Verizon Tech Accused Of Making $220K In Sex Calls On User Lines

Joseph Vaccarelli, a former Verizon Technician, has been charged with racking up $220,000 in phone-sex calls by tapping into the land lines of nearly 950 customers. Authorities say that he made approximately 5,000 calls, resulting in 45,000 minutes of call time. Verizon estimated that out of a 40-week period, Vaccarelli spent 15 weeks talking on sex lines. How in the world do you have this much phone sex, period, but especially at work, and not have anyone notice?

Not sex but money

[moteyalpha]

Did he own part of the phone-sex companies. That would explain that it was just a way to steal money and hide it. Less exciting story though.

Why is this on idle?

[Kuroji]

Notwithstanding that I think a great number of users here think idle is a waste of space, a headline like this ought to be taken seriously, not treated as if it were a joke. This guy compromised the accounts of nearly a thousand customers, and that is a HUGE breach for Verizon's customers.

1/3 the year on sex lines?

[zakezuke]

Presuming a 40 hr work week, that works out to be 1/3 of the year on phone sex lines.

That's pretty unbelievable, considering that one still needs time to jack into the lines in the first place.

I've done some slack things at work, and it's pretty easy to get distracted and find out you spent most of the day goofing off. But this would take a real concerted effort to not work.

Maybe he was in on the business

[Britz]

Maybe he was in on the calls business. And he thought if those bills turn up the customers would be too embarressed to compain.

Imagine how many divorces that guy most have caused.
How would you explain such a bill to your significant other and how would they react?

After 40 weeks

[Moraelin]

He got caught after 40 weeks, or almost 10 months of it. During which he spent 15/40 = 37.5% of his time talking to sex lines.

So maybe the question "why didn't he get caught?" is technically wrong, it practically begs for the question, "why did it take them so long?"

I mean, seriously, is stuff like, "hur hur hur, I want to pull down your panties and stick it in your ass" something you'd normally hear around the office when people are talking on the phone? Well, I guess I've had worse tech support before, but never that explicit ;)

Re:After 40 weeks

[kannibal_klown]

The way I read the story, it seems he wasn't a "tech" as in tech support script-reading monkey that asks if your computer is turned on.

It seems that he was a tech that was out in the field, and able to tap into land lines with their special little widget. So if he's in a quiet suburb in the middle of the day, it's plausible nobody would notice what he was really doing unless he was making motions.

Then again I could be wrong.