--------------------------------------------------------[ May 22, 1990 ]-------
Pranks, Revenge, and General Mayhem     Another "no stupid group" Phile
______    ________    __________
\     \  /  \     \  /    |     |       (C) 1990 The Fixer
 \     \/    \     \/     |     |
  \          /\          /|     |       This Volume: More Phone Pranks
   \        /  \        / |     |
   /        \   \      /  |     |       THC....................+1 604 598-4259
  /          \   \    /   |     |       Dark Side of the Moon..+1 408 245-7726
 /     /\     \   \  /    |     |       Centre of Eternity.....+1 615 552-5747
/_____/  \_____\   \/     |_____|       The Convent............+1 619 475-6187
_______________________________________________________________________________

Preface: On May 9th, 1990, one of my users (of THC-BBS) called the Ripco BBS
         in Chicago, only to hear this voice message:

         "This is 528-5020.

          As you are probably aware, on May 8th, the Secret Service
          conducted a series of raids across the country.  Early news
          reports indicate that raids involved people and computers that
          could be connected to credit card and long distance toll fraud.
          Although no arrests or charges were made, the Ripco BBS was
          confiscated on that morning.  Its involvement at this time is
          unknown.  Since it's unlikely the system will ever return, I'd
          just like to say goodbye and thanks for your support for the
          last six and a half years.  It's been interesting to say the
          least.  Talk to you later."

          On behalf of THC, I would like to applaud Dr. Ripco on his
          running Ripco for 6.5 years, and express the condolences of myself
          and THC's users at the loss of Ripco's hardware.  It's been
          interesting, to say the least.

          The Fixer, May, 1990

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DOWN TO BUSINESS: Fucking over your best friends, worst enemies, and
                  k00lest d00dz with their telephones.

Answering Machines
------------------

        There are several methods of ruining your friends' lives via their
        answering machines.  You can fill their incoming message tapes with
        bogus messages, you can turn them on/off remotely and hear/erase
        all the messages, and in some beauties, you can change the outgoing
        message.  The latter is the most devastating of all answering
        machine methods, and it will get the most space here.

- Most answering machines today have "beeperless remote" features, even in the
  bargain-basement models.  Normally they are protected by a security code
  of between 1 and 3 digits, and quite often even the 3-digit ones are
  so easily cracked it's disgusting.
  Once "inside" an answering machine, you can do a number of things.  Always,
  you will be able to hear, and later erase, any incoming messages.  This is
  helpful to the prankster in that it lets him intercept his target's
  important messages, indicating the target's future whereabouts for later
  attacks.  It also, of course, can be used to prevent the target from
  receiving important messages, with possible dire consequences to the
  target's social/work life.

- Another interesting feature of many answering machines is the ability to
  change the outgoing message.  When I bought my own unit, the last thing I
  asked the salesman was, "Can you change the outgoing message from remote?"
  As soon as he said "No" I bought it.  That's how you should shop for
  answering machines too, as is about to become clear...

  A few messages to replace a target's answering message with:

  Blackmail messages:

  "Hi, you have reached Wayne's House of Drugs.  Currently we have Home Boge,
   Mexican redhair, Black hash from California, crack and Ice in stock.  Please
   leave your name, phone number, and the amount and kind of poison you need
   and I'll get back to you.  Thanks and Party Hardy!  BEEEEEEP"

  "This is The Installer's Codeline.  Here are this weeks codes:
   604 385 9682 0194.  604 477 9980 6682.  604 727 4432 8282.   These are
   all BC Tel Calling Cards.  Please leave your codes at the tone.
   BEEEEEEEEP"

  A slightly less malignant blackmail message:

  "Hi, this is the Silva Residence.  No one can come to the phone right now
   since we're having our nightly session of hot steamy gay family orgy fun.
   As soon as we get out of the shower, we'll call you back.  See ya later,
   you hunk of man-meat you!   BEEEEEEEP"

  For a machine in a doctor's office:

  "You have reached Dr. Jones' office.  We are sorry, but this office is closed
   due to a pending malpractice suit.  Thank you for calling.  BEEEEEEP"

  For a known police informer (to wit: a NARC):

  "This is the Sidney RCMP.  There is no-one in the station to take your call
   right now.  If this is an emergency, officers are available at the
   Sidney Donut Shoppe, at 656-4983.   BEEEEEEEEP"
   (The above blackmail messages also work well for narcs)

  Universally useful:

  "This answering machine accepts all collect calls. (10 second pause while
   operator does her thing) Here are this weeks codes: (etc etc etc)"

  Here's something I have never tried, tell me if it works for you:

  Send your mark's machine several seconds of 2600 Hz and the appropriate
  MF coding for a nice faraway lame BBS or something, as the outgoing message.
  Then advertise (anonymously) on some other faraway BBSes the existence of a
  new BBS with no download ratios, 25,000 files, etc etc etc.  What happens is
  that when someone calls LD (and they will), the answering machine will start
  blue boxing.  The phone company will not be pleased.

  I'm sure you can think of a lot more.

- Here are a few hints and pointers:  My ex-roomie, a consummate dick-head
  worthy of everything he has gotten in the process of beta testing these
  pranks (He's the Wayne in Wayne's House of Drugs BTW) has a nice Cobra
  answering machine.  Well, not only did he pay 3 times for his machine as
  much as I paid for mine, but his has only a wimpy one-digit code (it's 5)
  and lets you change the outgoing message from remote.  Other answering
  machines have a 2 or 3 digit combination but actually accept ANY digit on
  the row or column of the "actual" code number, thus bringing the number of
  possible codes down to near-zero.  Still other machines have stupid
  codes like 123, 369, etc (some of those are the previous kind).  Almost
  all answering machine codes are hardcoded; I have seen dip-switches and
  PC-mounted rotary switches allowing owners to change their codes at will,
  but these beauties are rare, fortunately.  The best thing you can do is
  acquire a library of users manuals for various machines to learn their code
  conventions and instruction sets.  This can be readily accomplished by
  hanging out in department stores etc that sell the things.

There is no Canadian Law explicitly dealing with answering-machine
tampering, but all of these pranks can lead to your being charged with
common mischief at the least.  Caveat Trickstor.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Linemans' Handset Methods
-------------------------

        Please don't refer to a homebuilt lineman's handset as a "bud
        box", "brown box", "beige box", "tan box", "modu box", "terminal
        box", or anything else so lame.  There is no technical wizardry
        in ripping the mod plug off your phone and replacing it with
        'gator clips. If you can get a real handset, do so because they
        are specially ballasted to allow near-silent line interception
        whereas modified Flip-fone ]['s will always generate a nice
        clunk on the line when you attach, and often will even tinkle
        the bell on phones in your target's house.

        Using a handset to do nothing but place phree phone kawlz is
        lame; the true misanthrope phreak knows the true power of his
        tool.

- Custom calling!  It's been said that the only person you can't prank is
  someone who lives in a cave as a hermit.  And it's true in phoneland too,
  the more services your target subscribes to, the easier it is to have
  phun with his miserable little life.  Take call forwarding.  If your mark
  has this most useful of services, you've got it made.  Goto your target's
  phone terminal box-ette on the side of his house one fine sunday morning
  (revenge on the Lord's Day is no sacrilege to an anarchist) at 4:30, clip
  on your awesome modu-box, and try a few of these little gems:

        :Forward all his calls to 911, the police or Fire Dep't.
         Guaranteed results at the very first incoming call.

        :Forward calls to Dial-A-Prayer, Dial-A-Meditation (we have a
         great Sri Chinmoy recording in Victoria, BC, at 604-595-2721).
         I used to do this with my own line sometimes, it really fucks
         incoming callers minds up.

        :Forward calls to yourself.  Risky, but if your mark doesn't
         have an answering machine you can use your own machine to use
         the above-mentioned Answering Machine methods.

        :Forward calls long-distance.  In 604, calls that are forwarded
         long-distance are paid for by the forwarding party, i.e. your
         target.  It should work the same in many other area codes too,
         call your local telco customer service rep to find out.  This
         can have horrible implications...

        :...if you forward those calls to a BBS, or better still a
         code-line and advertise your mark's number as the "new local
         node for the MegaLeech AE".

        :Forwarding to a 1-900 or 1-976 dial-it service works well too.
         Since most of these are voice-only, it is very easy to program
         a large number of people to start calling your mark on short
         notice, and the target gets stuck with the bill.

        :Forwarding to your phone comany's local security office is a
         sign of true arrogance on your part, as everyone gets hosed.
         Do it sometime.

        :Forward calls to a number that is not in service.  Effect is
         self explanatory.

        :Set your own (or another target's) call forwarding to forward
         to your primary target.  Then have the target's forwarding set
         to your own number (or the secondary target).  Can you say
         endless forwarding loop?  Be warned that some phoneco's have
         gotten wind of this concept and installed anti-loop safeguards.

        :Forward calls to just about anything offensive and blackmailable,
         gay sex lines, the Nazi Party, the KKK, the Jehovah's Witnesses,
         need I get graphic?

        :Forward to voice-mail systems.  These are great as most will
         record MF tones so the abovementioned blue-boxing-answering-machine
         trick will work, in a roundabout way, via forwarding.  They also
         let you wash your hands clean of any answering-machine/forwarding
         combos you pull.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Electrical Fun
--------------

        As any phone freak worthy of his k-bud box knows, telephones
        require certain specific voltage levels in order to operate.  Run them
        too far below these voltages, and they crap out and die.  Run them too
        high, and they blow up and melt.

- An old trick, but it has been such a great standby for tricksters, no
  phone tricks file is complete without it:  Drive to your target's
  residence (4:30 AM on a sunday is definitely the best time for this).
  Have an accomplice keep the motor running and the car door open.  Head
  on up to that trusty little grey box on the side of Mr. Victim's
  house, and attach the 'gator clip ends of your "suicide plug" to the
  phone terminals.  Now, I sure hope you brought a LONG suicide plug
  because it is likely that the only outside 120VAC outlet on the house
  is on the other side.  Murphy's law applies to revenge just as in any
  other walk of life so be prepared.  Now, when you plug that suicide
  plug into Mr. Outside Outlet on Mr. Victim's house, the effect will be
  immediate and striking: Every phone in the house will ring loudly and
  violently.  Older mechanical phones might survive having 110 VAC
  running through them continuously for several minutes, but electronic
  phones and especially MODEMS will be destroyed.  You run the risk of
  being charged with arson if you are caught, so don't be.  RUN, don't
  walk, to your waiting getaway vehicle and HAUL ASS OUTA THERE before
  someone comes to the window and gets your licence plate.  If you don't
  mind paying a price for your assured freedom, placing a timer ($9.95
  at London Drugs for the cheapest light timers) on the suicide plug
  will give you a nice safe delay but you'll miss the fireworks...

- "The Scarlet Box" was a resistor, circa 600 ohms, placed across the
   phone terminals.  It had the effect of putting a load on the line
   that caused horrible noise.  Another thing to do is try a capacitor
   instead, a nice non-polarised electrolytric can.  It does wonders to
   the lines bandwidth.

- How about this: Basic phone service carries its audio on a DC bias
  "carrier."  Transformers and capacitors don't like DC but they pass AC
  just fine.  So, put a cap in series on the line.  Phone rings, yes,
  because ringing voltage is AC.  Phone give dial tone?  Noooooo....
  Fixer stop talking in Taiwanese english now.

- If your mark's phone terminal box is adjacent to several others, or
  shares a box with others, then start connecting them together in
  parallel. Make sure you match rings with rings, tips with tips.  Many
  interesting effects.  Krazy Glue the boxes shut when you're done to
  "save your changes" permanently.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, that's it.  This file is probably 100% illegal and banned by law,
but damned if I'm not going to exercise my right to copyright it.  This
file is not in the public domain.  Sysops of other BBSes are licensed to
distribute it free of charge on the sole condition that it is
distributed in its entirety and with all bylines and copyrights intact,
and with no text added. I've been in the IBM world too long, you can
probably tell, but it roast my butt what some lamers are doing to decent
text files these days.

(C) 1990 The Fixer.



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 Another file downloaded from:                               NIRVANAnet(tm)

 & the Temple of the Screaming Electron   Jeff Hunter          510-935-5845
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 Lies Unlimited                           Mick Freen           415-583-4102

   Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives,
       arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality,
       insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS.

  Full access for first-time callers.  We don't want to know who you are,
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                          "Raw Data for Raw Nerves"

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