As seen in the wild in Venice, Italy: an actual, functioning payphone, apparently with SMS texting capabilities.
The screen says Temporaneamente accetta solo carte di credito which translates into English as Temporarily only accepts credit cards. Time didn’t allow me to appease my curiosity and attempt a call; however, Venice is a major tourism destination, so I now question whether it’s an actual, legitimate payphone or a scam that collects credit card numbers from tourists with their guard down. Think about it: mobile phones are ubiquitous, the costs to set up and maintain a payphone are not inconsequential, so how is it cost effective. Conversely, a scammer who collected a single credit card number from that unfortunate schmuck could quickly net thousands of euros before the fraud is recognized and the credit card disabled.
Glad I wasn’t that schmuck!
