131 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
131 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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%% %%
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%% ======== %%
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%% MA BELL! %%
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%% ======== %%
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%% %%
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%% A file from the book %%
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%% GETTING EVEN %%
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%% %%
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%% Typed by %%
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%% --==**>>THE REFLEX<<**==-- %%
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%% [Member: Omnipotent, Inc.] %%
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%% %%
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%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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Did you ever see those office signs that say, THINK? In one
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telephone-company office I visited, I saw signs saying, SNEER.
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People have been messing with Ma Bell for as long as that corporate
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dictator has been monopolizing telephone service. For years stories have been
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circulated about using strips of Scotch tape on coins, which allows their use
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again and again in pay telephones. Do you know what a number-fourteen washer
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will accomplish in a pay telephone?
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The Yippies and other groups have developed marvelously ingenious ways of
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sabotaging telephone-company operations. Some of their literature is sheer
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technological genius, almost as if it were written by a Bell Laboratoris
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dropout. I once spoke with a radical who had become a "mole," an agent of his
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political beliefs who secreted himself away in five years of deep cover working
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as a technician for Illinois Bell. His purpose was to learn about the
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technical side of the company so he could later control or destroy telephonic
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communication.
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Gordon Alexander presents an alternative manner, simple but novel in these
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complex days. A professional dirty trickster for more than twenty years,
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Alexander uses the dangerous but simple method of physically cutting telephone
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lines. If you are looking for instructions on how to safely cut Ma Bell's
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lines here, forget it. Unless you know what you are doing and have the proper
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equipment you could easily light up like an insect hitting an electric bug
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trap. I said it was simple; I didn't say it was easy or safe.
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Lee Jenner, an accountant, suggests that you overpay your telephone bill
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if you're alienated from Ma Bell. He says, "Overpay by a constant seventeen
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cents a month. Make it consistent. Then, after a few months, underpay by
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seventeen cents. Start another pattern for a while of overpayment; then
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underpay again. It drives them nuts."
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Jenner continues, "The local telephone company had screwed a client of
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mine and refused even give him the time of day. He started this seventeen-cent
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bit, and before the year was out he had the manager of the local company
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begging him to stop. It worked totally to his satisfaction."
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Meanwhile, on other battlefield fronts, Bell-hater Leo Garry says you
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should have your printer make a bunch of OUT OF ORDER signs with the local Ma
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Bell's logo on them. Hang them on every public telephone you find. Speaking
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of pay telephones, only punks and idiots damage them. Much as you may hate
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them, they're the only game in town. If you've ever needed a pay phone in an
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emergency, you know what I mean.
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You can play games with your local service representative (Ma Belltalk for
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salesperson) by ordering phones and equipment for marks or ordering service
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shutoffs. Always make these type of calls from a pay phone, for obvious
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reasons.
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Bandit calling may have been developed by the Yippies. Certainly they are
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among its champions, both as practitioners and as cheerleaders. Aside from the
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blue boxes, which make free calls for you, there is a tactic that can be used
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by the nontechnical wizard and doesn't cost you anything. It's the use of the
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bogus credit-card numbers, and it works like this.
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Always use a pay telephone and not always the same one. Next, you need a
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credit-card number. Here is where knowledge of Ma Bell's codes comes in. For
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that information check OVERTHROW, a tabloid published by the Youth
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International Party. A subscription cost you ten dollars a year, but each
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issue contains all sorts of other dirty tricks, as well as an updated listing
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of not only Ma Bell's codes, but also the complete credit-card numbers for many
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corporations, public utilities, and government agencies. To order a
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subscription, send ten dollars to Overthrow, P.O. Box 392, Canal Street
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Station, New York, N.Y. 10013. It's a good investment, according to most
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readers.
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After you get credit-card codes or numbers, the Yippies claim, the rest of
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bandit calling is simple. You simply dial the long distance operator from your
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pay phone and sound very, very businesslike when you say, "This is a credit
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card call, and my number is [give the operator the credit-card number]. I want
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to call [give the operator only the number of the party you are calling]." Be
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sure you can tell a suspicious operator the area code from which the card was
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supposedly issued. If the operator wants to know who holds the card, either
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make up a legitimate-sounding company name or use the name of the agency or
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company whose card number it really is, depending upon the circumstance. It
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helps if your party at the other end of the call knows what's happening.
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Talk straight and businesslike for the first five minutes, as a snoopy
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operator -- that's the way Ma Bell trains them -- might stay on the line that
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long to listen in. Avoid sensitive subjects like your name, politics, drugs,
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or dirty tricks since you never know who is recording calls these days. Break
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off the call within twelve minutes. Obviously, your callee should act very
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dumb when Ma Bell's security people do come to investigate a month or so after
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the fraud is discovered. And don't let them intimidate you or your friends,
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either. They're good at that -- many of them are former federal or state
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police.
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One Bell employee told me that their security people utilize warrantless
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wiretaps, blackmail, and physical surveillance to catch persons suspected of
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making bandit calls. The employee also told me these tactics are used against
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persons who even publicize such practices. I consider myself warned. So
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should you. Ma Bell can be one nasty mother.
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By the time you read this, though, the game may be up. In Washington
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state, the Supreme Court there upheld the conviction of a newspaper for
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publishing the telephone company's secret codes. The telephone company, which
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has both security and propaganda sections that rival the government's, was
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working furiously behind the scenes to influence the verdict.
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Abbie Hoffman suggested this next trick, so if it doesn't work, call him.
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Restrict Hoffman's idea to corporate, utility, or institutional telephone
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systems. Cut the female end off an ordinary extension cord. Unscrew the
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mouthpiece on the telephone in any one office. You will see a terminal for a
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red wire and one for a black wire. Attach one of the wires from the extension
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cord to the red and one to the black. Finally, plug the extension cord into a
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power socket.
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According to Hoffman, you are sending 120 volts of electricity back
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through equipment designed for six volts. He says this will knock out
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thousands of other telephones and the main switchboard, "if all goes right."
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Even if his numbers are somewhat exaggerated, you've had a good day.
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_______________________________________________________________________________
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