Nowadays, there are plenty of internet scams to trap the unwary, but the
telephone was around long before the internet. In 1945 at the age of 12,
I perpetrated my first telephone scam.
A friend and I had gone downtown to spend the afternoon at the Museum of
Science and Industry (there was one in New York then). From where we
lived in the Bronx, getting downtown meant taking a bus to the subway.
Fares being a nickel, the round trip cost $.20. I paid on the way down
(exhausting my funds), assuming my friend would pay the way back. Wrong!
We discovered our plight when we got to the subway turnstiles, and
considered what to to. The bus wasn't essential; we could walk the mile
and three quarters. We could probably get away with jumping the
turnstiles, but the station was crowded and we didn't want to chance it.
One of us thought of scouring a nearby park for deposit bottles. They
were worth $.03 each, so two apiece would get us subway fare and a
penny's worth of peanuts from the vending machines in the platform. Five
bottles would get us fare for both subway and bus, and a candy bar (also
a nickel) as well. Is it any wonder that parks and beaches were less
littered back then?
On out way upstairs, I passed a bank of pay phones and conceived a
brilliant scheme. Abandoning all pretense of civic responsibility, I
pocketed the microphone from one of the handsets and hung up the phone.
Than I left the booth and waited. Several people used adjacent booths,
but none went to "mine". Despairing of a free ride at someone else's
expense, I finally went to restore the phone and head for the park.
I has one foot in the booth -- the other two were occupied -- when a
burly guy in suit and tie pulled me out by the collar, saying, "I'm in a
hurry, kid." We watched as he put in his nickel, jiggled the hook,
banged the side of the box, then repeated the whole act more times than
I counted. He seemed to be the type of guy who when someone in a foreign
country doesn't understand him, repeats himself LOUDER. He poured in
several nickels and as it turned out, one quarter.
In the end, he left. I don't know if he wised up or ran out of change,
but as he emerged, he said to me, "It's all yours, kid." He had no idea
how right he was. I replaced the microphone, put the handset back on
hook, and the coin-return opening was practically jammed with pelf. We
had well over half a dollar, and to be honest, I don't regret that theft
at all.
A couple of years later, I came across a vandalized pay phone in an
empty lot. The coin box had been pried out. I called the phone company,
but they weren't interested. A week later, I took it home for close
examination. I had never seen inside one before, and it was kind of
interesting. One feature, puzzling at first, were two small bells
mounted on a bar, with what in the end turned out to be a contact mic
mounted between them. Pinging on the bells told me what they were.
When a nickel was dropped in, there was a "ding" tone. A dime caused two
such: "ding-ding". The dime not only struck the bell, but also a lever
as it passed, providing the second ding. Quarters struck the larger bell
and went "dong". I removed the bell bar, and called a friend on Staten
Island from a pay phone in the drug store. After I dialed the number,
the operator returned my coins -- she had no way to know how much I had
deposited -- and said, "Thirty five cents, please." I held the bell bar
near the microphone and using a key, produced ding-ding ... dong. The
nice lady said "Thank you" and put my call through. I only used the
bells that once, but having my deduction so dramatically confirmed was
exhilarating.
Those scams won't work any more. Pay phones now have a coin-return lever
that works without battery power, and the screw caps on handsets are
secured in place. Coin drops aren't signaled with bells, either.
Jerry
--
"The rights of the best of men are secured only as the
rights of the vilest and most abhorrent are protected."
- Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, 1927
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OT. Confessions of a telephone swindler
Started by ●October 30, 2006
Reply by ●October 30, 20062006-10-30
Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> wrote in news:74udnf7g1ayzvdvYnZ2dnUVZ_tSdnZ2d@rcn.net:> Those scams won't work any more. Pay phones now have a coin-return lever > that works without battery power, and the screw caps on handsets are > secured in place. Coin drops aren't signaled with bells, either. >Sounds much like my experience with pinball, when I found I could open the back, and push some commutator/lever deal to give myself as many free balls as I wanted. -- Scott Reverse name to reply
Reply by ●October 30, 20062006-10-30
In high school we had a rec room where we'd dance to 45's during lunch time. There was a coke machine and a couple of candy machines. The candy machines were mostly mechanical. A Hershey's bar was 5c. The machine worked like this: The candy bars were stacked in columns - one column for each type - and you could see what was in there. Each column had a release handle to dispense whichever candy bar you wanted. Put in a nickel. Pull one of the many handles out - that was aligned with the column filled with your candy of choice. When a section was empty it would indicate so. When a section was empty, if you pulled the handle anyway, your nickel fell back out. Someone discovered that pulling *two* handles at the same time, one from an empty column and one from one not empty, with just the right lead/lag so that the empty handle was just ahead of the other one then: You would get a candy bar *and* your nickel back! One of my friends had a stash of candy bars in his locker as a result. He is now a prominent PhD laboratory director. After a while there was a notice on the machine suggesting that one should not do bad things with it..... I'm sure this is no place to discuss our teenage experiments with explosive devices..... Fred
Reply by ●October 30, 20062006-10-30
Jerry Avins wrote:> Nowadays, there are plenty of internet scams to trap the unwary, > but the telephone was around long before the internet. In 1945 > at the age of 12, I perpetrated my first telephone scam.My, my ;) I love it when you reminisce, Jerry! Surely you'd have made a superb phreaker. http://www.webcrunchers.com/crunch/esq-art.html Martin -- Quidquid latine scriptum sit, altum viditur.
Reply by ●October 30, 20062006-10-30
On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 10:54:21 -0500, Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> wrote:>Nowadays, there are plenty of internet scams to trap the unwary, but the >telephone was around long before the internet. In 1945 at the age of 12, >I perpetrated my first telephone scam. > >A friend and I had gone downtown to spend the afternoon at the Museum of >Science and Industry (there was one in New York then). From where we >lived in the Bronx, getting downtown meant taking a bus to the subway. >Fares being a nickel, the round trip cost $.20. I paid on the way down >(exhausting my funds), assuming my friend would pay the way back. Wrong! > >We discovered our plight when we got to the subway turnstiles, and >considered what to to. The bus wasn't essential; we could walk the mile >and three quarters. We could probably get away with jumping the >turnstiles, but the station was crowded and we didn't want to chance it. >One of us thought of scouring a nearby park for deposit bottles. They >were worth $.03 each, so two apiece would get us subway fare and a >penny's worth of peanuts from the vending machines in the platform. Five >bottles would get us fare for both subway and bus, and a candy bar (also >a nickel) as well. Is it any wonder that parks and beaches were less >littered back then? > >On out way upstairs, I passed a bank of pay phones and conceived a >brilliant scheme. Abandoning all pretense of civic responsibility, I >pocketed the microphone from one of the handsets and hung up the phone. >Than I left the booth and waited. Several people used adjacent booths, >but none went to "mine". Despairing of a free ride at someone else's >expense, I finally went to restore the phone and head for the park. > >I has one foot in the booth -- the other two were occupied -- when a >burly guy in suit and tie pulled me out by the collar, saying, "I'm in a >hurry, kid." We watched as he put in his nickel, jiggled the hook, >banged the side of the box, then repeated the whole act more times than >I counted. He seemed to be the type of guy who when someone in a foreign >country doesn't understand him, repeats himself LOUDER. He poured in >several nickels and as it turned out, one quarter. > >In the end, he left. I don't know if he wised up or ran out of change, >but as he emerged, he said to me, "It's all yours, kid." He had no idea >how right he was. I replaced the microphone, put the handset back on >hook, and the coin-return opening was practically jammed with pelf. We >had well over half a dollar, and to be honest, I don't regret that theft >at all. > >A couple of years later, I came across a vandalized pay phone in an >empty lot. The coin box had been pried out. I called the phone company, >but they weren't interested. A week later, I took it home for close >examination. I had never seen inside one before, and it was kind of >interesting. One feature, puzzling at first, were two small bells >mounted on a bar, with what in the end turned out to be a contact mic >mounted between them. Pinging on the bells told me what they were. > >When a nickel was dropped in, there was a "ding" tone. A dime caused two > such: "ding-ding". The dime not only struck the bell, but also a lever >as it passed, providing the second ding. Quarters struck the larger bell >and went "dong". I removed the bell bar, and called a friend on Staten >Island from a pay phone in the drug store. After I dialed the number, >the operator returned my coins -- she had no way to know how much I had >deposited -- and said, "Thirty five cents, please." I held the bell bar >near the microphone and using a key, produced ding-ding ... dong. The >nice lady said "Thank you" and put my call through. I only used the >bells that once, but having my deduction so dramatically confirmed was >exhilarating. > >Those scams won't work any more. Pay phones now have a coin-return lever >that works without battery power, and the screw caps on handsets are >secured in place. Coin drops aren't signaled with bells, either. > >JerryAha! So you invented the "blue box" long before there were blue boxes! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_box Same idea, as it turns out. The system was controlled by tones, so if you knew the right tones to generate you could have your way with it. I remember the dinging of the coins in old phones, but I'd not previoiusly realized that they were used to verify toll. Eric Jacobsen Minister of Algorithms, Intel Corp. My opinions may not be Intel's opinions. http://www.ericjacobsen.org
Reply by ●October 30, 20062006-10-30
Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> writes:> [...]The authorities should arrive at your front door shortly. I know of a good lawyer if you need one... -- % Randy Yates % "She has an IQ of 1001, she has a jumpsuit %% Fuquay-Varina, NC % on, and she's also a telephone." %%% 919-577-9882 % %%%% <yates@ieee.org> % 'Yours Truly, 2095', *Time*, ELO http://home.earthlink.net/~yatescr
Reply by ●October 30, 20062006-10-30
Randy Yates wrote:> Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> writes: >> [...] > > The authorities should arrive at your front door shortly. I know of a > good lawyer if you need one...I think the statute of limitations -- especially for minors -- has run its course. Both thefts together amounted to about a dollar/ Jerry -- "The rights of the best of men are secured only as the rights of the vilest and most abhorrent are protected." - Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, 1927 ���������������������������������������������������������������������
Reply by ●October 30, 20062006-10-30
Eric Jacobsen wrote:> > Aha! So you invented the "blue box" long before there were blue > boxes! > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_box > > Same idea, as it turns out. The system was controlled by tones, so > if you knew the right tones to generate you could have your way with > it. > > I remember the dinging of the coins in old phones, but I'd not > previoiusly realized that they were used to verify toll. > > Eric Jacobsen > Minister of Algorithms, Intel Corp. > My opinions may not be Intel's opinions. > http://www.ericjacobsen.orgOnce upon a decade, I worked for a smart payphone company (the phone was smart - not so sure about the company). Although smart phones are immune to bluebox fraud for number of reasons [1], we got a rather large (very large) contract with a baby bell. For their phones, we had to operate as normal and send tones down the line for each coin deposited, so we had to be a little more cunning in combating such fraud.[2] In my youth, we used what is known as a scotch penny (it's on a string ;) [1] A smartphone is not owned or operated by the exchange carriers such as GTE, Bellsouth etc., and has to compute the cost of a call onboard (i.e. it's an embedded system) from a lookup table. Most would-be fraudsters didn't realise they weren't hearing real dial tone, merely a simulation of it. At the same time, the mic was muted until we detected an answer at the other end. That's not to say all fraud is eliminated - dialaround issues can be thorny. [2] I designed a _very_ simple notch filter that was in the mic path that suppressed the appropriate tones by 40dB or so. No use if you cut into the line, of course, but even then you have to know the signal twist (there are really two tones sent for each coin type). Cheers PeteS
Reply by ●October 30, 20062006-10-30
Eric Jacobsen wrote: ...> Aha! So you invented the "blue box" long before there were blue > boxes!Not really. I wasn't so much interested in beating the tolls, as in doing "impossible" things. One of the peculiarities then was that the connection wasn't broken until the calling party hung up, no matter what the called party did. We were three couples linked by our interest in bicycling (and other activities). I tend to be pretty much out in the open, but two of the girls -- not my girlfriend -- got into a more-or-less-transparent manipulative phase, where they would try to steer the gang into activities of their choosing without coming right out and saying what they wanted. By close buddy and I lived in the North Bronx near Van Cortlandt Park, one of the girls lived across Bronx Park some miles away, and the other lived in Brooklyn. I built a small switchboard with four lines coming out to clip leads, and a fifth to my headset. A switch let me mute my microphone, so I didn't have to worry about coughing. Each line could be set to "hold" with a short, and connected to a common bus. Usually Thursday after school but before adults got home from work, I would open the phone panel in a nearby apartment house basement and clip my lines onto lines I knew to be silent. Then I would call my friend at home (so he could listen in) and one of the girls. Sometimes I spoke, and sometimes my friend did. There was no point getting into a rut. That conversation didn't last long, but It invariably set off a plotting session between the two girls about the coming weekend. Since I had originated all of the calls, the lines stayed open. When the first girl called picked up her phone to call the other. I switched in a third line so she would hear the dial tone. As soon as she started dialing, I switched off the tone and counted clicks to verify the number. (She once called someone else, but never tumbled to her call from Brooklyn to Queens being listened to by two guys in the Bronx. Once I had the girls connected, we just sat back and listened. We can attest to the truth of "Forewarned is forearmed." Great fun! I never did like being diddled. (The fourth line was rarely used.)> Same idea, as it turns out. The system was controlled by tones, so > if you knew the right tones to generate you could have your way with > it. > > I remember the dinging of the coins in old phones, but I'd not > previoiusly realized that they were used to verify toll.Neither had I until I saw the guts of the box. Jerry -- "The rights of the best of men are secured only as the rights of the vilest and most abhorrent are protected." - Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, 1927 ���������������������������������������������������������������������
Reply by ●October 30, 20062006-10-30
Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> writes:> Randy Yates wrote: >> Jerry Avins <jya@ieee.org> writes: >>> [...] >> The authorities should arrive at your front door shortly. I know of a >> good lawyer if you need one... > > I think the statute of limitations -- especially for minors -- has run > its course. Both thefts together amounted to about a dollar/It was a joke, Jerry. Lighten up, man! -- % Randy Yates % "Remember the good old 1980's, when %% Fuquay-Varina, NC % things were so uncomplicated?" %%% 919-577-9882 % 'Ticket To The Moon' %%%% <yates@ieee.org> % *Time*, Electric Light Orchestra http://home.earthlink.net/~yatescr
