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6.9 KiB
Plaintext
1 line
6.9 KiB
Plaintext
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"WIRETAPPING, BUGS ON LINES AND LISTENING IN."
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Compiled By Forest Ranger
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Many phreaks are not very knowledgeable when it comes to wiretapping, bugs,
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and parties listening in on ones line. For those of you who know a lot about
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wiretaps and etc. then this file may seem out of place.
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Although many phreaks think of legal wiretaps as the most common way for the
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phone company to check your calling activity, there are others. Under court
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order, the phone company may attach a "Pen Register" to your phone wires at the
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central office. The device gives a printout of all calls, local and long distance, going out of your phone including time of day, duration of call, and,
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of course, the recipient's number. It's used mostly by law enforcement agencies
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to check who you are calling in hopes that the other party will shed some light
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on your alleged wrongdoing.
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Law enforcement agencies often prefer the Pen Register to an out-and-out wiretap. It takes lesr work, less manpower (the Pen Register is automatic; the
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gumshoes just come by the phone company and pick up the printout), and less
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hassle to obtain a court order for its installation, because it's less of an
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invasion of privacy than a wiretap.
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HOW WIRETAPPING WORKS. Listening to phone calls isn't very difficult to do,
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although it is clearly illegal. The quickest method wiretappers use is simply
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to cut into someone's phone line, preferably where the owner can't detect it
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(near the garage or behind the pole, for example) and wire in their own head-
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set. Then they remove the mouthpiece, so the person being tapped can't detect
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the wiretapper's breathing or other noise. If a wiretapper can't stick around,
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he'll use a high-impedance coupling transformer and feed the wire into a tape
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recorder.
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To save tape, most tappers use the type of recorder that records automtically
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when it hears a voice. Another procedure is to find the right "pair." That's
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telephone-tapping talk for the two wires that go into your house and that of
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others in your building or apartment. The boxes that contain pair terminals are
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called terminal boxes and can usually be found in basements of apartments or
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office buildings, or occasionally on the outside wall of a building.
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A wiretapper typically will have an accomplice call the number being tapped.
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That puts about 90 volts on the line. The tapper takes two fingers and run them
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down the rows terminal. When he hits the right phone pair, he feels a jolt.
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Once he's found it, he's got the right phone; a listening device is then attached.
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For those who prefer the wireless approach, a "bug" placed in a phone will
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transmit conversations over short distances. Bugs come in all sizes shapes.
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A cheap type sometimes goes by the name of "Wireless Microphone." Let's face
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it; it's a bug. Anyone can buy them at Radio Shack or even some toy stores for
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less than $15. It's range is limited, usually 500 to 1,000 feet, but it will
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fit inside a phone and send a clear signal to an FM radio. Or better yet, it is
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possible to connect the wireless mike through a high impedance transformer
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connected to the phone line, and no one has to enter the tapee's house.
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A wiretapper also can buy bugs that look like telephone mouthpieces. They're
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inserted by unscrewing the mouthpiece and replacing it with a souped-up version
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.
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COURT-AUTHORIZED WIRETAPS INSTALLED, 1979.
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New Jersey..........................144 Virginia..............................5
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New York............................118 District of Columbia..................3
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Florida..............................63 Nevada................................2
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Maryland.............................23 Hawaii................................2
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Massachusetts........................22 Rhode Island..........................2
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Nebraska.............................21 Delaware..............................2
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Connecticut..........................15 New Mexico............................1
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Arizona..............................12 Oregon................................1
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Georgia..............................10
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LISTENING IN. If you own a scanner radio to listen in on police and fire
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calls, you can check up on your local phone company repair trucks, installers,
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and lineman, too. Although the radio channels phone companies use vary from
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area to area, most are assigned one or two of the following frequencies: 151.34
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, 451.175 - 451.275, 451.3 - 451.675, 456.175, 456.275 (mobile), 456.300 - 456.675 (mobile), 462.475, 462.525, 467.475 (mobile), 467.525 (mobile). Also,
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if you want to eavesdrop on callers using conventional mobile phone service,
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try these frequencies: 158.07 - 158.49 for mobiles and 152.81 - 153.03 for base
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stations. (All frequencies are in MegaHertz, or MHz.)Remember: It's against the
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law to divulge the contents of any conversations you may hear, but it's okay to
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listen.
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JUST LISTEN FOR THE BEEP. When can you legally tape a conversation off the
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phone? It's certainly easy enough to do; it can be accomplished with use of a
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two-dollar suction cup device, as well as with most models of answering mach-
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ines.A uhe Federal Communications Commision fequires phone compaines to include
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information in their tariffs outling what is acceptable, and enforcement is
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left to each local phone company.
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State laws differ, but the rule of thumb is that a short beep heard every 15
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seconds indicates that the person on other end is recording the conversation.
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In some states, mutual consent can substitute for the beep tone; you need only
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ask permission of the other party, and the taping is perfectly legal. Of course
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, the technology has made it virtually impossible in some cases to detect
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whether someone is taping (it's easy enough to have a tape recorder going in a
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room with your speakerphone, and even the most sophisticated devices won't be
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able to tell the difference), but the penalities for taping your own conversations are minimal. If you are caught, which is difficult in itself, the
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penalty "MAY" be suspension of phone service.
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Third-party wiretapping --taping a conversation of which you are not a part
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is another story. This is an area in which the federal government takes a
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great intrest. Quite simply, it's a crime under federal and state laws to intercept calls unless you happen to be a party to the conversation or unless
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you first obtained the consent of one of the parties taking part in the call.
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Law enforcement officals can listen in on your conversations after having
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secured the proper court order, but you have to be a hot number to warrant that
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sort of attention. If you do decide to listen in on your suspected-of-cheating
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spouse (and the equipment to do it with is not too difficult to come by), be
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forwarned that for your troubles, you could get five years behind bars and a
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$10,000 fine.
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Remember wiretapping can be granted by any federal judge. Many phreaks
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always complain about their line being wiretapped well hopefully the file
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above has taken care of that.
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