Have They Got His Number--$60,000 Worth!

BURLINGAME, Calif. —  A network of computer “hackers” around the nation used the Sprint telephone access number of a Northern California man to run up more than $60,000 in long-distance calls over two months, a spokesman for the firm disclosed.

Mike Furtney, spokesman for GTE-Sprint Communications Corp., said law enforcement officials in Atlanta, New York, Washington, Baltimore and other cities are investigating the case.

Thousands of calls by the computer hackers in November and December were charged to the bill of Robert Bocek of Campbell--so many that he and his wife would have had to have been on their phone 24 hours a day for six months to equal the number of minutes charged.

The hackers apparently obtained Bocek’s number from a “computer bulletin board”--a computer that answers phone calls, distributes information and stores messages.

Bocek, who said his usual bill is $70 to $80, knew something was wrong when his November Sprint bill came in at about $4,800.

“On the same day, calls were made from the East Coast, the West Coast and so on,” Bocek said. “They were from all over the country, and to all over the country.”

Sprint notified Bocek and his wife that a company security check had found that their access code was being abused. Bocek was told he would receive a new code and not to worry about the bill.

In the 10 days it took to change Bocek’s number, however, the hackers pounced. His mid-December bill ran 722 pages and listed 17,311 calls. The total for 256,697 minutes on that bill came to $55,562.27, not counting an $8,197 “volume discount.”

The hefty bill listed 4,927 calls originating in Atlanta, 209 in New York and 210 in Washington.

Tom Bestor, another spokesman for the long-distance firm, said the incident is one of the biggest telephone fraud cases of its kind.