126 lines
7.2 KiB
Plaintext
126 lines
7.2 KiB
Plaintext
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#######################################
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# #
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# Ma Bell #
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# #
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# From The Book #
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# Getting Even #
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# #
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# By George Hayduke #
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# #
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# Typed by Papa Smurf #
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# And The Atari Bandit #
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# #
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#######################################
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The Ultimate Gay - The Jackal. Call him 415/386-4558 and see how faggy he is!
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Did you ever see those office signs that say, THINK? In one telephone company
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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 dictator
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has been monopolizing telephone serivce. For years stories have circulated about
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using strips of Scotch tape on coins, which allows their use again and again in
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pay phones. Do you know what a number-fourteen washer will accomplish in a pay
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pay phone?
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The Yippies and other groups have developed marvelously ingenoius 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 Laboratories
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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 technical
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side of the comapny 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 phone
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lines. If you are looking for instructions on how to safely cut Ma Bell's lines
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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 buig
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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 if
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you're alienated from Ma Bell. He says, "Overpayby a constant 17 cents a month.
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Make it consistent. Then, after a few months, underpay by 17 cents. Start
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another pattern for a while of overpayment; then underpay again. It drives them
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nuts."
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Jenner continues, "The local Telephone company had screwed a client of mine
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and refused to even give him the time of the day. He started this 17-cent bit,
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and before the year was out he had the manager of the local company begging him
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to stop. It worked totally to his satisfaction."
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Meanwhile, on other battlefield fronts, Bell-hater Leo Garry says you should
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have your printer (No, NOT the one connected to the computer) make a bunch of
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OUT OF ORDER signs with the local Ma Bell's logo on them. Hang them on every
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publc telephone you find. Speaking of pay fones, only punks and idiots damage
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them. Much as you may hate them, they're the only game in town. If you've ever
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needed a payfone in an emergency, you know what I mean.
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You can play games with your local service representative (MaBelltalk for a
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salesperson) by ordering phones and equipment for marks or ordering service
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shutoffs. Always make these types of calls from a payphone, for obvious reasons.
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Bandit calling may have been developed by Yippees. Cerainly they are among its
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champions, both as practicioners and as cheerleaders. Aside from the blue boxes,
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which make free calls for you, there is a tactic that can be used by the
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nontechnical wizard and dosen't cost you anything. It's the use of the bogus
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credit-card numbers, and it works like this. (NOTE- This file is way out of
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date. We all know the Other method, don't we? AT&T credit card calling is VERY
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dangerous and I wouldn't advise it at all. -Papa Smurf)
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Always use a payfone and not always the same one. Next, you need a credit-card
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number. Here is where knowledge of Ma Bell's codes comes in. For that
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information check Overthrow, a tabloid published by the Youth International
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Party. A subscription costs you $10 a year, but each issue contains all sorts of
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other dirty tricks, as well as an updated listing on not only Ma Bell's codes,
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but also the complete credit-card numbers for many corporations, public
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utilities, and government agencies. To order a subscription, send $10 to
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Overthrow, P.O. box 392, Canal Street Station, New York, N.Y. 10013. It's a good
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investment, according to most readers.
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After you get the credit-card codes or numbers, the Yippees claim, the rest of
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the bandit calling is simple. You simply dial the long distance operator from
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your payfone 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 make
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up a legitimate-sounding company name or use the name of the agency or company
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whose card number it really is, depending on the circumstance. It helps if your
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party at the other end of the call knows what's happening.
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Talk straight and businesslike for the first 5 minutes, as a snoopy operator--
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that's the way Ma Bell trains them-- might stay on the line that long to listen
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in. Avoic sensitive subjects like your name, politics, drugs, or dirty tricks,
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since you never know who is recording calls these days. Break off the call
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within 12 minutes. Obvoiusly, your callee should act very dumb when Ma Bell's
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security people do come to investigate a month or so after the fraud is
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discovered. And don't let them intimidate you or your friends, either. They're
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good at that-- many of them are former federal or state police.
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One Bell employee told me that their security people utilize wrrantless
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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 should
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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 state,
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the Supreme Court there upheld the conviction of a newspaper for publishing the
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fone company's secret codes. The telephone company, which has both security and
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propaganda sections that rival the government's, was working furiously behind
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the scenes to influence the verdict.
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Abbie Hoffman (Author of TAP) suggested this next trick, so if it dosen't
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work, call him. Restrict Hoffman's idea to corporate, utility, or institutional
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telephone systems. Cut the female end off an ordinary extension cord. Unscrew
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the mouthpiece on the telephone in any office. You will see a terminal for a red
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wire and one for a black wire. Attach one of the wires from the extension cord
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tothe red and one to the black. Finally, plug the extension cord into a power
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socket. According to Hoffman, you are sending 120 volts of electricity back
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through equipment designed for 6 volts. He says this will knock out thousands of
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other telephones and the main switchboard, "if all goes right." Even if his
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numbers are somewhat exaggerated, you've had a good day.
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