Such massive instances of [telephone] fraud are seldom publicized, usually out of the victims' concerns for their reputation or fears that it will encourage copycat crimes.

But to Jones, they are all grist for software that he is developing to combat what he calls "telefelony."

"We mean business," Chuck Blaine, general manager of Group W Cable in West Palm Beach, said at an elaborate press conference staged to publicize the crackdown on what one cable official called "telefelonies" that cost the companies more than $11 million in revenue a year.

The cable television industry is losing more than half a billion dollars a year in potential revenue because of illegal hook-ups, according to a top cable television programming executive.

Describing such theft of service as "telefelony," David J. Schreff, director of affiliate marketing for the Showtime cable proramming network, asserted that "the problem is over $500 million a year and growing and it's affecting the quality of our service as well as our revenues."