TAP No. 31 - Black Box, RAO Credit Card Codes

EDITORIAL by TOM EDISON As 1975 comes to a close let us reflect upon some of the major events of the past year: the big fire in N Y Bell's C © touched off by Pa Bell's own arsonists in a feeble attemnt to nrove to the world the necessity of absolute mononoly over the communications industry; the never-ending rate hikes that Bell's punpet, the P.U.C., forces on us in the name of piving its shareholders a fair return and eiving the rest of us a swift kick in the ass: the charee for directory assistance; the disclosure that Pa Bell monitored and recorded over 30 million calls usin millions of dollars for Box detection equinment and salaries for untold overtime man-hours all naid for by increased phone rates with absolutely no imnrovement in "service" to the vublic; and finally, the chance in the Fortress oscillator from a sinzle tone to MF tone. Quite a year for Pa Bell- one of arson, greed, corruntion, and invasion of orivacy!!! Bir Brother Bell is watchine all of us! What can you do? YOU CAN JOIN TAP! Tap is more than just the vhone phreaks underfround newsletter- it's a course in basic survival! Every reader has some information to share and we can a earn from each other. All it takes is a little time, some paper, a stamp, and an envelone, You don't have to be an exnert to have @ Rood idea. You may not have noticed it but in the last three months Tap has nut out three issues~ three damn food issues made nossible by an increase in our staff. Help us to continue to put out the most informative newsletter since the Bell Journal. Hi Iam PREPARED TO OFFER ANYTHING FOR THE SECRET FORMULA FOR CONTROLLING 1 ALWeYS BEEP ORECT, MR. RUSSELL, E' SINCE T “YOu Mai AW IKE THAT SHOT erty KNOW YOU HAVE, This cartoon was sent to us by a New York reader; where itwas from, if anywhere, is unknown but we wanted to share it with our readers. No. 31 DECEMBER 1975 MERRY CHRIST’\AS AND HAPPY NEY YEAR PROM THE TAP STAFP AL BELL DAVE TOM EDISON CHARLES Hr. PHELPS R. SYSTAT BL J. YE YOU BEEN ¥ “TIME, vou Y ANO EACH ADDITIONAL wuereve vougeen | | ANY TN const | MINUTE IS Arecioe 5| coasT. LESS THAN THE FIRST. eanuing PERSON-16- ——sF LIKE I SAID WERBUCI Youth Hot Line Reports, Inc. 1975- Do not make checks out to Youth Hot Line Reports please. Movement groups may reprint without permission with TAP's address inclu- ded and all credit given, and please send us a copy of re- rinted work. Warning: We will prosecute violators. BLACK BOX We have had several issues dealing with Black Boxes, those wonderful little devices that allow the user to receive long distance calls at no charge to the calling party. This article will.deal with the different designs that can be used. The basic sections of most black boxes are the DC block- ing capacitor, the power source, and the ring stopper. ‘The DC blocking capacitor prevents the central office equipment from starting the billing procedure. In some areas as much as 10 milliamps can flow through the line without starting billing, but why have any current flow if a capacitor can easily block it all? The answer is that by baving a small amount of current drawn from the line, the power source can be eliminated, as we will see later. The capacitor should be .5 mfd. to pass the lowest voice freq- uencies. Raising this value only extends the low frequency response of the conversation, but does not greatly increase the volume. The capacitor should be non-polar, meaning it does not have a plus or a minus sign on it. If a polarized capacitor is used, the polarity of the line voltage must always match the polarity of the capacitor or it would lose capacitance and leak current instead of blocking current. The polarity of the line cannot always be guaranteed to re- main constant, depending upon the type of phone office that serves the phone, However, if a line shows itself to be of constant polarity (required for Touch-tone phones)an elect- rolytic capacitor can be used, permitting a reduction in capacitor size. It should be rated at 150 volts or higher. at .5 microfarad, non-polar (which means non-electrolytic), and if electrolytic, it can be as high as 100 mfd., though only .5 mfd. is necessary. ‘To talk back to the calling party, the owner of the black box must have a small DC current to operate the carbon mouthpiece in the handset. By bridging the capacitor with a 10K resistor, enough current flows to activate the mouth- piece without drawing enough current to start billing. Some designs use low values like 6. 8K but this does not insure that the equipment will not begin to bill for the call. To get a louder signal back to the calling party, a battery anda resistor can supply the talking current without drawing. it off the line. 25 milliamps is a good current. The resistor needed can be calculated by Okm's Law: Battery Voltag Resistor(in ohms) = O25 1.5 Example: 1 1p volt battery uses a [025 = 60 ohm resistor. 6 volts= 240 chms, 9 volts = 360 ohms, 12 volts= 480 ohms. ‘The ring stopper allows a large surge to flow through the line for only an instant. If it doesn't flow long enough, the line doesn't stop ringing, and listening to the phone with the Black Box switched on one would hear a loud ring- ing sound. In between these rings one can usually talk to the caller, but this only works on some electromechanical exchanges, whereas in ESS systems (Electronic Switching Systems) the voice circuit is not connected until the called party answers the phone. Talking between rings can be difficult but it is cheap and Trixon did say we'd all have to make sacrifices before he phlebbed out of office. This method is almost immune to detection for the black box detectors available only test the line after the ringing has stoprad, . ~ If tae ring stopper allows current to flow for too long, the phone equipment will think the phone has been answered, and then of course hung up, so the equipment will discon- nect and send a new dial tone in 10 to 30 seconds. The ring stopper usually works best by letting the surge last just long enough to stop the ring, and no longer. ‘The Basic Black Box is illustrated in Figure 1. When the ‘switch is opened, current and sound can only pass through the resistor and capacitor. They work as already described in the sections under DC blocking capacitor and power source. When the switch is closed, the phone acts normal. BEATS BELL IN THE FOURTH! To perform the ring-stopping function, the switch is closed and the phone is quickly picked up and hung up. Then the Switch is opened and the conversation can take place, ‘The circuit iv Figure 2 is from Abbie Hoffman's Steal, This Book. This circuit is basically the same, but the cap- acitor is now 100 mfd. When a call comes in, the switch is opened, and the phone is then picked up. The discharged capacitor soaks up a big pulse and thus acts as the ring stopper. After the pulse, it doesn't charge itself up any more and then performs the DC’ blocking function. Obviously the size in mid!s is critical in this design because it deter- mines the length of time that the pulse lasts. When the Switch is closed to make the phone act normally again, the huge capacitor is discharged by the switch through a 10 ohm resistor that limits the current. Without this resistor, this big capacitor will be damaged by the discharge surge. Figure 3 shows a similar circuit that uses two 52 volt zener diodes back to back to stop the rings. To answer, the phone is picked up after the switch is opened, and the ringing voltage avalanches one of the zeners. The surge makes the line voltage drop, thereby taking the zener out of avalanche. This ring stopper is very quick, and is rec- comended by phone phreaks who are served by sensitive equipment. . Figure 4 uses a simple push button for the ring stopper. This provides manual control of the timing of the pulse. It can be hit quickly, and if it doesn't stop the ringing, it can be hit for slightly longer and longer times until the ringing is stopped.’ The power source is a 6 volt battery, which can be 4 D cells or C cells strung together in series. The simplest Black box circuit published to date has been the one in Issue 11 of TAP (YIPL at the time ). The capacitor is built into the phone, the ring stopper is the pick up and hang up procedure, and the only parts needed are a 10K resistor and a SPST switch. We have plans for the same thing for Automatic Electric phones for those customers of General Telephone, and for Western Electric phones serviced by Bell Companies. Calls on Black Boxes are usually kept short for safety, and of course no other extensions can be picked up during the call or the call will be billed. Most phone phreaks re- move Black Boxes from their phones at first sign of suspicious activites on their phone line. For the ultimate simplicity in Black Box design, see letter below. Dear TAP, : Here is a description of a poor man's mute. It requires no parts atall, just a trimline style rotary dial telephone. Here's what you do, When you want to mute a call pick up the handset from the cradle slowly and at the same time keep the bookswitch in the base held down with your left band. Now with the hand holding the receiver move the dial as if you've dialed a "1" and let it return half-way. Then release the hang-up switch on the base. If you have done it right you will hear the ringing coming out of the earpiece, So to stop the ringing move the dial slightly back and quick- ly return it to the middle position. You will now be able to hear your friend but to talk to him you will have to yell into the earpiece, because the transmitter doesn't work on this cheapie mute as there is no resistor to let current through. One should practice manipulating the dial before trying to mute a long distance call. This mute is very primitive, but the beauty is the fact that no alteration of the phone is required, so no evidence in case of a bust. Any dial type trimline will work. It won't work with other phone types because the earpiece is shorted when the dial is moved, so you would have to remove the shorting wire from the dial, and if you're going to do that you might as well go ahead and put in a resistor and switch. So let's see those trimline phones (for which you pay extra) Put to good use. -CALIFORNIA- Red Phone ASK Mr. PHELPS Dear Mr. Phelps, T've been bearing rumors from friends that the phoners are changing the tones in the Fortress phones around New York and tet by January 1976 the Red Box will be obsolete. Is this true, and if it is, does anyone want to buy antique rod boxes? -DISCOURAGED- Dear ED, Barney here. fim passed this letter on to me. Tt is true that the phone company is modifying the pay phones, but don't give up! We've discovered that the reason for modi- fication is to allow automatic machinery in ing future na replace all the human operators who presen! the tones and tell you how muck to put in. This will actually make it easier to use Red Boxes than it is now! To prevent the machinery from accidentally being tricked into thinking money is deposited by the caller's voice frequencies, the phones are being modified to generate Two tones instead of one, but the timing of the tones is exactly the same. ‘The old tone was 2200 Hertz. The new tones are 2200 and 1700 Hertz, so all Red Boxes can be easily modified by adding the 1700 Hertz oscillator and mixing it in at the same volume to the old oscillator Plans for doing this will be published in the next issue of TAP, in time for the modifications of the pay phones to be near completion in k. New Yor Advisable Missions Force Letters From Readers Dear TAP, This is Captn. Crunch, I would like to mention a few things.. First, I'm glad to see you boys back in operation & am curious to why you stopped publication. for a while. I also want to state my willingness in contacting as many would- be freaks as possible, in person only & not by mail. There- fore I am offering to anyone who wants to come see me in Mt. View all I know in electronics, computers & related technologies including freaking of course. However I dislike talking on the phone, nor communication by mail. Ifyou even receive this letter, I would consider it a miracle. My current address is: J,T. Draper, 1905 Montecito Ave. Api. #6, Mt. View, Ca. 94040 for those who want to set upa meeting by mail. Phone is (415)964-9041 and 985-4210. Of course I am not underground. A while back National Review published my phone number in the hopes that people would bug me by calling at 3 am etc. ‘They didn't realize that I made hundreds of new friends & taught hundreds the art of freaking. Any people who want to visit me are welcome, ‘They can stay with me up to a week (it usually takes that tong to teach them). You might want to publish that fact, am Starting a computer data~base of info for freaks & computer freaks. This data base will reside in the computer company I work for. There are 3 access — levels of security which are: 1.General- Everybody and Anyone, 2. Protected-For sensitive numbers that would be changed if widespread, 3. Secure-Random scrambled data, accessable only over a non-tapped direct connection I cannot discuss here. Cost 99¢/hour connect time charges, 12 midnight to 6 am, (PST), 3am. to 9 am. (EST). Time includes IO and uses Standard TTY terminal, No WATS lines so People will have to figure out how to call it- Anyone interested, call 964- 5331 (415). This is a company called "Call Computer". It uses an HP 2100A with 100 Megabyte Storage. A very tap Secure system, this is not a cheap HP2000F system but a much better BTI system-"Basic Timesharing System", So far we have 20 or so People, each with their own access code. I usually give a lot of information this way, more so than by phone, but less than in Person. It's cheaper than Western Union, more secure but of course calling the com- puter costs money (or does it?),|One could use credit cards because if the operator tried to call back a data tone would be reached. Good luck, -JOEN- Dear TAP, I just had a new phone put in upon which my previously per- fect black box no longer worked. It took some time but I finally realized that the red wire (from the wall to the L2 terminal) was backed up by the black wire (from the wall) which is not normally used in the phone hook-up (but which on my new phone was also connected to L2). Easy remedy to this of course is to remove both the red and black wires from L2and connecting them both to the proper wire on the black box. Phone installer friend of mine told me he was told to hook up both wires from now on but he didn't know why. -CONNECTICUT- Dear TAP, Want to advise your readers how to get additional phone equipment from Pa Bell for free. I just got a long type Stretch cord that the business office bills $22.50 for. The way to do it is not to deal with the business office but with repair service instead. Break any existing equipment you have (say you saw a snip and take commercial and cut your phone cord, then postponed moving) and call repair service. ‘When they come, the guy will give you whatever alterations you wish. Not only did he give me a new cord but I gota new phone too, He said repair service would only forward @ bill when this becomes habitual with a person. -NEW YORK- RAO Credit Card Codes Area RAO Codes and Locations 94 Newark, 091,093 222 032 Wash. DC, 033 203 020 Hartford, 010 208 163 Seattle, 167 299 254 Stockton, 289 Fresno 212 072,074 N.Y. C. ,017, 018, 021, 024, 022 213 183, 184 L.A. , 046, 184, 187, 332 215 041,042, 043 Philadelphia 216 050 Akron, 082 Cleveland 218 126 Duluth 301 011 302 723 303 153 305 044 Miami 397 137 398 097 Omaha, 237 312 097 Chicago, 998 Suburbs, 234 313 083 Detroit, 013, 098 314 177 St. Louis, 143 315 303 401 019 R.1. 404 035 Atlanta, 022, 025, 063 496 154 Montana 498 293 412 930 Pittsburgh 414 O88Milwaukee 415 158.8, F. , 167 Berkeley, Cakland 416 501 502 503 504 505 509 513 516 517 601 604 608 612 613 615 617 12 703 704 713 716 801 813 814 901 914 476 Toronto 147 550 131 Portland 046 105 128 Spokane 185 127 Long Island 224 Lan: 059 sing 064, 065 493 Vancouver 201 126 St. Paul 473 047 Nashville 001 Boston, 023 Worcester, 272 007, 098 033 319 Charlotte 151 Houston 534 Rochester 155, 383 152,027 208 187 Memphis 066, 141 Destructory Assistance is an information exchange service. Send us info on one of our topics (send for free DA topics list) and include a self-addressed envelope with enough post- age for us to return an equal amount of info of your choice. Subscriptions: Approx. 10 issues- U.S. Bulk $4. Inenvelope, First Class or to Canada $6. Foreign Surface $7. All info is free to those who explain to us why they can't afford it. IMPORTANT: Include mailing label or xerox copy when writing to TAP about your subscription. Bk Issues-Listed by feature articles “SOG each, 40¢ each if complete set is ordered. 1-Extensions, Conwrence Switches 2-Hlue Box Story and Abbie on Ripotts 4-Telecommand Story fa beri Blue -Btue Box 2 Barly Made 7 Tuning your organ, 3-slot ripotis S-Crredit Card Calls/1972 Cote 10> Black bor uv 12 Btue Box Plans 13 Int'l calls & Codes, Bluebox plans 14 More codes, AT&T Papers, Ca. Test mmbers 15 1973 Credit Card Code, T network 16 Red Box plans 17 Red Box, Line Relay, Don't Get Busted 18 Outgoing long distance call stopper 10 Snoop light, Taping Fortress tones 20 Cheese Box(Conference line, or loop-aroun) 21 Automatic Phone Tap, Convention Report 22 Answerco, "How we catch Red Boxers" 23 Free Electricity 24 Fraud Detectors, Index of TAP issues, 1974 CC Code 25 New Red Box, Free Gas 26 New Bluebox, Con Ed key (also 23, 26) 27 Free Electricity, Blue Box Correction 28 Reading Computer bills, loop suffixes 29 Improved Bluebax & Snoorlite, Int'l codes 30 Fortress Pay Phones, Party Lines FACT SHEETS -25¢ each 1. Credit Card Calling Hints 2, Receiving Long Distance Calls Free (Same as Issue 11 for General Co. Customers instead of Bell Telephone Co.) Displayed Red Box 2600 Whistle Periociar > s0¢ per set. ‘Dual tone osciliat Anti-Bell Button-50¢ 10/83 BOOKS ‘Steal This Book-$2.25 Coaraes Ge eae each: A basis Hee - =] , BrAlte: Current, C-Basic Phone Operation, DeAmaliders nd Send Check or Money order only to TAP Address: Room 504, 152 W, 42 St, New York 10036 . @his ts a Mail Drop onty) Office: 1201 Broadway, Rm. 608, Wed. 4-7 pm. NYC 10001 We need info on: Jocks, techniques for getting your money's worth, Lacks: code books, picking methods, safe mantpulation, ‘sources of supply. Badio- pirate stations, jammers, etc. [- tapping into the line. i info on N, J. Public Services' roond ceramic electric meter seals. a Holmes & other central station systems, Brinting- methods, magnetic ink used in printing cbecks, etc. Computers- Timesharing- Access codes, Published for informational purposes only by Youth Hot Line Reports, Inc. This Does Not Compute First, there were the phone phreaks, those technological marvels who used blue boxes, black boxes und other colored boxes to fleece AT&T out of a few dollars, Now, it ‘may be the dawn of » new space-age whiz, the keypunch crazies. New Scientist magazine reports that a 15- year-old London schoolboy named Joe used u school computer terminal to crack the security system of one of the biggest ‘time-sharing computers in England. With 40 formal computer training and just four months of schooling, Joc was able to gain uceess to top-secret information from various big businesses. He even went so far as change the data stored in the com- puter. ‘Spokespersons for the computer involved {even 4 computer has spokespersons these days) admitted that the boy wonder was in 4 pusition to completely take over the entire sysiem, shutting off other users, changing passwords and altcring bills sent to ‘customers. And Joe could have gotten away with it had be only kept his young mouth shut, Instead, he sent a note completely onfessing what he had done. A new securi- ty system for the computer was immediately installed. from - Real Paper May 44, 1975 Address all mail and checks to - TAP, ROOM S04, 152 W. 42 ST., N.Y,N.Y. 10036 BULK RATE U. S. POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 209. Great Nock, N.Y.