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A comment on Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it. Parent comment

Re:Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take ... by wodenokoto on Thursday February 18, 2021 @05:14AM (#26178096)
I don’t understand. If AOL and telcos were scamming people, how did you make money off of their scams?
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Re:Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take ... by Spooky23 on Thursday February 18, 2021 @10:36AM (#26181014)
A popular scam was “slamming”. A “bad” phone company would use pressure tactics or lie and get people to sign up for ridiculous long distance plans... $5/minute or something like that.

The “loophole” on the consumer side was that of you lived with 5 roommates, you’d transfer the phone service every couple of months and then switch the long distance plans with a legit company like AT&T, Sprint, etc.

There was a period of time in the 90s where you would get a check or credit for switching... as much as $200-300! Long distance costs were in free fall and telcos were swimming in cash, so they decided to buy market share.

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