114 DEAR HACKER
114 DEAR HACKER
What’s more, what they did to you could easily get them fired and the mall they’re “protecting” sued for a very large sum. You have every right to use your device on these phones and we encourage you and others to do this whenever you wish. If you expect trouble from this, make sure there are witnesses and that everything you do is above the board, regardless of what they may do. This kind of thing hap- pens far more often than most people think.
Dear 2600: My name is [obliterated] and I am hoping you can help me with a
problem I have been having for 2 1 ⁄ 2 years. I saw an article in Newsday on Sunday, June 8, about hackers. At the end of the article, a women called the radio show about someone billing calls to Bangladesh to her calling card. We are having the same problems.
About two and a half years ago, our phone bill contained more than 300 calls to adult sex lines and it hasn’t stopped. The account is in my husband’s name. Our phone number at the time was [obliterated]. We blocked access to these numbers but more things came up. We were billed for international, long distance, calling card, and collect calls, all to our bill. Companies like Pilgrim Telephone, Telemedia Billing, and others showed that we called long distance using these carriers. We called all the companies, NYNEX, AT&T, to tell them we did not make these calls. They all said they were directly dialed from our home. Our children are small, we had no one home for many calls, but they practically called us liars and my husband a pervert. We have gotten NYNEX’s recourse department to take off the calls, which eventually were over $700 and sent them back to the indepen- dent companies for billing. We are now being pursued by collection agencies. By the way, in August 1996 we moved from our home and had our number changed to an unlisted number in an effort to stop this. We had the lines checked, we have blocked everything possible to block but to no avail.
Since reading the article on hackers, I am convinced that a hacker is somehow getting these calls billed to our account. I am begging you to help us solve this problem. We cannot call long distance anymore,
THE CHALLENGES OF LIFE AS A HACKER
use a calling card, or call collect. We are at our wits’ end to solve this. Please, please help us, or get the word out to your fellow hackers to please leave us alone and go on to someone else. The article stated that hackers usually do this to reveal the flaws in computer systems, but this person, or persons are illegally billing their calls to us. NYNEX will not admit a problem. Also, calls were being charged to our credit cards. I have canceled one card, and changed the number on the other but it is still happening. Help!!!!!
[Name Obliterated] First off, let’s clear something up. Whoever is doing this to you is not acting as a
hacker. Just because someone has the ability and is capable of figuring some- thing out does not mean that they are the culprit. Now, concerning your problem, it seems relatively clear that you are known to the perpetrator. Otherwise, this wouldn’t follow you to another location, another number, and a credit card. It’s up to you to figure out why. As for how, that’s pretty easy. There are bugs in many of the major long distance companies and almost all of the smaller ones that allow people to bill all kinds of things to other numbers and make it appear as if those other numbers made the calls. We’ve seen cases where sleazy companies just ignore third number billing blocks and collect call blocks and bill using those methods anyway. It’s possible to make weird things happen by dialing into an 800 number using an operator who has gotten an ANI failure—the number you tell the operator then follows you around on whatever calls you make through that 800 number. We’re certain there are an almost unlimited number of ways of doing this. If the phone company is serious about tracking this down, they should put a pen register on your line so they can see this happening live. Yes, they can be used to help customers as well as spy on them. Demand it. And don’t be afraid to launch a criminal investigation. This kind of thing does none of us any good.
Dear 2600: I’ve got a real problem here. My truck was broken into right after
Christmas and my one-year-old’s toys, his clothes and food, along with juice and milk were stolen out of it. The bastards didn’t take my tools, my radio, or anything else in the truck—just my kid’s stuff. That really pisses me off stealing from a kid. I have a description of the car,