textfiles/magazines/USU/usu-005.txt

uSu - united States underground                         By:Cyberglitch

     Why NJ Bell(Bell Alantic) and other local phone companies suck!
                (Hey you, yeah you, your Disclaimer HERE!)

        For all you Phreakers out there this text-file could be invauleable
to you. Why do NJ Bell and other Local phone companies suck? Well that should
be obvious, first here are some of the reasons why...

        1) Local telephone operator's have your phone number even before your
                call goes through, even if you do a collect call.
        2) They usually know you're bullshitting when you're trying to rip
                them off, because they know were you probally live and all
        3) Who else could bring you down besides your local calling company.
                you wouldn't call a LD PBX for free phone calls, that'd 
                defeat the purpose.
        4) Most NJ Bell loops have Collect Call block
        
        What's Collect Call Blocking? If ya don't know lemme explain, most 
Local companies and LD phone companies have auto-matic collect call systems, 
which are great because you the local person to a loop can call it and have 
your LD friend call the other end collect, and then you can say you'll accept 
the charges, well it sounds great doesn't it? Well here's the problem, if the 
loop your friend(or you, doesn't matter as long as someones local to it) is 
trying to call collect won't go throught because it has collect call block 
then you're fucked! What usually happens is that the call won't be handled by 
the auto-matic system it'll call an operator on-line. And that can mean 
trouble for you, especially since the operator will probally know what 
you're up to. And if you're stupid you'll try it from home phone, OH WHAT 
CAN IT HURT TO TRY? Well i doubt you'll get into any real trouble you'll just 
have your local phone company suspicous about you and where you call, so save 
yourself the bother tell the operator oh i'm sorry i messed up in dialing the
number or do it from a payphone. 

        Caller-ID? Don't you just hate calling those lame BBS's that have 
that? It's annoying when some piece of shit PD BBS Sysop says, "heh heh i got
your real number!". Well yeah i'm sure just dialing *67 for Caller-ID Block
would help you out with that problem, but guess what? By using that it'll
cost you a $1, whoa big deal you say. Well don't forget this all Caller-ID
customers can activate this feature called Caller-ID Block Blocking, which 
in when you try to call their number using Caller-ID Block will announce a
message saying this number doesn't accept Blocked calls. Yeah so you say,
DAMMIT! IS THERE ANY WAY AROUND IT? Well Yes and No, Yes you can get around
it call up the operator and tell her you don't think the number you're calling
doesn't seem to be working, and that you'll aceept the cost of the call. Well
that'll work since most Caller-ID Bell services cannot ignore and operator 
routed call to that number, even with the Caller-ID Block Blocking on(what's
to block? Nothing the operator's number doesn't show up, because she don't
have one!), but anyways the problem is that if you don't get a voice number
then you're screwed because almost every operator will tell you "It's sounds
like there's something wrong with the number you're trying to reach". And
the other bad part, it'll cost you more money to route the call through the
operator. You can most certainly try doing a collect call from a payphone 
but i doubt any sysop has a modem that says "Yes i'll accept the charges".

        What fun is 958(or whichever number it is for your state's ANI system
, and ANI stands for Automatic Number Identification system), these are a 
pain in the ass since most 1-900 and 1-800 numbers have them(there are 
different types of ANI levels 1-5, the one that you get when you dial 958 is
probally a level 4 since it only tells you your exchange and last 4 digits
of the number you're calling from), ANI's are great if you broke into a one
of the phone boxes in your area and phreaking a phone line that's someone 
else's or not in use, since it'll tell you the number you're calling from.
But the problem is that if you're gonna be dumd enough to scan 800#'s from 
your home phone you might as well call up your local operator and tell them
"Hey can you tell me some PBX numbers?", sorry pal it just won't work. 

        Operator's can sometimes be cute, with the such famous question as
"What number are you calling from Sir/Ma'am(whichever)", they just ask you
to see if you're being honest, and sometimes they'll be a bitch if give them
a false number and they'll probally hangup on you. 

        One of the stupidest things that anyone could think of doing is 
trying to rip off your local phone company. HELLO WAKEUP HERE! Your local
phone company know's all about you(especially if you're calling from your
home phone line), and well they kind find you faster then AT&T, MCI and 
SPRINT can, because well AT&T, MCI and SPRINT are long distance carriers not
local carriers, they don't know much about you, they may know your number
from their ANI system, but that's about it the only way they can get your
real information is by well calling your local telephone company. But usually
your local phone company will give them hell, since most local companies 
don't wanna have anything to do with them. And basically the chances of a LD
company getting your real name and address is very slim unless you give it
to them, like it's been said before, then only people who get caught are the
people who admit what they did, that's why FEDS and Cops tell you to talk,
and they have evidence(this quote thanks to Telsa), to convict, HELLO 
WAKE-UP! If they had enough evidence they wouldn't even need you to talk.
Don't be a fool, don't be suckered by them, 99% of the time they have no
clue what you did, unless they were actually there watching you do it.

        Oh yeah did i forget to mention most local companies have these 
great calling plans for calling anywhere in the your state with a special
discount rate or something, well NJ Bell could have something like that, but
they don't. Do you know why? I'll tell you why, because of some stupid state
law that doesn't allow them to do that. Ok yeah that sounds like a good 
answer to me, but when i asked which state law, the operator could only say
"I dunno". Gee maybe that's because there is a fucking plan, but NJ Bell
won't tell you that, and why should they when they're ripping money off of
you. In some places in NJ it costs like $1.39 a minute, and that's just the
night rate!!!(You know 40% off). Frankly that's insane, because AT&T can get
you a special rate to call anywhere in the US for only $.10 a minute!!!

        Well peace, check out the next issue, how to harass, and severely
fuck over NJ Bell and other local phone companies. Cya