textfiles/news/busted

        For all you Hackers out there, This is a very interesting
 collection of words and sentences. What would happen to you if
 you got caught??  ( Like I know, You NEVER Get caught! Neither do
 I )


Recently, here in Cherry Hill, NJ,  a BBS system by the name  "Hackers
Heaven" was closed  down by police.   The sysop(s) and  users of  this
system were trading pirated  programs, unauthorized MCI access  codes,
passwords for  several  computers  in  the  area,  etc.   Unlike  what
happended on the west coast where a  system was used to post a  single
PACIFIC BELL access code without the sysop's knowledge, this sysop was
well aware of the situation, and as far as I know, even supported  it.
(I assume this by rumor, and by what the name suggests).  My viewpoint
differs from  the  situation out  on  the  west coast;  in this  case,
it appears to be the sysops own damned fault!  How  can someone be  as
nieve as  that!  I'm  glad the  sysop out  west was  released  without
charges, but these kids  should go to jail!  It's shit like this  that
gives us sysops a bad name!
    The system was being run  on an Apple IIe  and with only a  simple
questionaire, users were granted access to use.  Rumor also says  that
the FBI  was  also involved  with  some  fake numbers  of  some  sort.
Charges seem to be  based however on theft  of access codes from  Dial
America; a local long-distance company.

-Brian Sietz-
Sysop FIDO#82


The following  is a  reprint  from an  article  by David  Lee  Preston
appearing  in  the  March  12  issue  of  the  Philadelphia  Inquirer.
Editorial notes [] by myself appear within.

    About $35,000  worth of  computer equipment  has been  confiscated
from two homes in Cherry Hill and one in Voorhees Township as part  of
an investigation into  an alleged ring  of youthful computer  hackers,
Camden County Prosecutor Samuel Asbell said yesterday.
    Investigators  with  search  warrants  seized  computers,  modems,
printers, disk  drives,  software  and  other  equipment,  which  four
residents of the  houses allegedly  had used  to gain  access to  Dial
America, a  two-year  old long  distance  telephone service  based  in
Camden, Asbell said.
    Although no arrests  were made during  the Saturday sweep,  Asbell
said his office planned  to charge about 20  South Jersey youths  with
using personal  computers to  make  long-distance calls  through  Dial
America.
    Most of the members of the alleged ring live in Camden County, all
are males, and the oldest is 20, he said.
    Hackers are personal-computer enthusiasts,  often in their  teens,
who use their technical skills to  gain illegal entry into private  or
corporate computer systems.

[Ed: Bullshit!  That is only the derrogitory term for "Hackers".   The
real meaning is more subtle and  not so clearly defined.  Hackers  are
generally  computer  enthusiasts,  most  often  not  associated   with
anything harmful.  Using this definition, I myself am a "hacker"]

    Gade Kreckel, president of Dial  America, said Dial America  began
an investigation in November after a customer reported that there were
several calls on his bill he had not made.
    The firm, in the Wilson  Building on Broadway, used its  computers
to  identify  calls  being  made  with  stolen  account  numbers   and
transferred those calls into fake accounts, he said.
    "Before  the  calls  ever  got  onto  our  customers'  bills,   we
transferred them into  a fraud  account," he said.   "In other  words,
customers get a clean bill."
    The firm turned the case over the prosecutor's office about  three
weeks ago, Kreckel said.  He said the fraudulent calls made during the
investigation cost his firm as much as $6,000.
    Asbell said the alleged hackers  would telephone other hackers  on
computers around the  country and trade  information such as  computer
access codes.
    "We have taped conversations between the computer hackers," Asbell
said.  "We have calls throughout probably most of the United States...
Once you have the access code to Dial America, you can go trade it  to
somebody in  the  state of  Oregon  for the  access  code to  VISA  or
Mastercard."
    Dial America says it has 4,000 customers in Burlington, Gloucester
and Camden Counties.
    "Unless you are from South Jersey, you couldn't use our  service,"
Kreckel said.  "They would get on there and make long-distance  calls.
For example, one says, 'Do you have Pac-Man?  OK, transmit it to  me.'
And in return, he might give him Donkey Kong, then pirate video  games
and send them back and forth."
    The alleged hackers  also were trading  AT&T credit-card  numbers,
Kreckel said.
    The first seizure took place about 7:30AM at the home of a  Cherry
Hill juvenile, Asbell said.  Later that morning, investigators  seized
more equipment from a juvenile in Voorhees, he said.  About 11PM, they
executed a  third  search warrant  at  the  Cherry Hill  home  of  two
brothers, ages 18 and 20, he said.
    At each house, Asbell said, the parents reacted with "actual shock
and dismay as to what was taking place."
    He said  the  parents were  "very  cooperative in  the  first  two
instances"  but  that  the  Cherry  HIll  brothers'  father  initially
resisted the investigators' efforts.
    "They don't realize that stealing from a Dial America, or a Sprint
or MCI, is no different from walking into a 7-Eleven and stealing five
or six thousand dollars," Kreckel said.
    The ability of long-distance  companies to trace fraudulent  usage
has improved measurably in the last year, Kreckel said.
    "When the long distance-industry was  in a different stage a  year
ago, computer hackers found it pretty easy to get into systems without
being detected," he  said.  "But  nowadays, it's such  a stupid  crime
because it's so easy to catch them."
    "The sad part about it is  it's almost 95 percent minors that  are
involved in  this thing.   And that's  the case  with almost  all  the
computer hackers."