoc.

Is there any possible way to find out who owns these phones? This is crazy hitting such walls already.

Rhonda..I think the quick fix is to have your carrier block the numbers you listed in the first post.

The number I first posted for you is for the NYC department that looks after the franchise rights for payphone companies. I would hope that they have a xref database of numbers to owners in case of problems.

I did a little more digging and found the contact information for the New York Payphone association here. https://www.ipany.com/contact.html

Hope this helps.

(You)

(Me)

https://www.nyc.gov/html/doitt/html/consumer/consumer_payphones.shtml

Thank you as I just submitted an online form to the NY Payphone Complaint Dept. I pray this works.

My ATT account rep said I should contact the ATT Fraud Dept. Fraud said I should contact the Annoyance Bureau. The Annoyance Bureau annoyed me with their "if you haven't filed a police report for threatening orobscene we really can't help you..."

Pretty much a hair puller...

"According to the NYC website 212-639-9675 is the POTS number to allow out of New York City calls into the NYC 311 system to contact this department."

I called this number and ran into a dead end. They told me I had to pay $5.00 to talk to them but they can't help me if I can tell them the business information on the pay phones. I explained that I am in Wisconsin and the phones are in Queens, NY.

NY City Gov has now directed me to the BBB which cannot help me becuase I don't know the name of the owner of the pay phones.

OMG! I guess I'll start over with my ATT Rep. They are the only ones with something to loose if I loose my temper and fire them.

Next step if I cannot get the pay phones blocked is to write all of this up for the PSC.

Thanks again for all of your input.

I give up.

while I can see you certainly need to do what you can at this point. I would expect the problem to resolve itself

Skip is right. The owner of these phones will soon realize that they aren't receiving status reports from them and take the necessary steps to fix them. I'd imagine that this will occur when they go to check the coin boxes and find them full. For now, they probably just think that they are empty since they aren't receiving reports. That can only go on for so long.

Ed - Wait a minute (and sorry for the threadjack) - that's too cool. These phones call home with status?

And there is a payphone somewhere with two-hundred twenty-four dollars in it?

Why not. I've had a payphone with $175 in it after a 3 day fair...

The best part? These were rigged so that you didn't have to insert ANY money in them for them to work. :rofl:

Just wondering, I have a payphone in my basement, and the coinbox doesn't look like it would hold more than $100, even if it were all quarters....

Funny about the rigging thing!

Rhonda,
Go get your money!

The thought has crossed my mind more than once Kevhawk...

I bet those big pay phones how a few hundred. Anyone know how much a standard street pay phone holds?

Until then...

Luckily, after 9 days, the calls have ended. I don't think any of the telephone companies helped me at all. I think the owners of the pay phones may have corrected the issue, as some of you had mentioned.

Thank you for all of your input!

Issue resolved (Knock-on-wood)

They told me I had to pay $5.00 to talk to them...

Welcome to New York City. And you wonder why I won't do any work there.

-Hal

Hi! Rhonda I think you should have to use call tracker phone,There are so many companies providing this that to use soft phone which the call centers are basically use to tress customer.

Please explain.

Rhonda
We had many payphones in NY. A pay phone box could hold $175.00 - $225.00. When the box was full the coins would back up into the phone for another $25.00 or so.