POP airport phonecall scam

Rocky

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Apr 4, 2002
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As per an e-mail, just received from my brother who visited a few weeks ago, he writes, "Hi Marco,
Thanks for the lift to the airport. When there, I called Montreal twice (each call lasting less than a minute) using the credit card payphone. Before you open the attachment, guess how much each call cost.
Please pass this on to all your friends, so that they don’t get robbed as well. All the best. P."
The bill reads as follows..
6 Jan 2006 CALL FROM DOMREP JAN4 (Phone number)
39.94 USD @ 1.1962 47.78(CDN)
6 Jan 2006 CALL FROM DOMREP JAN4 (Phone number)
39.94 USD @ 1.1961 47.74(CDN)

I think 40 bucks per minute is a bit steep, don't you?
 

Snuffy

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May 3, 2002
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Contest it with his credit card company. Refuse to pay it. If he will not do it then give me the information and I will stay on the phone with them all day everyday from my Vonage phone here in the DR. I will get the money back.
I'm serious. Letting the scum get away with that is dead wrong.
 

Rocky

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Snuffy said:
Contest it with his credit card company. Refuse to pay it. If he will not do it then give me the information and I will stay on the phone with them all day everyday from my Vonage phone here in the DR. I will get the money back.
I'm serious. Letting the scum get away with that is dead wrong.
He may be doing just that.
He just wanted to help prevent others from being scammed.
 

ricktoronto

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Jan 9, 2002
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Searching the posts in advance would have spared him the trouble. This has come up before in "how do I call home?" threads and the advice to not use CC phones is given, usually by me.

If someone wanted to do something useful speak to POP airport ( and SDQ) or the Ministry of Tourism and tell them we will poke fun at the DR's useless tourist rip-off protection in their secure airport areas.

These phones are on the street in Boca Chica, too.
 

Rocky

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ricktoronto said:
Searching the posts in advance would have spared him the trouble. This has come up before in "how do I call home?" threads and the advice to not use CC phones is given, usually by me.

If someone wanted to do something useful speak to POP airport ( and SDQ) or the Ministry of Tourism and tell them we will poke fun at the DR's useless tourist rip-off protection in their secure airport areas.

These phones are on the street in Boca Chica, too.
As I never use public phones, I knew nothing about it. As I am my brother's keeper when he comes here to visit, he would have had no reason to suspect that such a ripoff existed, since I didn't warn him, as it's all news to me.
 

CyaBye3015

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Jan 8, 2003
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Conchman said:
the charges are probably more like $5 per minute, I would like to see the real time of the calls.

You say that as if $5 per minute was either acceptable, or a bargain!
 

ricktoronto

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Jan 9, 2002
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Rocky said:
As I never use public phones, I knew nothing about it. As I am my brother's keeper when he comes here to visit, he would have had no reason to suspect that such a ripoff existed, since I didn't warn him, as it's all news to me.
They are not public phones. Verizon / Codetel are public phones. These are phones with big multilingual signs saying you can use your credit card here to make a call - press 1 for USA, 2 for Germany etc. If you had a mittfull of pesos I think Codetel to the USA would not be all that expensive. It is manageable from the blue phones or at a Codetel office.
 

simpson Homer

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Nov 14, 2003
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is not rare

Hey is not just there, my wife tried to call me on Jan.10 2006 from North Carolina Airport Charlotte to Dominican Rep. Using one of those phones 1 minute was $50.00 CND. She found that charge to her after we got back to Canada.

Prob. thats the rate or a new way to take money from people.
 

bigbird

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May 1, 2005
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Thanks for the warning Rocky. I was 15 seconds away from using that type of phone on my last visit. The only thing that stopped me, I didn't see the per minute price posted.

When you leave Sosua I know prices jump at POP, but that is crazy.

5 peso shoe shine vs 20 peso
60 peso beer vs 150 peso

Hillbilly clued me onto this one. You can mail order Dominican cigars in the USA cheaper than buying them in the DR.
 

DominicanScotty

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Jun 12, 2004
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Inbelievable......

Yes, fight these guys! That's like getting mugged because he was blindsided! Sorry to hear that!


Scotty
 

Rocky

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ricktoronto said:
They are not public phones.
If they are not public phones, what are they?
Private phones?
Seems to me, that a phone offering service to the public, would be called a public phone.
 

twhitehead

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Nov 1, 2003
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Same thing happened at Casa Marina

Had the same thing happen to me last year from the phone in the second lobby of the Casa Marina Beach hotel. Phoned back to Canada, two calls to answering machine were $40 each and the call that I spoke to her for 13 mins of time cost $102. I complained to VISA but since service was given they said they could not do anything about it. These phones are a complete scam. I know now to buy a Verizon calling card and to use a pay phone to call back - very cheap that way. Tom
 

Rocky

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twhitehead said:
Had the same thing happen to me last year from the phone in the second lobby of the Casa Marina Beach hotel. Phoned back to Canada, two calls to answering machine were $40 each and the call that I spoke to her for 13 mins of time cost $102. I complained to VISA but since service was given they said they could not do anything about it. These phones are a complete scam. I know now to buy a Verizon calling card and to use a pay phone to call back - very cheap that way. Tom
Does anybody know the name of the company who owns these ripoff phones?