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You're listening to WBAI in New York
It's time for Off the Hook
The telephone keeps ringing
So I ripped it off the wall
I cut myself while shaving
Now I can't make a cough
It couldn't get much worse
But if they could, they would
Bumbly Bump would I best expect the worst
I hope that's understood
Bumbly Bump
Well, they say education is the spice of life
I don't know if they actually say that
But they say something similar
And tonight we're going to be educating people that want to be educated
As well as people that probably don't want to be educated
But that's how education works
It's the kind of thing where knowledge seeps in
And we have all kinds of knowledge to seep in your general direction
First, though, some rather disturbing news items
In the world of high tech
And freedom of speech
And that kind of thing
And of course, later on in the program
We will be taking your phone calls
At 212-279-3400
As we always do on this program
Off the hook
Every Wednesday night from 9 to 10
Good evening, I'm Emmanuel Goldstein
And we've got some rather controversial items tonight
This is something that has just occurred
The details are still coming in
Hopefully in weeks to come
We will have more information on this
Comes out of the Boston area
A venerable institution in the gay bulletin board community
Has been silenced
It's a bulletin board known as Doug's Den
It's one of the first gay-owned and operated BBS services
It was raided on June 6th by the FBI
In what is described as a witch hunt
Designed to find child pornography
Now, this person posted to the Usenet
He's known as Jamie12
It's the name that we're going to give him
He says, I know the charge to be false
As I know the man well whose board it is
Or was, actually
Doug McKenzie is his handle here
Nobody under 18 was admitted onto the bulletin board
This sounds very similar to a case that
We had a couple of months ago
On this particular radio program out of California
Where a person had his bulletin board
And a bunch of other computers seized out of his home
His family was terrorized by police
And you might say, oh, that's a bit of an exaggeration
Terrorized
I mean, they weren't beaten up or anything like that
They were simply searched
And had all their personal equipment gone through
And things like that
Well, that, my friends, is a definition of terror to me
Because if you have your home entered into
Uninvited by people with guns
A lot of people can take that as terror
And a lot of people do
A lot of people don't like that
And it should not ever have to happen
Unless the person is really up to something bad
In that particular case
He was eventually vindicated
And hopefully we'll find out more about this particular case
And if it's a similar type of a thing
I hope to see some sparks fly as a result of this
Anyway, to continue with the story
Nobody under 18 was admitted to the bulletin board
And any uploaded GIFs
Those are basically picture files
That you can download and then display
On your particular computer
And bulletin boards have these
Many different ones
Your favorite TV show might have a GIF
That translates to a picture of one of the stars
Some of these other ones have adult-oriented GIFs
And I'm sure that's what was on this particular bulletin board
Any uploaded GIFs that looked even vaguely underage
Were immediately deleted from the system
That according to one of the users
Doug ran a clean operation
He recently ran afoul of a Boston attorney
Who wanted to buy him out
And when Doug refused his offer
The guy began a hateful campaign of harassment
Threatening him with lawsuit upon lawsuit
He even went so far as to take out a trademark
On the den name
Doug has many things
But a businessman isn't one of them
And he had never registered the name
So the wise guy lawyer opened a competing board
With the exact same name
In the same small community
Sheer spitefulness
Speculation exists that this guy
Dropped a dime on Doug
In the proper legal circles
And that today's events are the result
He stands to lose not only the board
But his career
Apparently he's also in the military
And they say the military
Doesn't take kindly to accusations of this kind
No matter how unwarranted they may be
The other guy gets a clear marketplace
And a front row seat in hell
If the speculation is true
In any event
Doug is devastated
He's among the most honorable people I have known
And for this to happen
Is an unmitigated disaster
He will need a lot of support
And we'll of course be giving information on that
If we can get through to some people
On future editions of this program
Again this is
According to this posting
This is too grave an issue to ignore
If the FBI can just swoop in
And seize someone's gear
On a false charge
Who knows what could happen
To any one of us on the internet
With a little creative bending
Of the sodomy laws in some states
If anyone out there
Would like to organize a campaign
To help this particular person
This particular bulletin board
That has been seized and shut down
Well certainly speak out against it
Speak out about whatever it is you can
Send us information here at WBAI
And if you want to be put in touch
With other people
Feel free to do that
I know one internet address
Where this is being discussed
Actually a couple of different places
A Usenet group
Known as SOC.MOTS
S-O-C.M-O-T-S-S
Stands for Members of the Same Sex
And a lot of gay issues
Are discussed there
Also an internet mail address
If I can find the exact address
I want to make sure I give it out right
Okay Q-N-At
At sign
Queernet
Q-U-E-R-N-E-T dot O-R-G
I know they're discussing this issue
Quite a bit there
So those are two places to go
To get information
If you're already hooked into the network
If not it's a bit harder right now
You'll have to rely on
All kinds of tabloid news reports
But we'll keep you informed
On this particular program
This is from somebody
Somebody else on the internet
Who said
I did some digging
On America Online
And confirmed that
Doug's Den BBS in Boston
Has been shut down by the FBI
This is truly a nightmare
And I think we should try to organize
Some kind of campaign
This is one of the most sickening
Civil rights violations
I've heard of in a long time
And a post from the
SoC.MOTS news group
Jesus this explains a lot
If the board is Doug's Den
I wouldn't be surprised
If the FBI was pulling
Some sort of vital evidence BS
In order to harass
A gay bulletin board
Even if the BBS isn't Doug's Den
Then I can see how the climate
In Boston might lend itself
To a witch hunt
After all
The mayor of Boston
Is trying to ban a squirt gun
Right now
As a dangerous weapon
With leaders like that
Anything is possible
And finally
On this particular subject
A posting from
Another person on the internet
My first inclination
Is to make a stink
But I'm going to wait
Until Doug says
That's okay to do so
I didn't want to make
A bad situation worse
Yet
It's a police state
It makes me ill
That's all the information
We have
That's literally everything
We have
And we'll be following this
In future shows
So stay tuned
To Off the Hook
For updates on that
Particular situation
Regarding the seizure
Of a bulletin board
In Boston
For once
Not involving computer hackers
But you can see
It's only one step away
From computer hackers
To something else
And that something else
Could be a lot more dangerous
As far as issues
Of freedom of speech
And that kind of thing
Okay
Some interesting items
As far as
Telephone
And computer foul-ups
High technology in general
And just
How high tech
It really is
Stay tuned
Hey there everybody
Please don't walk me wrong
We're a little nervous
Cause we're so far from home
So this is what you do
Sit back and let it through
And let us work on you
Ooh, yeah, yeah, yeah
Mmm
We've all spent just a pair of them
Before this group was born
With hands and trumpets and dead
Well, we have a computer
That's being blamed for
A problem with a Pepsi contest
In the Philippines
That's right
500,000 Pepsi bottle caps
Turned into
$38,000 winners
That's right
500,000
You do the multiplication
And it comes out to a loss
For even
The biggest of companies
This came in the
Wall Street Journal
PepsiCo's
Philippine bottling franchise
Has had a promotion
With numbers printed
In the bottle cap
A winning number
Was supposed to pay off
Up to $38,000
But a
Quote-unquote
Computer glitch
Was blamed for
Number 349
Being announced
As the winning number
Even though that number
Appeared on
500,000 bottle caps
Several thousand people
Accepted PepsiCo's offer
Of $19
To each winner
But about 4,000 people
Are seeking governmental
Action for fraud
Well, what would you do?
You know, this could be
Your one chance
To win a contest
And they want to
Take it away from you
It's also interesting
How whenever
Something like this
Happens
It's always blamed
On a computer error
It wasn't our fault
The computer did it
Obviously somebody
Had to program
The computer
In the first place
But no need
Getting into all that
How about this
If we're
Interested in computer errors
Is anyone
With a given name
And date of birth
Who lives in the same county
Necessarily the same person
That is what the
Santa Clara County
In California
Voter registration
Computer believes
As reported in
A recent edition
Of the San Jose
Mercury News
John P. Taylor
A San Jose
Patent lawyer
Has voted in every election
Since 1979
But he didn't receive
His voting materials
In the mail this year
Even though his wife
Two sons
And daughter did
On checking with
The registrar of voters
He discovered
That another
John P. Taylor
Who happened to have
The same date of birth
Had recently registered
In nearby Sunnyvale
Both
Were born on Christmas Day
56 years ago
Now the computer
Knew
That a person
With the same name
And date of birth
Was the same person
And so
Treated the transaction
As a change
Of address
The computer records
Showed different places
Of birth
But apparently
Wasn't programmed
To check that
While county authorities
Scratched their heads
Over this improbable event
And what to do about it
The disenfranchised
John P. Taylor
Telephoned the other
John P. Taylor
And worked out
A quick fix
It seems that their
Middle names are
Paul and Philip
So
They agreed to
Re-register
With their full names
That's a
Happy ending
To that particular story
But of course
The person affected
Had to do all the work
And the people in charge
As usual
Had no idea
What was going on
That's nothing
Compared to
Claudia Braun
Of Indianapolis
According to
The Associated Press
She's only nine months old
But already
Her credit rating
Is shot
Indiana University
Medical Center
Computers show
That the youthful
Miss Braun
Has run up bills
Of more than
Three thousand dollars
For medical services
Including pregnancy tests
And dental care
Since late last year
The baby and her parents
Jean and Thomas Braun
Have received about
Fifteen bills
All for services
Rendered to people
They don't know
Each bill
Listed Claudia
As the person
Responsible for
Ensuring it got paid
I'd love to see them
Take me to court
And have me carry her
Into court
And say
Hi this is
Miss Claudia Braun
Said Thomas Braun
It's hilarious
When you think about it
But it's getting to be
An old joke
Added Mrs. Braun
Who's a registered nurse
At Wishard Memorial Hospital
Robert D. Whaling
Associate Director
Of Fiscal Affairs
At the Medical Center
Said the problem
Began
When Claudia
Entered the world
Without a social security number
The university's computer program
Which had just been installed
Registered Claudia as
000-00-0000
Later
When other patients
Who didn't know
Their social security numbers
Were entered
They got the same exact
Social security number
All zeros
The computer decided
That all the patients
With the zeros
Must be related
And they put Claudia
In charge of paying
The bills
At last count
There were 37 patients
Linked to Claudia's account
Medical center officials
Thought they had
The Braun problem
Fixed in February
And sent the family
A letter of apology
But the computer
Then spit out
Seven more bills
New computer software
Was installed recently
That Whaling said
Should eliminate the problem
We're sorry it happened
This should not happen again
From the Federal Employees
News Digest
Of May 18th
And this is interesting
An employee
Who forgot to type
A two-character code
When accessing
A computer at work
Was given
Unauthorized access
To a check-generating program
According to the
Merit Systems Protection Board
He should not have been
Disciplined for the mistake
The problem began
When an army depot
Switched certain information
From a mainframe computer
To mini-computers
When the employee
Tried to access
His normal work-related files
He ran into problems
And inadvertently created
A file listing banks
And companies
That were to get checks
Over one million dollars
The checks of course
Were never generated
They're not quite that bad
But the interesting thing
About that story is
The person using
The computer system
Was expected to hit
A two-letter code
In order to restrict
Access on his account
In other words
If he didn't enter
The two-digit code
He would have full access
So it's kind of
A reverse use
Of passwords there
Where you enter
A password to
Restrict your use
And if you don't
Enter the password
You get full access
But then again
It's the military
So I don't know
What people expect
Well from the
Indianapolis Star
If you think you had
Trouble dealing
With apathetic bureaucrats
Meet Eugene Smith
Of Doylestown, Pennsylvania
The healthy
33-year-old
Has spent the past
2.5 years
Convincing authorities
He's not dead
The frustrating error
Cost him his driver's license
And his job
He still can't get a license
And he's still fighting
Nine traffic violations
That he says aren't his
Smith traces the trouble
To the theft of his wallet
In 1988
He believes the thief
Used his driver's license
Racked up violations
That led to the license
Suspension
And then died
In a traffic accident
Now in February 1990
A police officer
Stopped Smith
And told him
His car registration
Was expired
And that state computer
Records showed
He was dead
He said I was dead
And because of that
I was not allowed
To drive
Said Smith
I agree that it would be
A hazard for a dead person
To be driving
Life isn't easy
For an officially dead man
Without a license
Smith lost his job
As a driver
For a warehouse
Without that job
He had to find
A cheaper place to live
And take a job
Nearby at a deli
Being an officially
Dead taxpayer
No one in the state
Capital took him
Seriously
I would call
And I would hear
Them say
Oh this is that guy
Again
I could hear them
Laugh
And they would say
Nobody there
Could help me
Finally
Susan Rackis
An aide to
Democratic U.S.
Representative
Peter Kostmeyer
Took his case
And persuaded
The state
Motor Vehicle Agency
To resurrect Smith
But Smith can't get a license
He's still accused
Of a string of years
Old traffic violations
Said Rick
Sean
State Transportation
Department spokesman
Obviously
We dropped the ball
On this
We were talking about
Star 6-9
On telephones
Over the last couple
Of weeks
Star 6-9
Is a service
That allows you
To return a phone call
To the last person
That called your line
Not necessarily
The last person
Who spoke to you
The last person
Who rang your number
You can call them back
With Star 6-9
Now
Officially
New York Telephone
Does not offer this service
However it is working
In many parts
Of New York Telephone area
So you might want to
Check it out
If you have not already
And you're in their
Particular
Calling area
It does work in New Jersey
It works in various
Other parts of the country
But
Here's something about
Star 6-7
Star 6-7
Supposedly toggles
Caller ID blocking
Now Bob Frankston
Writes in the
Risks Digest
On June 4th
There's been a discussion
Going on in the
Telecom forum
About Star 6-7
Which toggles
The caller ID
Blocking state
Of a phone line
At least in those areas
With caller ID blocking
But basically
What that does is
It either turns
Your caller ID
On
Or turns it off
Now the rationale
For requiring
Caller ID blocking
In some states
Is that there are
Situations where
Disclosing one's
Location might be
Life-threatening
As in the case
Of a shelter
For battered women
Or maybe a
Protected witness
Or any number
Of such things
And there are also
Normal privacy
Considerations
Which of course
We're rapidly
Losing sight of
If one always
Was sure of the
Default state
Of the line
One was using
A toggle might work
But there is no way
To determine the
State beyond faith
That the telco's
Computer is exactly
Synchronized with
One's expectations
And that
One is using
The assumed
Central office lines
On multi-line systems
Now if you're a
Visitor
All bets are off
As from plain
Errors made in
The business office
Or at the
Central office
One reader pointed
Out that some
Switches reloading
The software
Loses the settings
Basically every time
They reload they
Go back to the
Default
Another reader
Pointed out that
Star 6-7 isn't
An accident but
The specified
Behavior
The stupidity here
Is obvious
I'm more puzzled
About how it came
About
I generally lean
Towards incompetence
As an explanation
Rather than conspiracy
But since some
Of the rationale
For requiring
Caller ID
Comes from public
Safety considerations
I'm surprised
That no one
Has challenged
This approach
As failing to
Satisfy this
Requirement
And by providing
The illusion of
Caller ID blocking
Might actually
Increase the risk
Basically
Star 6-7
Either turns it
On or turns it
Off
But if you don't
Know if it's
On or off
All you're going
To do is switch
It one way or
The other
Most amazing
There
I don't know
Where they
Think up
These things
Alright we
Have one
Other very
Amusing story
And then we're
Going to be
Doing a demonstration
And taking some
Phone calls as
Well
I'd like to
Also advise
People that
That there's
A New York
Telephone rate
Increase on the
Books
And we'll be
Getting more
To detail on
That next week
We'll have
Some expert
Guests on the
Telephone
And perhaps
In the studio
Basically
What the phone
Company is
Planning to do
Is raise
Rates as of
July 3rd
Raising the
Statewide average
Residential bill
By 60 cents
A month
The basic
Monthly charge
For message
Rate
Residential service
Would rise
By $1.67
The current
Charge is
$6.60
Plus a $3.50
Federally mandated
Fee
But one of the
Significant things
About this
Rate increase
Is that they
Will be
Beginning to
Phase out the
Monthly charge
For touch
Tone service
Something we've
Been talking about
For quite some
Time here
And something
We'll go into
More detail in
Next week
On this program
Alright finally
To wrap things
Up as far as
The wonderful
World of technology
And computers
This comes from
Canada
And one of the
First applications
Of something a lot
Of you have
Expressed an
Interest in
That is
Voting by
Telephone
One day
Perhaps
Maybe
It might be
Possible for
You to vote
Without ever
Leaving your
House
Using a
Touchtone
Phone
And this
Is the kind
Of thing
That could
Happen
Some time
Ago
The Liberal
Party of
The province
Of Nova Scotia
Decided they'd
Use a high-tech
Voting system
Fairly simple
In structure
They would
Contract with
The local
Telephone
Company
Which is
Known as
Maritime
Tell and
Tell
To use a
Phone
Slash
Computerized
Phone
System
So that
People could
Vote from
The main
Leadership
Convention
Here in
Halifax
Or from
Regional
Rallies
Where they
Had banks
Of phones
Installed
Or from
Home
Using their
Touchtone
Phones
This is how
It works
Each candidate
Gets a
900 number
It doesn't
Say here
Whether it
Cost something
To call
That 900
Number
I would
Assume
It didn't
But then
Again
One never
Knows
Each
Card
Carrying
Liberal
Would get
A pin
A special
Identification
Number
And instructions
On how to
Use it
Come convention
Day
Each liberal
Could dial
The number
For the
Candidate
Of his
Or her
Choice
The candidate's
Recorded voice
Would state
For whom
That vote
Was about
To be
Cast
And request
The liberal
To enter
The pin
After entering
It
The candidate
Would thank
The liberal
For his
Or her
Vote
And hang
Up
Okay
Voting
Was supposed
To begin
At 1230
And take
90 minutes
For the first
Round
And if
Necessary
Several
Voting rounds
Could be
Cast
During the
Day
Everything
Went wrong
Here's a
Chronology
1230
Voting
Begins
However
Voters
Do not
Get
The thank
You
After entering
Their pin
1235
Confusion
Takes
Takes
The throne
And reigns
For the
Rest of
The day
Some
Telco
Representatives
Said that
Your vote
Was registered
Even if
You
Didn't
Get
A thank
You
Others
Said that
The votes
Were being
Counted
Don't
Worry
At
One
O'clock
Voting
Was suspended
While everyone
Worked everything
Out
At
140
The electoral
Officer
Announces that
All votes
Will be
Cancelled
And that
Voting
Will begin
Again
At
230
Then
At
Two
O'clock
A kid
With a
Scanner
Called the
Canadian
Broadcasting
Corporation
To tell
Them that
He had
A recording
Of the
Party's
Conversation
With the
Telephone
Company
Via a
Cellular
Phone
And that
Conversation
Gave the
Results
So far
The CBC
Passes the
Report up
Their hierarchy
Trying to
Decide if
It's a
Faked
Report
The kid
Calls back
30 seconds
Later
With the
Contents
Of their
Conversation
With an
Executive
Producer
Also
By
Cellular
Phone
The CBC
Decides
To run
The story
At
2.30
Voting
Begins
Again
Callers
Are
Instructed
That
Unless
They
Get
The
Thank
You
Message
Their
Vote
Has
Not
Been
Counted
Some
People
Get
A
Thank
You
On
The
First
Try
Others
Try
For
Twenty
Or
Thirty
Times
In a
Desperate
Move
The
Telephone
Company
Cuts
Down
On
The
Number
Of
Circuits
Into
The
System
To
No
Avail
Voters
Now
Have
Busy
Signals
As
Well
As
No
Acknowledgements
To
Deal
With
They
Until
Four
O'Clock
Many
Voters
Complain
That
Their
Pin
Is
Being
Rejected
Officials
Say
Never
Mind
Just
Try
To
Vote
Again
In
That
Case
At
Four
O'Clock
Less
Than
Half
The
Conventioneers
Have
Voted
Voting
Is
Extended
Until
Five
O'Clock
Five
O'Clock
Voting
Is
Extended
Until
Six
Thirty
At
Five
Thirty
Reports
Begin
Arriving
That
Members
Have
Been
Able
To
Vote
Twice
At
Six
Thirty
What
Went
Wrong
System
Design
Wise
Well
Considering
The
Pin
As
A
Password
Each
Member
Knew
Only
His
And
Anyone
Who
Was
Able
To
Guess
Your
Pin
Could
Vote
On
Your
Behalf
So
The
Problems
Of
Pins
Being
Rejected
And
Voting
Twice
Could
Easily
Be
Explained
As
People
Making
Finger
Errors
If
You
Made
A
Mistake
With
Your
Pin
Either
You
Got
Someone
Else
Number
And
Voted
For
Them
Or
You
Got
Rejected
No
Way
To
Tell
If
You
Later
Went
Back
And
Used
Your
Correct
Pin
After
Having
Used
Someone
Else's
Why
That
Would
Look
A lot
Like
Being
Able
To
Vote
Twice
And
Users
Couldn't
Of
Course
Change
Their
Pins
Anyone
With
A
Programmable
Dialer
Could
Have
Voted
For
Many
Many
Liberals
If
He
Knew
The
Format
Of
The
Pins
Given
The
Profoundly
Bad
Management
We
Saw
I
Wouldn't
Be
Surprised
To
See
Them
As
Six
Digit
Numbers
Ranging
From
Say
100
2001
To
107
290
There
Were
7289
Registered
Voters
This
Prospect
Hasn't
Even
Been
Discussed
Yet
In
The
Local
Media
There
Was
No
Backup
Voting
System
For
This
The
Inaugural
Use
Of
The
System
The
Phone
Company
Convinced
The
Party
There
Was
No
Need
For
It
The
Phone
Company
Reminded
The
Party
That
It
Handles
Thousands
Hundreds
Of
Thousands
Of
Calls
A
Day
There
Was
No
Possibility
Of
The
System
Failing
Operationally
There
Was
Either
A
Bug
In
The
Voting
Software
Or
It
Was
Incapable
Of
Handling
The
Volume
Of
Traffic
Causing
It
To
Fail
To
Say
Thank
You
Most
Of
The
Time
And
Of
Course
The
Kid
With
The
Scanner
Telling
All
Just
Added
Icing
To
The
Cake
It
Was
Not
A
Great
Day
For
The
Phone
Company
Or
For
The
Liberal
Party
There
Hasn't
Been
Any
Discussion
Of
Responsibility
But
There
Sure
Will
Be
Next
Week
The
Convention
Cost
Hundreds
Of
Thousands
Of
Dollars
And
It
Was
Entirely
A
Wasted
Effort
And
That
Posting
Came
Off
The
Risk
Digest
From
Daniel
McKay
Of
Nova
Scotia
The
CBC
Has
Reported
There's
Now
Talk
About
Having
To
Run
The
Entire
Campaign
Over
Again
Since
The
Candidates
Who
Are
Listed
As
Faring
Badly
In
The
Cellular
Telephone
Message
Are
Protesting
That
This
Disadvantages
Them
In
A
New
Polling
A
Second
Campaign
Would
Severely
Drain
The
Resources
Of
The
Party
And
Would
Put
Them
At
A
Disadvantage
In
Subsequent
Elections
That
Pretty
Much
Wraps
Up
Our
Reports
Of
Computer
Technology
And
The
Wonders
Next
Time
We
Consider
Electronic
Voting
Now
Our
Phone
Lines
Are
Open
At
212-279-3400
If
Anyone
Has
Questions
Or
Comments
Or
Experiences
Of
Their
Own
We're
Going
To
Be
Demonstrating
Something
That's
Rather
Interesting
And
A
Whole
Lot
Of
Fun
In
Just
A
Moment
212-279-3400
T
We spend a lot of time talking about various ways of manipulating things.
And it's always good to know how a certain system works if you're using it.
And that extends to the phone company as well as any other computer system that is out there.
Of course, the phone company is just one big, gigantic computer system.
It has been for quite some time.
Whether you use electromechanical relays or digital switches, it's all tied together from one corner of the globe to another.
Now what we're about to demonstrate here are a couple of the tones that we talk about.
And we talk about quite a few of them over the course of several weeks here.
We talk about people being able to blue box.
We talk about people being able to red box.
We talk about white boxes and rainbow boxes and all kinds of different boxes.
And really what they refer to is just different kinds of tones that do different kinds of things.
For instance, we're all familiar with touch tones.
Now touch tones are found almost everywhere.
They're found on probably your telephone and certainly every payphone that's around.
What do touch tones sound like?
Well, that's a fairly easy question to answer.
Here is a touch tone string.
That's a very rapidly dialed touch tone string.
Am I a compliment to anybody that can decode that?
Touch tones are used by just about everybody in this country at some point.
And, of course, while some phone companies like to charge fees for them, there really is nothing special about them.
Not so with MF tones.
MF tones are slightly different.
Now what we're going to do is play the same exact string of numbers.
First with touch tones.
And then with MF tones.
Now you might notice a slight difference there.
MF tones were very commonly heard throughout the 60s and 70s.
And anybody that was able to generate those particular tones and was able to seize long-distance trunk lines
could route phone calls anywhere around the world using those and a couple of other interesting tones.
Among them, the tone used most often to seize a long-distance trunk, the 2600 Hz tone.
That's what it's all about.
That particular tone would knock off the phone call that you were connected to and give you access to the actual machinery.
And then, if you wanted to actually do something, you would preface...
You might have to route things around a little bit.
And you would have to stick a tone known as K-P in front of the phone number you were dialing
and end it all with the start button.
A start tone.
So, in actuality, the number that you were trying to call would not sound like this.
But would instead have those tones added to it and would sound like this.
Notice the tone at the beginning and the final tone at the end that tells it to go ahead.
No doubt you've heard those tones throughout your lifetime.
In the distance, as you make a long-distance phone call.
And that is the actual mechanics of the system working.
Of course, it's done differently now.
Now, it's not as easy to manipulate the system in that particular way, at least not in this country.
But it is a lot easier than some people think to gain the knowledge and learn about it.
So, that's a little demonstration of differences between touch tones and MF tones.
Now, there are also...
By the way, people that use MF tones are called blue boxers.
That's what blue boxing is, using MF tones to route phone calls.
A white box is the touch tone pad.
Nothing more than a simple touch tone pad that makes simple...
...touch tones.
Blue boxes are MF tones.
I know to a lot of people that probably sounds exactly the same, but there's a world of difference there.
And, of course, seizing the line, they use 2600 Hz.
Ah.
Magic to my ears there.
Okay, there is something else.
Something that, uh, I guess is more of a 1980s kind of a thing, and that is red boxing.
Now, a lot of you, um, if you use payphones and put money into the payphones, you will hear special tones.
Sometimes.
A lot of times they're muted, but, uh, those tones basically tell the phone company that you have put in a quarter.
What does it sound like?
Does this sound familiar?
That's the sound of a quarter going into a payphone.
That's the sound of two quarters going into a payphone.
Now, it's interesting that these tones are used.
What's really, really interesting is that many payphones throughout the country still to this day only require the sound of those tones.
That's the only confirmation that a quarter has indeed been placed into a phone.
So, you could actually walk up to a payphone and call a particular number, and when the lady, nice lady, asks you for money, you simply say,
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, and you have a dollar in the phone.
Just like that.
That's how easy it is.
Unbelievable sometimes.
The phone system is, uh, is not this complex web that a lot of people make it out to be.
It's, uh, it's quite simple to manipulate and learn from.
Now, of course, just making free phone calls is, uh, is only the simplest way of understanding how it all ties together.
But it's, uh, it is important to know how things are accepted, what is listened for, what particular tones mean, what they sound like.
And it is important to, uh, to experiment with them and see just what is possible.
Now, as far as, uh, as using these particular tones, certainly with red box tones, a lot of people seem to think that, uh, it doesn't work because they try to call a payphone down the block, and they simply make this sound, and it doesn't do anything.
And that's because a different kind of computer system is in use when you make local phone calls.
Uh, those particular tones are not really what's listened for.
It's a different kind of a system, which, uh, I won't get into here because we just get too complicated, and I'd probably get a few key facts wrong anyway.
But, uh, this mostly works on long-distance international calls, believe it or not.
The easiest calls to make for free are the ones that are furthest away.
It's one of those facts of, uh, of phone company lore.
And there is, uh, another set of tones that, uh, do various, various weird things.
Some of them are error tones.
Some of them are, uh, are different kinds of things.
On every touchtone keypad, you notice that there are, well, 12 buttons.
But every touchtone keypad has the potential for more.
And those, uh, those numbers are, uh, are known as silver box tones.
That's right, silver box tones sound like this.
Slightly higher pitched.
And let's go down, uh, go down the, uh, the dial there.
Actually, uh, probably not hitting the right keys here.
Okay, I got it now.
They sound like touchtones.
In fact, they're, they're very closely related to touchtones.
And if you had an extra row of, uh, of keys on your phone, one to the right of the three, to the right of the six, to the right of the nine, to the right of the pound sign, they would sound like this in descending order.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep.
Those are the tones that used to be used on, uh, Audubon, the military phone system.
Uh, they were also used in various, uh, various instances on the phone network.
At, at one point you could call, and I still hear rumors that this is true.
You could call long-distance information and hit the, uh, the D key, which is the very bottom, bottom right hand next to the pound sign on your phone.
And if you hit that for a couple of seconds, it would, uh, knock the operator, the, the long-distance information operator, off the line.
You'd get a pulsating dial tone.
And with that pulsating dial tone, you could hit single digits and go into various modes.
For instance, loops.
You could meet people on loops that way.
You could, uh, get, uh, test numbers, uh, switch rooms, things like that.
And some of it may still work, some of it may not.
The, uh, ABCD tones on the silver box can be used for anything.
There could be phone systems that use these secret keys and use them because most people don't have access to them.
So, keep that in mind when you explore.
All right, that's, uh, that's our lesson for today.
That's our demonstration on, uh, on the various magical tones out there.
And the reason we, uh, we do this is, uh, not to encourage people to engage in, in criminal activities.
I'm, I'm sure I don't have to tell people that.
It's, it's to show people what's out there, what we're actually talking about.
We mention these tones.
We say what people do.
It's important that we define our terms sometimes so that people know exactly what it is we're talking about.
Okay, enough, uh, enough of this talking now.
Let's, uh, take some phone calls.
212-279-3400.
And see who's out there.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Hello?
Go ahead.
You're on.
Yeah.
About the, um, the star, star six, seven, the star five, seven and star six, nine.
Right.
Star five, seven, call trace.
Star six, nine, call return.
Yes.
Right.
Um, uh, Nessau County, Long Island, evidently it works.
Um, if you, uh, do the, uh, star five, seven within about, okay, the longest I've tried was about an hour after the call.
Um, you'll get a message, a recording that says the call, the last call to your number has been traced.
And then it tells you the number of the annoyance call bureau to call up.
Are you saying that, that, that recording comes an hour later?
No, no.
I'm saying up to an hour after the call, the last call, if you wait.
Oh, I see. It's only up to an hour.
Yeah. Um, um, longer than that.
I tried it once about, I'd say about two or three hours after the call.
And then it said, unable to trace the last call to your number.
Well, that, that sounds like a software setting to me because obviously if you're able to return the call and it's the last call, it's being stored someplace.
I imagine the reason they give an hour limit on that is because what, what person in their right mind would decide that somebody was harassing him two hours later?
Yeah.
Well, I'm not sure of the exact limit. I'm just saying these are the, the two, uh, those are the, those are the two variations that I tried.
Let me ask you something. How far away would it return a call to?
I don't know. I don't, I don't, I, I, I dialed up the, I dialed up that number as well.
Uh-huh.
You know, that last number?
Yeah.
Um, and it does redial that number and calls it.
Uh-huh. But do you know if it's only in your local neighborhood or could be all of Long Island or New York State?
Oh, you mean where, where the call originated?
Right.
Yeah, that I don't know. I'll have to, uh, investigate further.
Okay, that's what we need to find out to see how big an area this encompasses.
Yeah. Yeah, okay.
Thanks for calling.
Okay, take it easy.
And, uh, that's good that people are out there experimenting.
Uh, unfortunately, where I am, I can't experiment yet because I'm still on a mechanical crossbar system,
but, uh, that's supposedly coming to an end real soon, and I'll be able to play around like everybody else.
Uh, now, interesting thing, a lot of people say, Star 69, well, I don't have a touch-tone phone, so I can't do this.
Well, there is hope for you people, because a star can be emulated by hitting the, what the phone company calls, the 11 key.
Now, there's no 11 key on your phone either, but if you dial 1-1-6-9, it's the same thing as dialing star 69.
So, uh, 1-1-6-9, 1-1-5-7, 1-1-anything.
In fact, you can turn call waiting off by dialing 1-1-7-0 instead of star 70 if you don't have a touch-tone phone,
or if you just don't like using your touch-tone phone.
Good evening. You're on the air.
Yeah, Emmanuel Goldstein.
How you doing?
Eric Blair.
Listen, Emmanuel, um, you know, I've been doing some experimenting, too.
You know, I go to local board meetings of Pacifica and WBAI, and then I went to the National Pacifica board meeting this weekend.
And I can't believe how, you know, there was a box in the folio, and it said that the National Board was meeting in New York City on the last weekend.
Do you understand what I mean?
Now, naturally, it was meeting at some building, some hotel.
Do you want to tie this into what we're talking about?
Of course, my dear.
You are so clever.
You know, your mind works in devious circles.
Yes, my finger works even faster.
Good morning.
Good evening, rather.
Hi there.
How you doing?
Okay, seven-second delay caught me by surprise.
That's okay.
Three things.
One, when you talk about meeting people on the loop, it just suddenly brought back nostalgic memories of People Express Airlines in their early startup days,
where they had one, I think it was an 800 number to call them from wherever you were.
And if you called the 800 number, you got put on hold and discovered that you could talk to all the other people all over who were also on hold.
So I had charming talks with strangers in Toronto who were waiting to get on.
And most people expressed regret when people expressed, got rid of that unexpected feature of their phone system.
That's a funny way you tied that in.
Most people expressed regret.
I like that.
And anyway, I have a question I've been meaning to ask you for a while.
I've been frustrated.
I work for New York City government, and we have a restrictive phone system, which means that most people are not allowed to call long-distance,
and those people who are, and I'm one of them, are given an authorization code, which the system will then allow you to place long-distance calls.
However, what the system will not allow you to do, regardless of how authorized you are, is to dial the operator or to get any other long-distance carrier through the 1-0, you know, like 10.
Yeah, that's a common problem.
And there is a very simple fix to that.
Unfortunately, the long-distance companies don't see fit to maintain this program, but that's the 950 access numbers,
basically toll-free numbers that give you dial tones.
And then instead of billing back to the number you're calling from, you enter your own authorization code and make your long-distance call that particular way,
and it gets billed to whatever phone number that authorization code belongs to, no surcharge,
and quality just as good as a regular direct dial call.
It doesn't really solve the problem of operator assistance, I realize.
Right.
I don't know if I could then call the 800 number for Sprint or MCI, and then from there try to call a local operator.
I'm not sure if it's possible to do that.
Well...
I have had some frustrating calls with AT&T about accessing their long-distance service through something other than 10-AT&T,
and the people I get are confused by the question but assure me that it's absolutely impossible and there is no local access.
No, that's not true.
It is absolutely possible.
If you call 1-800-CALL-ATT, whatever numbers that translates to, you get the equivalent of making a zero-plus call.
It'll say, hit this button for help making a zero-plus call.
It's meant to be used from pay phones that don't allow that kind of thing.
And what you do is you enter your calling card number and where you want to call to,
and it works just like you were doing zero-plus.
That's interesting.
I wonder why AT&T customer service doesn't want to give that information out.
Well, we could speculate on that for quite some time, but I think it boils down to just general knowledge of how their own system works,
which is very low right now.
Right, and one other thing that is tangential to what you're talking about.
I have been fighting a two-year battle with New York Newsday to get them to stop calling me at home,
which I consider harassment and they consider salesmanship.
Yeah, they keep asking why you don't want to subscribe, right?
Well, after I would get, for the brief period when I did subscribe and which I stopped in protest,
when I would get calls to ask me to subscribe when I was already subscribing, I said, enough already.
And so I canceled my subscription and I gave them my name and my roommate's name, which is a different last name,
and I gave them the phone number and I said, do not ever call here again, ever.
And they said, gotcha, we'll write it down, you will never be bothered.
And then sometime later I got one of their, you know, $4 minimum wage persons calling me,
who didn't understand why I was upset, wouldn't identify himself, wouldn't get off the line and hung up on me,
so I had to call back to their bank of operators.
And they pulled up their system and sure enough, there was my name, there was my roommate's name,
there was the phone number, and they said, you're right, we're not supposed to call you.
Funny about that.
And this Sunday it happened again, and I was told by their director of sales,
their manager of telemarketing sales, that they had just installed a new system,
a computer system, of course, for Brooklyn, and he had made a decision personally
that it was important to get the system up and running immediately,
and he couldn't be bothered to have someone key punch all of the names and numbers of the people
who are not to be called.
They would do that later.
Well, definitely you should get that person's name.
I have his name and number, and I have so far called the Telephone Annoyance Bureau,
and they don't handle it, and I've called the Department of Consumer Affairs,
I've called the New York Bar Association for a referral,
and they don't handle these kinds of complaints.
I've called the district attorney, and I've called the local police precinct,
and I'm filing a complaint.
You should, most definitely.
But no one can actually tell me whether or not this is illegal,
because they're not a collection agency, so Consumer Affairs can't handle it,
they're not obscene, and they seem to feel that as long as it's done
during reasonable hours.
I didn't think 10 a.m. on a Sunday was reasonable.
No one is quite sure at this point whether this is legal or not.
Uh-huh.
It's something that is coming up quite a few different places.
Some states have laws, but then again, the telemarketers get around that
by calling from out of state.
So there's, I don't think there's anything in a uniform kind of a state, you know,
from coast to coast that applies.
A couple of things that come to mind, though, first of all, this wouldn't apply to you,
but for those people out there that consider this kind of thing,
I understand that people that never subscribe never get phone calls.
You have to subscribe once in order for them to have you in their database.
That's just something I've heard.
Yeah, so it's something to keep in mind, and maybe if Newsday realizes
that people aren't subscribing to them because they don't want to be harassed.
It's not the case for Newsday because they have told me that they hire, you know,
other companies that do demographer-type work, and they just buy lists of phone numbers.
Uh-huh.
So if I'm in a targeted area, they don't care that I've never subscribed.
They will blanket the area the same way that they will pick an area
and deliver the newspaper free for a week.
The other thing I would suggest is just, you know, if you want to have fun with this,
subscribe, and then don't pay your bill.
And if you don't pay your bill, they're not going to bother you again
because they're not going to like you.
I'll be a deadbeat.
I've thought about that.
The reason, part of the reason I canceled the subscription
is they couldn't figure out how to get into an apartment building,
and they were in the habit of ringing the tenants at 6.30 in the morning
to be let in to deliver the paper.
And for my lifestyle, no paper is important enough.
I understand that.
I'm going the criminal route, and I'm going to try the public embarrassment route also.
But it's just the other end of phone problems
is being the receiver of unwanted calls
rather than being locked out of wanting to call where and how you want to.
Yes.
Well, I sympathize with that,
and I'd be very interested to know how that turns out in the future.
Keep us advised.
I will indeed, and thanks for your show.
Okay.
Thanks for calling.
And that also brings to mind a stupid mistake I made years ago,
and it's a mistake that I don't think would be confused with what people do here at BAI.
But there was this other station.
I'll call it a TV station because that's what it was.
It was having a fundraiser, and I decided to be a good-natured slob
and call them and actually donate something.
So I called their particular...
It was an automated kind of a thing.
They said, if you like this program, call this number now,
and this will automatically be added to your phone bill.
So I said, okay, I like that program, and, you know, it's only a few dollars,
so I'll do that just to support them and to show my support.
So I did.
And the big mistake was that by doing that,
my phone number, my private, private phone number,
got registered with their computer.
And now they're calling back all the time saying,
won't you please re-donate?
Give us something else.
So think twice before you call one of those special numbers,
and they could be 540 numbers, 900 numbers, even 800 numbers.
They will get your phone number.
Good evening.
Yes.
Is this the show?
Yes.
The phone show?
It certainly is, and you're on the air now.
Oh, okay.
I turned my radio down.
You mentioned the radio change application.
It was filed by New York Telephone,
and you say you're going to discuss it in more detail next week?
That's correct, yes.
Can you give me an idea of who your guests are?
You said you had some expert guests.
Well, we don't know yet, and we can't say until we do know.
Oh, I see.
In other words, you don't have anyone planned at this point.
Well, we have feelers out to a lot of different people,
and we'll see who gets back to us and who wants to comment on it.
I see.
Okay.
One other thing.
You mentioned that they want to reduce the price on the touchtone phones.
Uh-huh.
Well, no, it's not price on the phones.
It's the, quote-unquote, service.
The touchtone service, the charge, I think, now is $1.35 a month for residential
and more than that for business.
Is that right?
Right.
Yeah.
Something like that.
Yeah, it's more for businesses.
That much I do know.
I was wondering what you thought of the idea that they should be charging for a rotary.
Well, touchtone should be free and people who insist on keeping rotary,
because, of course, when you dial a number via the touchtone route,
it takes milliseconds, I guess.
Uh-huh.
Now, with the rotary route, you're taking a lot of time on the registration of the call.
You are taking more time.
It's not significant, however,
and I don't believe there's a need to charge anybody for using their phones above and beyond.
Actually, that's what boils down to the people who have touchtone now
really doing the phone company a favor by making the equipment work much.
Very true.
And it's simply something that goes back to the early 60s
where people thought that touchtone was something new and improved,
and it was back then, but now it's standard, so it should be treated as standard.
Everybody seems to understand this except the phone company.
Yeah.
And it's kind of funny because my particular phone switch will be upgrading soon,
and I'm going to be downgrading because they're going to have the ability
to turn off touchtones for those people that refuse to pay the fee.
So while we're moving into the modern age,
we're actually moving backwards a step at the same time.
Right.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Okay.
Thanks for calling.
By the way, I should point out, too, that there is,
and I wish I had the actual location, but you can find out the location by calling a particular phone number.
The State Consumer Protection Board is holding hearings tomorrow on various issues of privacy,
things involving credit ratings, your credit information getting out.
I imagine also your phone being called by all kinds of businesses,
and that's being held downtown at the Consumer Protection Board office.
The number to call for more information, 212-417-4908.
That's the number that we have there, 212-417-4908.
It will be starting, I believe, at noon, and if people want to speak,
they're going to have to wait until the people that already are registered to speak have spoken,
which I believe is about 3.30 or 4.
So, again, the number to call for more information on that, 212-417-4908.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Yeah, hi.
A couple of months ago, part of your program was devoted to this MCI family and friends plan
that gives a discount to people who are enrolled, who call numbers frequently.
Yeah, since then there's been an advertising campaign by other phone companies saying that,
basically what we said that night, that it's an invasion of your privacy
to give out the private numbers of all your friends so that you can get discounts when you call them.
Right.
Now, I wasn't paying close attention because it didn't affect me then,
but now it does because a friend of mine who lives in San Francisco
has put me down as a frequent caller,
and she gets a 20% discount, I guess, when she calls me.
Now, my name and number is listed somewhere, right?
That's right.
In fact, we called that on the air,
and back then the only password that was required to access a complete listing
of all a particular person's friends and family was their zip code.
If you knew somebody's zip code, you could hear all the phone numbers that they called.
Now I think they've changed that so that it's the last four digits of their account number,
which is just as easy to get.
Right, right.
So it's an invasion of your privacy,
and you might want to explain that to your friend,
that it's something that you don't want to have attached to your number.
Yeah, I was called by MCI, too, because I'm on MCI,
and they wanted to enroll me in this,
but I wasn't ready to give out my friend's numbers.
Uh-huh.
Well, a very simple way to get off that person's list is to switch long-distance companies
because then you'll no longer be eligible.
Right.
So switch to another long-distance company,
and you'll be off the list and blacklisted for the rest of your life.
Okay.
Well, one other thing, and this is short.
But on my bill, I got an AT&T call listed down there,
and it was a third-party call to bill to my number from Georgia,
and I was never in Georgia, calling to New York City.
Now, when I called the operator about it, they deducted the cost of the call.
But somebody out there, can I assume that somebody out there knows my number and is using it?
Is it AT&T?
AT&T, yeah.
All right, AT&T, was it a collect call or a calling card call?
Uh, I can't remember.
It was probably, it was a third-party call where they gave this number as a billing number.
Okay, it sounds either like somebody guessed your calling card number,
in which case you should get another one, no charge for that,
or somebody perhaps made a third-party call, which was basically they said,
I want to bill to this particular number,
and for some reason they believed them without confirming.
Either way, though, you should get your calling card number changed,
and either way, we're out of time.
Thanks for the call, and thanks to everybody else who didn't get through,
and thanks to everybody for listening.
We'll be back again next week talking about the rate increase.
Stay tuned for the personal computer show.
This is Emmanuel Goldstein for Off The Hook.
Good night.
Monday.
I cut myself while shaving.
Now I can't make a call.
It couldn't get much worse.
But if they could, they would.
Bum Diddley Bom for the best expect for worse.
I hope that's understood.
Bum Diddley Bom!
Monday, Monday, Monday.