59 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
59 lines
3.0 KiB
Plaintext
Path: ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uwm.edu!linac!att!pacbell.com!lll-winken!telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
|
|
From: pahsnsr@jupiter.nmt.edu (Paul A. Houle)
|
|
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
|
|
Subject: Public FAX Machines/Phraud
|
|
Message-ID: <telecom11.817.5@eecs.nwu.edu>
|
|
Date: 13 Oct 91 19:41:52 GMT
|
|
Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
|
|
Organization: TELECOM Digest
|
|
Lines: 43
|
|
Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
|
|
X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu
|
|
X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu
|
|
X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 817, Message 5 of 12
|
|
|
|
pay fax machines in public libraries and similar places, and some
|
|
people in the BBS community discovered a number of methods of phraud
|
|
based upon these machines. Some of these machines contain an
|
|
automatic dialer that automatically calls an 800 number, where an
|
|
operator picks up the phone and asks for your credit card number,
|
|
verifies it, and connects you to your destination fax machine, running
|
|
the call through. I don't know exactly how answer supervision is
|
|
handled here, but using fax machines, one could use the carrier tone.
|
|
|
|
I discovered that, when the machine was unplugged, one could
|
|
pick up the handset and get a regular dial tone. There is no
|
|
touch-tone pad, so it's impossible to dial out normally, but one can
|
|
dial by clicking the switchhook, and bopping the switchhook ten times
|
|
connects you to an operator, and you can give her the phone number
|
|
that you want to dial. I used this to make a local call just to see
|
|
if this could be done, and I mentioned this to a friend.
|
|
|
|
Other people in the BBS community in that area later discovered
|
|
that there was no toll restriction on those lines, either, so one
|
|
could dial two zeros, get an AT&T operator, and then call his phriends
|
|
anywhere in the world. A person armed with a tone dialer would have a
|
|
whole spectrum of phraudulent options availible to him -- the 'start a
|
|
conference and transfer control to a pay phone' trick, never mind just
|
|
calling 900 numbers with a tone dialer just for the hell of it.
|
|
|
|
Of course, I can't advocate any of this behavior because it is
|
|
illegal or immoral, but public fax machines, like COCOTS, have some
|
|
weaknesses against phraud -- and they really could design them quite a
|
|
bit better so they both provide better service and are more resistant
|
|
to people with evil intent.
|
|
|
|
|
|
[Moderator's Note: The public Fax machine that was installed in the
|
|
post office downtown was a sham, security-wise. They had the phone
|
|
line plugged into a modular jack mounted on the wall next to it. By
|
|
unplugging the Fax machine and plugging in an ordinary phone, you got
|
|
dial tone that would get you anywhere. And no one at the post office
|
|
seemed to keep an eye on the machine or care who did what over in that
|
|
corner of the (relatively, in the wee hours of the morning) deserted
|
|
lobby area. The machine was removed a couple months ago and the phone
|
|
line -- I assume -- turned off ... but who knows. PAT]
|
|
|
|
|
|
Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253
|