TAP No. 90 - Your Rights as a Phone Phreak

Your Rights as a Phone Phreakby Fred Steinbeck"Oh, I’m not worried. They can't tap my linewithout @ court order.” Ever catch yourself ssyingthet? If so, L'11l wager you don't know too muchebout the lawa that can prove to be the downfall ofmany @ phone phreak. But you are wagering yourfreedom and money that you do know. Odds are youGon't. At least, X didn't, and & had a very painfulexperience finding out. .Let's take a look at Federal law first. Section605 of Title 47 of the United States Code (i.e.,Federal lew) forbids interception of communicat-fons, or divulgence of ereesepred commun!-cations, except by persons outlined in Chapter 119,Title 18 (a portion of the Omnibus Crime Contro]and Safe Streets act of 1968). Section 231](2) (a) (1) of this section says:"tt shall not be unlawful under this chapterfor an operator of a switchboard, or anofficer, employee, or agent of any communi-cation common carrier, whose facilities areuged in the transmission of a wire com-munication, to intercept, disclose, or usethat communication in the normal course ofhis employment while engaged in any activitywhich is a necessary incident to therendition of his service or to the protectionof the rights or. property of the carrier ofsuch communication...”The euthorixzation stated in that subsectionpermits agents of communication common carriers(L1.e., Telcos) not only to intercept wire cor-munications where necessary "to the protection ofthe rights or property of the carrier", but it alsoauthorizes such an agent to "disclose or use thatcommunication.” Fun, huh? That's not all.In the case United States v. Sugden, & casewhich was upheld by the Supreme Court, thefollowing ruling was made:"For an unreesonable search and seizure toresuit from the interception of defendant'scommunication, he must have exhibited a rea-sonable expectation of privacy. Where, ashere, one uses a communication facility 11-legally, no such expectation is exhibited.”This means that when you make a free call, youhave waived your right to privacy. In other words,without pay, your rights evaporate.The only limitation upon monitoring anddisclosure is that it must not be excessive. Forexample, in Bubis v. United States, the phone corm-pany monitored all of the defendant's phone callsfor a period of four months. The defendant'sgambling activities were revealed by this monitor-ing, and this information was furnished to the U.S.Attorney's office. This resulted in the defendantbeing prosecuted by the District Attorney forviolation of the federal laws against using inter-state telephone facilities for gambling. The courtacknowledged the right of the phone company toprotect its asa(ets) and properties against thefllegal acts of a trespasser, but ordered theevidence supressed because (1) the extent of themonitoring was unnecessary,and (2) the defendant'sProsecution for violation of the gambling laws had"no relationship to protecting the telephonecompany's property.”This was before the Omnibus act. As it happens,though, the Omnibus act was intended to reflectexisting law, and therefore, changed nothing (pret-ty good, huh?). In United States v. Shah the courtsald (refering to the situation of inadmissibleevidence in United States v. Bubis), “Thus it wouldappear that if the tape recordings of theGefendant's conversations had been limited by thephone company to establish that the calls were inviolation of the subscription agreement ({.¢., wereillegal) and to the identification of the personusing the phone, and for those purposes only, thenthe tapes would have been admissible against thedefendant." The court went on to say that this was TAPeeThe Hobbyist’'s Newsletter forthe Cosmunications RevolutionJan-Feb 1984 Issue 90 indeed the cage in United States v. Shah, as thePhone company only monitored for 7 days, and thetapes were of 1 minute duration at the beginning ofany illegal call.Bo what can they do? Well, several things.Pirst, they can put a dialed number recorder (DNR)on your line If they suspect toll fraud. There areSeveral varieties of DUR's floating about. The mostcommon can do the follow{ng: print Touch-tonedigits sent, print MF digits sent, record presenceof 2600 Hz on line, and activatea tape recorderfor @ Specific amount of time (generally 1 to 2minutes) when some specific event occurs, such as2600 Hz being blasted into the line.DWR's seem to be fairly standard procedure. That{s, almost all the Telcos use them when theySuspect fraud. As long as they do not record theentire conversation, or conversations that arelegal, there is nothing illegal about DNR'’s, DNR'sare also used to detect fraud using specializedcommon carriers (@¢.g., Sprint, MCI, etc.), bywatching you dial the local dialup number, followedby your (illegal) access code and destinationnumber. They do not need a court order to place aDMR on your line.If they can record voice on your line, they canrecord data just as easily. So {r you call bulletinboard systems and have # DNR on your line, be swarethat any logins you have made have probably beenwatched by the phone company, and they probablyknow any passwords you have used.The purpose behind all this DMR bullshit is toestablish your identity. I suppose a possibledefense against this is simply not to talk forthree minutes after the connection is estabiished.Might be kind of hard to do in practice, however.Contrary to popular belfeve, TPC does not make"midnight visits’ to your house to arrest you. Whyshould they? A judicfous application of theirmotto, "Reach out and put the touch on someone",means that they simply call from their office. Ifthey call, try to draw them out as much as possiblein a phone conversation. That is, they will keepmuttering about how che; "have evidence". Pind outwhat kind of evidence. Do not expect them to beforthcoming with everything. They will almostcertainly have more than what they tell you.Their standard position is to prosecute alloffenders, although this varies depending on theseverity of the situation, as well as the age ofthe offender. They tend to always prosecute adults,while they are receptive to pre-trial offers madeby juveniles. They may want to talk with you inperson, ostensibly ts give you a chance to explainwhy the 300 calla to the local Sprint node camefrom your line. Accept this offer. Often they aremore generous with thelr evidence {in person thenthey are over the telephone,If you do meet with them in person, bring alawyer. Lawyers are expensive, but they are wel)worth the price. They know the law, while youGon't. The investigators TPC employs are seasonedPpeopie, and usually make few mistakes, legal ortechnical, However, a good lawyer can spot anylegal fuckups they might have made, and vou shouldbe able to find any technicel ones. centineadnext page In talking with chem, be civil (f.e., say Rello,talk about the weather, etc.) but say nothingpertinent to your case. They will often tell alarge part of their evidence without any prodding,and at the end, will ask you some questions. Youare net obligated te answer any of these questions.At the very first signs of trouble, stop makingfree calls, and move anything illegal you have to afriend's house. They may not get a search warrant,but better safe than sorry.TPC can make Life miserable for you, and theyGon’t often prosecute unless they're sure of win-ning, which ig pretty much always. Therefore, youmust make [t eflther not worth their while to pro=-gecute, or worth their while not to prosecute. Thebest bet is to try to get them to settie before go-ing to court by offering ceimbursement and beingnice ta them. If you appesr genuinely sorry, theymay not prosecute.Failing that, be # low-down bastard and make asmuch trouble for them in court as possible. Justremember: technology is on your side, and that'sbetter than God. HACKING DUN & BRADSTREETby BIOC Agent 003 & Tuc TuckBS8Dun & Bradatreet is like TRW, except it isfor businesses. It allows userae to check outfinancial records as well as other statisticsabout a company. It ia everything you alwayswanted to know about your local rip-off atore (&owner) or a corporate piglomeration, but wereafraid to ask.To logon dial one of their local #'s such as:f212) 619-4600 or pe 277-4000, use TelenetCc zones). or Tyanet (TERM: A, LOGON: RPTS, PASS:wowOnce on type RPTS <CR>, followed by another(CR>, followed by PRNT <CR>. It will then ask youfor your password which is in the format of:099097 /PASSWORDFor example, 001779 {s a demo account, theold pazeword was DEMO but they got smart. If thisatill worked you would type 001779/DEMO. See ifyou can figure out a new paseword for thisaccount.Once you have a password, it will give you ashort menu auch as: "P=PAR REPORT, D=D ORDER",etc. When it saye ENTER SELECTION:, type P. Itwill then say INQUIRY:, here you type thebusiness name or characters to search for. Itwill chen say ENTER CITY:, and enter it. Enterthe Z-letter state abbreviation when it says ENTERSTATE:. At the next question, answer P for par.Then enter a <CR> when it asks for an endorsement.It will then give a list of businesses thatmatch the letter(s) that you {nputed. Type the #of the one that you want. When it says ENTERSELECTION: again, type F for a Full report. Whenit asaya PRINT now? , type Yes and whalla, s rfectSO0-colugn printout on the businesa. This is justthe basic. report; fool around with the menua forother options. HACKING WESTERN UNION'S EASYLINKBy BIOC Agent 003 & Tuc TucBBSEasylink ie a aystem that allows you to sendTelex, Telex Il (TWX), mailgrams, Celegrans,cablegrana, and a few others.Firet. either dial the local # or (800)325-4112 (for 300 baud). It will respond withEASYLINK, followed by ID? At this point, youshould enter the code, which ita in the format of:O] ESL##F#9F USERNAME. PASSWORDWhere:Ol - says your are using full duplexESL = says your are using Easyl inkPFetet ~ a 6 digit account codeUSERNAME. PASSWO - just thatOnce on, it will respond with a connection /,the date, and cime. You will then see PTS, whichstands for Proceed To Select. You can then type"IRELP" to see what you can do with the syaten.If you want to send a Telex, type the telex #followed by a plus(+). It will then respond withGA which stands for Go Ahead.Now type in the text. To send the text andstay on Easylink type LLLL; to send it and log offtype MMMM. To abort the message, type EEEE. Itwt then say either "ACCEPTED" followed by « # or"MESSAGE DISCARDED."If you want to send a mailgram, type:/zIPWHO TOADDRESS 1ADDRESS 2 (optional)CITY ST ZIP+Make sure thet the zip is followed by a plus(+). At the GA, type in the message and terninateit with LLLL. With mailgrams the return addreasbelongs to whoever owns the account. More onchanging thia info in part II, or if you penetratethe systea before then, write to us c/o TAP.For info on sending telegrams, editing etc.,type "/HELP" after any PTS prompt and it w it giveyou a rundown.If you just want to check out the ayates andpractice, log in using: 01 USR999999 TEST.TESTfe ie their demo password. It no longer allowsyou to send actual letters, though.Another WU syatem that uses the same passwordformat is FYI (For Your Information). It is at(800) 325-NEWS (6397) and ft carries UPI news andother "goodies." Once on type CATALOG or UPIINDEXfor help. Unfortunately, the demo password nolonger works on this systen.4,700 AT&T Credit CardsMailed to Wrong PeopleREDMINSTER, NJ. (H—Amarizan Telephone & &cifictale said Wednesday that they hove matted an AOLlelephene creditcords te the wrengsuviemers and appesiog i. cont.the cornpany ectiranted about 6.41% —er 4 1S—efthecards had been incorrectty mailed. Beastd be did act know bow thet ef‘ those had come im.Dvrerek said welng the tall-free service—1-500-CALL.ATT—terepert the card probleme wil pet increase atenpany eects GATHERING WITH FRIENDS -EDDIE’s ON A FRIDAY NIBHT[ got some flack from my article 2 few issueshack called “How To Infiltrate TAP", wherein Imentioned how to find our Friday night wateringhole in Greenwich Village. Most of it was from theFriday Night Irregulars, the guys that “usually”show up for a brew and some onion rings, In fact,there's been a little less elbow room around thetable on Fridays, but folks likms Tuc, and BiocRgent 883 have submitted some good articles, sohopefully we can get those who com@ down to weitefor us. That’s why I's mentioning it again.This doesn’t mwan that if you can’t make i¢to Eddie's at 14% Waverly Place that you can'twrite for TAP. Anyone who can set their typewritermargine to 58 characters wide will probebly windup with stuff published in TAP, These days we canuse some short filler items too, so please submitanything!Eddie’s is on Waverly Place between Sroadwayend Washington Square Park, both large landmarksthat even Brooklynites can direct you to. If I sayany more than that the RR tratn gets you theclosest, the Friday Night Irregulars will probeblyNave my scalp, since it’s getting crowted enoughon Friday’s already. I try to make it most weeksmysel?, but holiday weekends usually find mevisiting friends out of town.Those people that come by TAP'sa mailingeddress are, for some reason, Surprised whan Room603 turns out to be simply a telephone 93 answeringand mail service (or more formally known a8 4“mail drop”). Another mathod of reaching me,Nowever., is MCI Mail, where a "TOr" address of“CHESHIRE” will get a mail message to me. an The Coming "SnowstoraTM in Telecommunicationsby Cheshire CatalystThis is the firs taaue of TAP since thebreakup, and I felt an article on the "phreaks ayeview" of the divestiture would he in order,In 1697, there were 7 local telephone comp-antes in New Vork City. The snowstorm of that yearcaused great damage to the aerial wires, bringingthem all down. The president of the largest of the7 called in the presidents of the other 6 andeuggested that thay pool their resources, andbecome one Telephone Company. This was how the NewYork Telephone Company (now owned by Nynex) cameto be,We all know the shitty quality of G&print,MCT, and the others, as well as the chaos of thesplit of the Dell Gystem. As a phone phreak, I'mexpected to hate The Phone Company. After all TPChas for detades been "The company you love tohate.” But the Network, ah, th@ network!I doubt if statistics have been kept as tohow many phone phreaka were caught because theyreported problesws to internal repair numbers thayshouldn't have known about. In fact, as oa“civilian”, they shouldn't have aven realized whatthe problem was! But phreaks love The Network (I'mtalking REAL phone phreaks here, not just Sprint «MCI crackers). Now that The Network ia beingbroken up into the networkg, the ohreaka araworried about the reat harm that will coma tophore service tn this country.Regulatory bedies ere realizing that manydivestature decisions are ludatcrous in light ofthe amount of expertise required by The Public tokeep track of all that is happening. Here in NewYork City comeunittiaes, Congresspeople are usingtheir legislative bulletins to inform citizens ofthe meaning of divestiture. They realize that this“consumer avareness” type of information ts not inthe financial interest of the consuming public,and that the Public Service Commission doesn'thave the reasources to get this information out,While The Publie has hated The Phone Company foryears, it was at least "the devil they knew". Nowthere i so much they are expected to know, thatthey are finding out they can’t handle it.For exemple, if there is a problem with yourline, the local Teleo says it will fix it forfree, but if the problem turns out to be yourPpremisis stetion equipment, then they will chargeyou for the service call. Likewise, ATT Informa-tion Systems (owners of the telco’s former leasedequipment, and present levusors) will fix yourphone for free, but if the problem turns out to bethe lings, and they’ve wasted a service call, youwill elso be billed. What little old lady inMurray Hill living with her two cats will be ableto figure out whether it’s the phone or the line,and stand to be socked with a 648 charge if she'swrong. Little old ladies make up a big constit-—uancy, and I think ¢nat Congress will step in 5 to1@ years down the line when the “snowstorm” ofmail gets to be too much to ignore. I'd almostdare say to look for it to be an election tusue inthe 1988 presidential election.I don't pretend to know the answers, but thepublic will demand it's telephone service bebrought into line in a few years. Heaven heip theCongress when that mot gets ugly.