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The Water Cooler
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"Obama" Phone Investigation Underway
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<blockquote data-quote="okiebryan" data-source="post: 2062015" data-attributes="member: 24457"><p>The ballooning of abuse coincides with when these out of state companies rushed to Oklahoma to sign up every breathing soul that they could entice into one of their tents. Terra Com offered this service for years to low income Oklahomans for $2 a month, then were reimbursed from the FCC for another $30 or so/mo. With the $2 charge, the recipients at least had a LITTLE skin in the game, and if they didn't pay, they got dropped - and so did the lifeline reimbursement.</p><p></p><p>These out of state wireless companies realized that they should make it all FREE, and I'm guessing for 2 reasons. One, they can sign up a basically unlimited number of people, and two, if the recipients pay nothing, they can never be cut off for nonpayment. Even if they break, lose or throw away the cheap phone, their account is still active and the .gov money keeps rolling in month after month.</p><p></p><p>Create a financial incentive for fraud, the fraudsters will line up to cash in. Every time. I'm all for making sure that Granny who barely can keep her lights on has a local phone in the house. It's a basic necessity of life, especially in crime ridden neighborhoods or for someone with medical issues. But as soon as I saw the free phones being handed out from abandoned business' parking lots, I knew there was fraud afoot.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="okiebryan, post: 2062015, member: 24457"] The ballooning of abuse coincides with when these out of state companies rushed to Oklahoma to sign up every breathing soul that they could entice into one of their tents. Terra Com offered this service for years to low income Oklahomans for $2 a month, then were reimbursed from the FCC for another $30 or so/mo. With the $2 charge, the recipients at least had a LITTLE skin in the game, and if they didn't pay, they got dropped - and so did the lifeline reimbursement. These out of state wireless companies realized that they should make it all FREE, and I'm guessing for 2 reasons. One, they can sign up a basically unlimited number of people, and two, if the recipients pay nothing, they can never be cut off for nonpayment. Even if they break, lose or throw away the cheap phone, their account is still active and the .gov money keeps rolling in month after month. Create a financial incentive for fraud, the fraudsters will line up to cash in. Every time. I'm all for making sure that Granny who barely can keep her lights on has a local phone in the house. It's a basic necessity of life, especially in crime ridden neighborhoods or for someone with medical issues. But as soon as I saw the free phones being handed out from abandoned business' parking lots, I knew there was fraud afoot. [/QUOTE]
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"Obama" Phone Investigation Underway
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