I thought I remembered hearing that Miss Cleo was indicted for fraud, but I
am not certain of that.  

There were other so-called psychic lines that they found out just hired
people to man the phones and were paid but weren't psychics at all.
Harvey

-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Martin G. McCormick
Sent: Sunday, April 26, 2015 11:08 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Before There Was Caller I D

	I remember ads for those psychic lines and all the jokes
that followed when the psychic lines went bust and none of them
apparently foresaw the demise.

	I always imagined an ad that might go something like this:

	Hi! Are you concerned that you just don't have the grey
matter to cut it in this competitive world?

	Well now you can take an IQ test right in the privacy of
your own home by dialing

1 900 AMI DUMB

The test is electronically done using brain wave cross talk that
bleeds back in to the phone line from your head so it can be
scored simply by your dialing the number. Test as often as you
like for only ten Dollars a test. The one to two-digit number
you hear when the call is answered is your estimated IQ for the
test.

We now rejoined Roller Derby in progress.

	If I was providing such a questionable service, I would
give the caller a slightly lower score each time they called. I
don't believe that this would be inaccurate or misleading.
	As a rule of thumb, we never answer calls from numbers
we do not recognize or names that say something cute like
"toll-free call" or "line in use."

	After the 4TH ring, the answering machine picks up and 9
times out of 10, they leave no message.

Martin