Recently I made a payphone call with a credit card after I was stranded out in the middle of nowhere. Yes I’m still one of the few people who doesn’t own a cellphone, smart or otherwise… And yes, I thought that payphones were still america’s trusted institution but I guess I should of rethunk that when I saw only like one payphone in a city populated to the thousands.

After I entered my credit card information and made the call that no-one picked up. I woke up the next day to discover that there was $32 charged to my credit card. Go ahead, re-read that last sentence. I can wait.

Now, phone calls usually cost about 50 cents, and that’s if you’re lucky enough to be carrying change at the time. I mean our society has been so reliant on credit cards that carrying things around like dollar bills and change has become a thing of the past; and the fact that I didn’t even bother to even consider to carry any change just proves how dependent we really are; of course, the very idea of a payphone company using credit cards to commit fraud just sickens me, I mean what kind of “math” are they using to calculate their rates?

Of course, we don’t get to see how much it actually costs whenever we use our credit cards. Take a look at the picture below…

It may be blurry but you can clearly tell that they don’t tell you the fees for a credit-card call; and they don’t even treat it like that, they have the audacity to treat it as a collect call. That logic is just fucking palatable, it’s insisting that I entered my information so that I could pay the fees that the other person was calling, and that other person was me. How the fuck does that even make sense? Collect calls are usually you call one guy and the guy gets a question on whether or not he should accept it or not; you don’t accept the fees until you accept the call. And since we’re going by the definitions of a shady payphone company, I’m guessing everybody accepts the call unwillingly.

Now, the payphone that I encountered said that it was managed by Pacific Communications; a company that I have never heard about before in my life but appears to be based in Arizona. Seriously, I haven’t seen any of their payphones from where I’ve been, this is like the first of their payphones that I’ve encountered; and I’m guessing there are more of these babies since well, unsuspecting people enterting their credit cards and calling up collect is a good business opportunity.

Even more shocking is that Pacific Communications is only just a part of it, behind that lies a company named Custom TeleConnect Inc. which just happens to be taking advantage of the gaping hole left behind by all of the payphones being taken away. What, everybody has cellphones nowaday, we just have to assume that nobody will ever use a payphone because they just so happen to have a cellphone; what a waste of money these payphones are going to become… Also they’re in Las Vegas… Yeah, take a second to realize that you’ve just been tricked by a company barely anybody has heard of.

So have millions of people in the US, a simple Google search for Custom TeleConnect Inc. will reveal tons of reports and stories about how they got scammed by this elusive company. Hell I feel bad for that family who got charged a whole lot of money due to some convict calling them repetedly despite the fact that the family didn’t want him calling. I guess he too was unaware that he was bringing extra suffering by charging the family hundreds of dollars for about 10 calls, most of which made it to voicemail. Speaking of which, there was even one who got charged despite the fact that the call didn’t make it through; yeah you heard me, the call did not make it through; that is downright low to charge him/her for a call that didn’t even go to voicemail!

Of course, there is something more downright low then charging unsuspecting people hundreds of dollars; it’s trying to get the money back from these people…

When I got my statement, there was a phone number that wasn’t even the phone number of the phone company; it was that of a printing service that was specifically for payphones. I mean really, if you didn’t want people calling to give you refunds for your unfair charges then maybe you should of done a better job at it. I mean really, if all you’re going to keep doing is giving out “compromises” for people who dispute the charges like half-off your call which costed about $32 to make then you don’t really deserve to be a company; really…

This happened when we called the number that we eventually got from the second charge they served me, and it turns out that what I called was the billing department and the bigger surprise is that there were people working there. I mean really, do they know that they’re working for a downright deceptive company like this? I mean if all they can do is just offer me and other people 30% off for a call that didn’t even make it through then let’s face it, it makes them worse then AT&T. Didn’t really matter at the end though, I got the money back through my bank and I didn’t have to give those people my credit card number. Let’s face it, if I gave them that number then I would of discovered another unexpected charge on my statement; and I’m guessing even more people would of found themselves back in this scam they’re trying so hard to avoid.

But even though I got the money back, I am still pissed off by what they’re doing. What they’re doing is praying on people who just so happens to be stupid enough to forget their cellphone and stupid enough to use their phones to make a collect call or to make a credit card call; I’m more surprised by the fact that the government hasn’t done anything to stop this, seeing as how this stuff is; let’s say I don’t know… Illegal! They don’t even tell you how much it costs or how much it’ll costs them, and I doubt that the operator will be of any further help with that matter. I don’t know how they’re getting away with this, I don’t know how they can justify those fees that they push on everybody and I certainly don’t know how the owners can justify even ripping people off like this!

Let it be known that if you ever find yourself near a payphone and you have to dial *11 in order to make a collect call; don’t. In fact, I don’t think you should be carrying around only a credit card, you should carry around some change; that way you can’t get charged exorbitant fees by this “monstrosity”. One thing that also needs to be known is that this company needs to be taken down, and fast! The faster the better am I right?

Mostly he is insane, the reason being is that it’s censorship, meaning that anything objectable, or anything that could be harmful, dangerous to children or might promote terrorism is immediately blurred out or removed as soon as possible. I understand that there are many guides on the internet that show people how to do these things and mostly 30% or more of the internet is potentially offensive, but the fact that anything could be considered a threat to terrorism is partially stupid. The reason why I use partially stupid is because there are mostly some things that could be used for terrorism that we don’t know about yet but come on, we’re mostly prepared for a terrorist attack that hasn’t happened yet or possibly will not happen. I understand the safety of everyone and the thought of preventing terrorism once and for all and this might have a very, very small chance of working but I think the bill is stupid and the guy doesn’t have an idea how it works, though I do applaud his bravery.

Think about it, if a normal people were to be looking for a hospital of some sort, let’s say that they’re sick or that they need urgent attention. They would find that the hospital is blurred out for some reason, prompting some confusion as to why an average hospital would be blurred out. Or if they needed directions of a school of some sort, they would find it blurred and would also prompt confusion as to why the school is blurred out. I don’t know why a hospital or a school would need to be blurred out considering that as said above, it’s a top down map only and Street View does not allow you to view the campus or the back of a hospital. Furthermore if there were an impeding Terrorist attack, they would most likely be able to evacuate everyone safely and be able to defuse the bomb or shoot down the missile or whatever the terrorists might be doing. Also they would need blueprints of some sort because they would not know the interior or the structure of the building as Google Maps and mostly other map programs only show the roof.

Also, because the governor issuing the bill might not know that the bill applies to the US only, which means that the aformented things listed above will only be blurred in the United States and any other potential terrorist targets outside of the US will not be blurred. If the governor realizes that Google Maps may be used to plan Terrorist attacks in the US may be used to plan attacks in other countries such as Asia, Africa, South America, Russia, and other foreign countries. I’m not saying that I support the attacks on other countries but I’m pointing out a minor flaw in his bill. It would be that America is potentially safer and the other countries are even more vulnerable and valuable since it would be easier to plan out using Google Maps or any other mapping program that he might mention. Additionally, this would lead to some invasion of some other country or a crippling of another country of which a terrorist group could do for some reason or another.

More importantly, the plan of blurring out parts of a map is considered censorship to some. Let’s say that you liked something, something that was enjoyable, influential and risky, something that was released long ago. Let’s say that you saw the same thing a few years later, your favorite parts of the book are either changed, toned down or removed entirely. That’s what censorship is like, forcing people to remove or change the things they say in order to appeal to people who are either overreacting, are offended or believe that what they’re saying aren’t right at all. Mostly this feels wrong because people are going to be in a uproar because the government or a bill forced Google or Yahoo to blur out or remove any offensive, inappropriate or classified content, people feel that the way the internet delivers content is screwed up because companies and groups are confused by how they should deliver it and how it might cause an uproar or something.

I appreciate what he’s trying to do but I don’t think this bill is ever going to work. For one, it’s forcing companies to censor their content which people will complain over because the internet is supposed to be a free way to express opinions, two is that how is this going to help prevent terrorism since mostly Google doesn’t have any serious terrorism planning abilities, the blurred out areas are going to be obvious to terrorists, and it’s limited to companies located in California, which means that a company like Microsoft will have clear shots of those areas and it may be used as a terrorist tool itself, and it only covers the US which means other countries are not covered as described above, also the terrorists could use paper maps and phone books to find out places to strike. Three is that it’s poorly planned out, I mean if he truly wanted to prevent terrorism, he would want to take the issue to the United Nations and let them make a decision of whether to blur their terrorist targets or not.

I’m not saying that I support the bill, but with the emphasis on censorship and the fact that it’s poorly planned, I don’t think that it will ever work out. I personally think that there is no probable way to stop terrorism without causing a panic or some controversy but I think that some places are properly prepared after 9/11 to be ready to face this threat should it ever become a reality again, though I do hate the censorship that did come after 9/11 what with shows cutting scenes that involve buildings crashing and all that and that was a major blow for TV shows and media altogether. But I don’t think that maps should ever have to blur out anything just because it might cause some potential harm, mostly all censorship has done was sprout up paranoia and other kinds of fear because what they’re hiding or what they’re doing to free speech or it could be inappropriate for children or whatever insane reason there is and it’s brought no good for everyone except the people who think that it’s right.