7-2-0-9
My name is Mike, I'm representing New York, I'm not a Muslim, I still don't eat pork.
Hello, I'm Spike Lee, you're listening to WBAI, a listener sponsor, a community later in New York City.
WBAI needs your support, please be generous, thank you.
If you don't call me Junior, you can call me Smooth, roll call.
Shabuya, shah, shah, shabuya, roll call.
Shabuya, shah, shah, shabuya, roll call.
My name is Evan, Evan Senior, they got my son.
Oh yes, every time we play that
the phones just light up. This is WBAI
in New York. It's time
once again for the elusive program
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 call
It could be yet much worse
But if they killed
they would
I hope that fun is good
I hope that fun is good
One minute now
Okay, let's go about a wall
Listen to the stone
By the way, let's go to Kiko
I'll see you guys
See you soon
While marketing is hard
Thank you.
Thank you.
And some fun things that you may not want to play with at home.
Stay tuned.
We'll be right back.
The brand new issue of 2600 Magazine has, well, it hasn't quite hit the stands yet, but it's kind of hit the loading zones.
That's the first step towards hitting the stands.

And we've got some other fun news items that are taking place around the world, around the globe.
And, of course, we always welcome people sending things in to us to tell us what's going on in this crazy world of ours.
How about this for a fun story?
This involves radio people.
Radio people not quite like us, but sort of similar in the fact that they broadcast over radio.
This comes to us from Radio World, which is a newspaper about radio.
Radio listeners throughout the city of Seattle were startled by sudden screams when KPLZ put a caller on the air after a song.
It seems that Carrie Gleason, calling from a cellular phone in her van, was not reacting to the song.
She was gripped by fear as her van was struck by another vehicle.
Now, this is the fun part, because this is where the listeners and the radio people and the police and the government and everybody can all sort of join hands and work together as one.
What's going on? Morning DJs Alan Budwill and Kent Phillips asked the frightened Gleason.
I just got into the biggest car accident, she replied.
The DJs immediately tried to calm Gleason, then told her to get the license number of the suspect vehicle before it could flee the scene.
Well, luckily for Gleason, the motorist behind her was also listening to KPLZ and got the suspect vehicle's license plate numbered.
Now, adding to the pursuit of the hit-and-run driver, yet another good Samaritan spotted the car and called in a description of the vehicle to the radio station.
You couldn't miss that car. The side panel was practically missing. One tire was smashed in, said Gleason.
Well, we called the police on the air, and the guy was caught in less than an hour. Amazing.
Once police officer Mark Tomlinson got the call from his dispatcher, he turned on KPLZ in his patrol car
and received additional tips from the radio station quicker than the dispatcher could relay them.
Who needs dispatchers when you have 50,000 watts of...
Well, how shall we say it? I guess, uh, just good-minded citizens looking to capture the bad people.
Anyway, they, uh, they tracked down the bad people. No injuries.
But, you know, the funny thing, two funny things.
A, they say you couldn't have, you couldn't have missed that car, according to the person who got into the, uh, the car wreck.
So, this whole story is kind of pointless. You didn't really need a 50,000-watt radio station to help you find it if, uh, it was that easy to find.
And the second thing, you ever wonder why the person got into a car wreck in the first place?
It was probably because she was on a cellular phone talking to the radio station.
You know, it's, uh, they sort of veer away from that aspect of it.
But, um, if you look at, at how the accident took place, um, they, they, basically, the person driving says,
I slammed on my brakes, and the other vehicle hit my right front bumper.
Well, now, let's think about this.
If she slammed on her brakes, the only way the, the vehicle could have hit her right front bumper would be if, if she went into it.
You know, I mean, that's what right front bumpers are.
They generally are moving forwards.
So, unless this person was backing up, she probably hit him.
And, uh, who knows what really caused it?
We may never know.
But the power of radio has been demonstrated once again.
And if that's not enough, how about this from the Knight Ritter newspapers?
Vandals swept through the Internet last weekend.
Wiping clean dozens of public bulletin boards.
Used by groups of Jews, Muslims, feminists, and homosexuals, among others.
In one of the most widespread attacks on the international computer network,
the programs automatically erased copies of more than 27,000 messages from thousands of servers
before operators stopped at the damage.
The identity of those responsible for launching the apparent hate attacks, uh, remains unknown.
The incident further illustrates the shaky security foundation of the Internet,
which has mushroomed from academic research tool to international communications medium in just three years.
And it raised the ire of many Internet users furious at the ease with which a user can erase someone else's words
from worldwide discussion groups known as Usenet news groups.
So, basically, what we have here is someone going and erasing messages that were sent out to Usenet,
uh, which is the worldwide, uh, bulletin board, I guess, of all different, uh, subjects,
uh, ranging from legitimate to obscene to, uh, controversial to boring.
Well, uh, the incident follows closely three other well-publicized Internet attacks,
two of which involve the Justice Department and the CIA,
and the other, of course, involving the, uh, Sin Flood attack,
which we talked about a couple of weeks ago here on this program,
that, uh, involve panics.com here in New York City.
Uh, the fact that a user can stamp out the words of someone else
is an artifact of the original design of the Internet
begun as a Department of Defense project in 1969.
And any Internet user is free to post a contribution to nearly any news group,
and the posting is rapidly copied from one server to another,
so the contents of a news group are identical on every server.
Almost the only form of control over postings, including their content,
is voluntary adherence to informal behavior rules known as netiquette.
Uh, possibly now that, uh, millions and millions of people
are involved in the Internet, those rules are a bit outdated.
The thing that's kind of disturbing about this story, though,
is, uh, is the way it begins.
Vandals swept through the Internet last weekend, wiping clean
dozens of public bulletin boards used by groups of Jews, Muslims,
feminists, and homosexuals, among others.
You know, it's, uh, it could be that they randomly deleted things,
and that just happened to include groups of people of all sorts,
wasn't necessarily a hate crime,
although, uh, certainly helps when the media categorizes it as such.
Makes for interesting headlines.
Fact of the matter is, as with almost all these stories we talk about,
the Internet is simply growing at a phenomenal rate,
and the rules with which the Internet was set up by simply
don't work anymore with millions and millions of people using things,
and we need to, uh, to build it better, to fix our problems.
The last thing we need is to call in federal authorities to fix it for us.
You know, it doesn't make any sense.
You, uh, you have a problem with something.
You know, your drain is clogged up.
Well, you know, you don't call in, you know, a doctor to fix that.
I guess I'm giving them too much credit by calling them that,
but, but you call in somebody who understands what the problem is,
and when you call in federal authorities to deal with things like the Internet,
you know, you're calling in somebody who has no comprehension,
and, and, of course, the people who call them
are using them as someone who knows something about the Internet.
We know something about the Internet.
The people that, uh, that are doing bad things
supposedly know something about the Internet.
So, why do we, uh, insist on getting people involved
who know absolutely nothing about it?
Oh, they're trying to learn, but they never quite get it right.
We all know this.
So, um, the answer, I feel, is to, uh,
is to make the Net work better by improving the technology.
And time and again, we seem to be able to, uh, to fix the problems,
whether it's mail bombing, sin flooding, cancel bots, or, or what have you,
whatever it is this week.
We need to find solutions within the community.
Um, okay, we, uh, we have this announcement concerning 9X.
There's, uh, a proposal to merge 9X and Bell Atlantic,
and if you're interested in, I guess, voicing your opinion on that,
then what you need to do is call the PSC opinion line.
And this number can't possibly be right
because they tell you to dial 1-9-800,
which I don't think is any, any dialing instructions that I've ever, ever seen before.
Uh, let's just take that 9 out of there and call it 1-800-335-2120.
In fact, um, I think maybe we'll try and, um, try and give that a buzz in just a moment or two.
You can also connect to their website.
You knew, you knew the PSC had to have a website.
www.dps.state.ny.us.
Please don't change the website.
It's, uh, you know, it's an important resource.
The Public Service Commission, it's really the only way to, to get, uh, get the opinions out
of, uh, people that subscribe to various phone companies and, and power companies
and other utilities and things like that.
Um, the 9X-Bell Atlantic merger, uh, has not been approved and it's really up to people like
ourselves to decide whether or not it will be approved.
I happen to think it's, it's probably one of the worst ideas ever because here you have 9X,
which probably has the lowest standards in the nation, uh, trying to hook up with Bell Atlantic,
which has one of the highest standards, at least according to their customers.
Now, what's going to happen when you do that?
A, 9X will drag down Bell Atlantic, maybe Bell Atlantic will pull 9X up, but either way,
competition becomes all the harder because you have this one massive company.
Now, I have no problem if Bell Atlantic decides to open up offices here.
That'd be great, you know, compete with, with 9X.
And, um, 9X could do the same in Bell Atlantic territory.
Yeah, right.
But, uh, they could try.
They could do that.
That's competition.
That's what it's all about.
But, um, this, this merger business.
You know, mergers are evil.
I don't know if people know this, but mergers are really, really bad news.
And, and to give you an example, let's just look at what's happening with cable TV.
You see Time Warner taking over Turner.
Now, that's the biggest company, the biggest media company ever.
Time Warner Turner.
I don't know if they're officially calling it that, or Turner Time Warner, or Time Turner Warner,
or whatever they're going to call the thing.
But, it's the biggest media company ever.
Now, all of a sudden, everything is owned by the same people.
The cable companies.
The cable channels.
The, the, the film distribution places.
The films themselves.
You know, it just, it never ends.
Newspapers.
Radio stations.
TV stations.
And, nothing served as a better example of how ill-equipped these people are to deal with their monopoly
than what's been going on here in New York City over the past few weeks.
That, uh, it was all triggered by the Fox News Channel.
I don't know if anybody can get the Fox.
Do they have that here in New York yet?
No?
Okay.
Well, there's a big controversy going on with the Fox News Channel.
Because, because the cable companies are owned by Time Warner.
And, since Time Warner now owns Turner, which is CNN, they say, no, you know, we're not going
to carry the Fox News Channel because that would be competing with us.
You know, that would be competing with, with one of our prized channels.
Why should we?
We already have MSNBC.
You know, that's, that's competition.
So, why should we have yet more competition?
Of course, they don't quite say it that way.
They say it like, uh, well, we don't have any room on our, on our channel, uh, our, our
500 channel boxes can't fit another channel in there.
So, what happens?
Uh, Rudolph Giuliani comes, uh, into the fray and decides to donate one of the public
access channels that the city doesn't use, supposedly, and, as an educational program,
put the Fox News Channel on there.
And, this guy actually comes on and says, yeah, it's, it's an educational thing because
it's news, and news is educational.
So, therefore, we're going to put this news channel on the educational channel.
Now, the courts, of course, stopped this nonsense before it ever got started because that's,
um, that's a, a, a, a tremendous leap of logic there and also a tremendous abuse of authority.
Remember, this is the guy that destroyed WNYC TV, Channel 31, you know, took a perfectly
good TV station and, uh, turned it into some paid commercial advertising station.
This gives you, you know, an, an idea of what happens when, when government gets involved
in media and information and things like that.
So, that, that station is destroyed.
Now, he's working on cable TV.
Now, because Rupert Murdoch, who owns Fox and owns the New York Post as well, and also
owns TV Guide, I don't know if people know that as well, because he's a friend of Rudolph
Giuliani, I guess he figured he'd do him a favor, you know, in kind of a slick way.
But, uh, you know, it's about as slick as dirt, really, because it just didn't work out
that way.
It's, it, it seems like a, an abuse of power, both on the part of Time Warner, because they're
censoring what people can see.
They're saying, you can't see this, because we decide you can't.
And then Giuliani comes along and says, well, I'm going to say you can see this, because
I can.
Both of them are abuses of power, and both of them come about as a result of no competition
and mergers.
And it's something that we really have to look out for, because they're happening everywhere.
Never have so many choices been controlled by so few people, you know?
I, I mentioned that, um, that TV Guide is also owned by Fox.
And, you know, it's interesting, if you look at their listings, they always list these Fox
networks, even though nobody gets them.
And, and the networks that people do get, that are owned by their competitors, they don't
list.
I mean, what kind of, what kind of nonsense is this, where you have people who, um, uh, who
supposedly are, are entrusted with being neutral, and they can't even do a simple thing like
give you accurate listings.
Now, the New York Post has stopped listing CNN in their, in their TV section.
I mean, these are the kind of, of babies that are at work here, uh, just, uh, you know, taking
pot shots at each other.
And, and who is it that suffers in the end?
The consumer, of course.
So, it's, um, it's something that you need to speak out on, something that we all need to
get involved with and tell them enough is enough, and let's have some competition.
Let's see if, uh, if we can actually get through to the Public Service Commission, see what
happens when you call that number.
Remember, that number is 1-800-335-2120.
This is to comment on the 9X Bell Atlantic merger.
Welcome to the New York State Public Service Commission's Consumer Opinion Line.
Your opinions and comments are important to us.
Please make sure you state your utility's name and whether you are a residential or business
customer as you begin your message.
Si desea escuchar el mensaje en español, por favor, espere que se termine el mensaje en
inglés.
Thank you for calling us.
To comment on competition in the gas and electric utility industry, press 1 or 2.
To comment on the proposed Bell Atlantic 9X merger, press 3.
Oh, they almost got us there.
I almost pressed 2.
Okay.
Here we go.
We're going to press 3.
At the tone, please give us your comments regarding the proposed merger of Bell Atlantic with 9X.
Well, in a word, I think it stinks.
And hopefully, you'll stop this menace before it destroys us all.
Thank you.
You know, a little comment like that can go miles towards fixing the situation.
So, that number once again is 1.
What did I do with it?
I lost the number.
Okay.
Where did I put it?
I lost the number very quickly.
Okay.
We will have the number when we discover what hole it fell into.
Here it is.
1-800-335-2120.
Okay.
You got to be careful where you put things around here.
Now, how about this for the latest in fun, as far as security on the World Wide Web.
The National Computer Security Association has launched a certification program for website security.
For $8,500, the NCSA will check firewalls, encryption, internet protocol address logging, passwords, and other areas to determine whether a site is hacker-proof.
Sites that pass the inspection may sport an NCSA certification seal.
Yeah, we want to make users feel confident about electronic commerce, says NCSA's president.
He said it with a straight face.
If we give websites a standard to meet, it might help make electronic commerce more likely.
Meanwhile, the Council of Better Business Bureaus has launched BBB Online, a service that monitors online advertising claims to its 137 bureaus nationwide.
That sounds like fun.
But, I mean, this NCSA certification seal, you get the feeling that little seal is going to be popping up everywhere.
You know, I think people are going to put little pictures of that on their website.
And unless NCSA is going to go around suing every 12-year-old kid on the net, it's going to be kind of pointless.
$8,500 for them to check for firewalls?
I mean, these are the guys that we should be warning everybody about on the net, you know?
Forget the hackers.
I mean, they say the hackers are the ones that will be, you know, costing your company money.
Hey, I say the NCSA is the one that's going to be costing your company money.
Because they're going to be coming in with this crazy tale about how, for practically $10,000, they can make your site secure and feed on your fear.
Oh, I don't know.
These people are something else.
And they're not the only ones, either.
There's all kinds of people out there that have their firewall security and, you know, challenged by 100,000 hackers.
It's just amazing how they come up with these crazy things.
Here's one.
And this one has a big picture of a condom on it.
You protect yourself?
Why not your network?
I mean, they will stop at nothing here.
So they're showing a big picture of a condom and trying to get you to think, you know, in their line, I guess.
And it says on the inside, shocking, isn't it?
Your unprotected network is at risk from hackers.
Yeah, we're being compared to communicable diseases now.
At risk from hackers, crackers, and thieves.
You know you need the protection of a firewall.
The question is, which one?
And should it be ribbed?
I don't know.
Yes.
I don't know.
This is too silly to even read.
But they basically have another, okay, this is exactly what I mean here.
They quote something on the back more than, they quote something on the back that says more than 88% of online computers tested were easily infiltrated using commonly available software.
And they quote the Washington Post of June 7, 1996.
Now, I don't know where they got this figure from.
I mean, even if you listen to that ridiculous defense department, actually, was it the Navy?
Their statistics had said more than two-thirds of all attempts to break into their systems were successful.
They didn't tell you that it was Navy people themselves doing it.
Actually, it was the Air Force.
That's 66.6%.
And I don't know where they got more than 88% of online computers tested were easily infiltrated using commonly available software.
Unless they consider things like Telnet and FTP to be infiltrating the computer, this is something that I intend to look up.
You know, they gave a date here.
Washington Post, June 7, 1996.
I'm going to look this up.
I'll get back to people next week on that one.
Joker, if I can figure out what, Mike, you are.
Three.
Yeah, but, okay, there's three.
Okay.
I was just, back to the NCSA thing, first of all.
Yeah, they're, they're.
Aren't those people from?
Oh, bizarre.
You remember what happened at InfraWarCon when Mish was following me around.
Mish, yeah, I don't even want to talk about that guy.
Okay, so let's get back.
I'm just wondering if the NCSA seal that goes on a site is going to be shaped like a target.
Because that's exactly what's going to happen.
I mean, you're going to have sites that, you know, would normally be left alone, and then hackers see the seal and go, oh, well.
Yeah, they may have to raise their rates if it becomes a target, though, you know.
Who knows?
But, yeah, we'll be searching to see who's actually carrying that particular little seal there.
Look for it on our website.
No, actually, I don't think I'd want to put that on our website.
Now, there's all kinds, speaking of intimidation and, you know, craziness like that, ISP Code of Conduct.
This is amazing.
As part of its Internet anti-piracy campaign, the Software Publishers Association, remember those little dictators out in Washington, D.C.?
They're the ones that say they can raid you in your home if you copy a file and give it to a member of your family and things like that.
They're the modern-day McCarthyists, I guess.
SPA has, you know what, this printer that we spent all weekend configuring decided to print everything on one line and write off the page.
Well, okay, I can just tell you that SPA has basically been passing around this Internet Service Provider Code of Conduct
that is, I guess, intimidating all kinds of groups, all kinds of providers into signing it and returning it.
And if you don't sign and return this thing, that says that you have self-monitoring procedures to deter infringement of copyright.
If you don't remove infringing software residing on your system or on a network or block access to certain subscribers,
terminate subscribers who, I guess, don't live up to SPA's standards.
If you don't sign this, then you're going to be put on some sort of a list someplace.
I'd like to know how many Internet Service Providers out there have actually gotten this, have actually signed this.
Software Publishers Association there at 1730 M Street, NW, Suite 700, Washington, D.C., 20036.
And I don't have a phone number for them, but I have a fax number, 202-223-8756.
So we'll see what comes of that.
Now, there's more intimidation going on.
So Community Connection, Inc., has been sued by Adobe, Claris Corporation, and Traveling Software.
And according to Community Connection President Samir Parekh, we are being sued for being an Internet Service Provider, as near as we can tell.
Now, C2Net, as Community Connection, Inc. is called, is an ISP providing shell accounts and web hosting services.
But the company is primarily a software vendor selling Stronghold, one of the most popular secure web servers on the market.
We were looking into joining the Software Publishers Association, who filed the suit on behalf of the plaintiffs,
but it's not very likely to happen at this point.
The lawsuit appears to charge C2Net with liability based upon allegations that C2Net's customers provide links to pirated software and other machines
and cracker tools that allow users to beat copy protection mechanisms like software serial numbers.
It's completely outrageous that the SPA has nothing better to do than to file frivolous lawsuits against hard-working Internet Service Providers, said Parekh.
We are not aware of any such links on our pages or our customers' pages,
and if our customers are breaking any laws, we want to know about it so we can terminate their accounts.
The lawsuit doesn't provide any specific examples.
It just goes in there and sues these poor guys.
The lawsuit was apparently filed after a single attempt to contact the company with a form letter email.
The copy of the alleged email included as an attachment to the suit shows the SPA's real motive.
And here we go back to the other story.
They want us to sign a code of conduct, said Parekh.
Among other things, we'd have to agree to routinely monitor our customers' web pages, which we won't do.
We deal with complaints about our customers on a case-by-case basis,
and we have a firm and clear policy against illegal activity of any sort.
We've shut down accounts for less than what they're alleging in this lawsuit.
According to Terry Gross, counsel for C2Net,
this is clearly a frivolous lawsuit.
The plaintiffs know that an ISP can only be liable if it participates in and has knowledge of the improper activity,
and it is clear that they have no such basis.
Although the lawsuit does not mention the code of conduct,
it appears that most ISPs who received the email ended up signing it,
largely to avoid legal action from the much-feared SPA.
And, uh, those that didn't, according to this, are in danger of getting sued.
The terms of the code of conduct are completely unacceptable, said Parekh.
It basically gives the SPA the right to go on an ongoing phishing expedition through our customers' files
and requires us to do the same as their agent on a regular basis.
The code would classify us as publishers, and we would become responsible for everything our customers do.
We've built this business on a solid foundation of respect for our customers' privacy.
Monitoring their activities without grounds for suspicion is completely inconsistent with maintaining their privacy.
A coalition is currently being formed to fight this case
and make sure that this form of legal terrorism does not occur in the future against Internet providers.
The coalition will probably include the three companies that have been served in the suit
and other organizations with a stake in creating a rational, legal environment for ISPs and their customers.
If you want more information on this particular case,
and this is a very important case to get involved in, I think,
connect to the website www.c2.net slash ISPDC.
Once again, www.c2.net slash ISPDC.
Again, we'll be updating people on this case as it continues.
The Supreme Court on October 7th opened its new session by rejecting an appeal by a California couple
involving the first conviction under federal law for transmitting obscene materials by computer.
Robert and Carlene Thomas.
Robert's been on this program, actually, several years ago before all this started happening.
Both of Milpitas, California, were convicted in 1994 in Memphis
for sending illegal sexually explicit files from the amateur action computer bulletin board system
they operated from their home for several years.
Actually, the story is rather inaccurate in saying that because this comes from Reuters,
so, of course, I guess you'd expect that.
The files were not illegal, they were not even obscene by community standards of California.
However, someone in Memphis decided to call up, and they violated the community standards of Memphis.
The person in Memphis had to state that they were above a certain age
and had to consent to receiving these files.
They did, and they were actually able to successfully prosecute them for sending obscene material.
That's what this case is all about.
So, the Supreme Court has rejected the appeal by the Thomases.
Thomas received a 37-month prison term while his wife got 30 months.
The government also seized their computer system.
The couple's attorneys asked the Supreme Court to hear the case.
This prosecution represents the first attempt of the federal government
to apply content-based regulation to the emerging computer-based technologies.
The attorneys argued that the federal obscenity law, as previously written,
did not apply to the files which were transmitted by computer
and thus were not tangible objects subject to the law.
They acknowledged that Congress, in passing the Telecommunications Act this year,
amended the law to specifically include computer transmissions of obscene material.
The Supreme Court turned down the appeal without comment.
And that's pretty bad news,
because people are in jail for running bulletin boards.
It's not stealing money, not hurting people, running bulletin boards.
It's really kind of frightening.
Okay, we have...
We've got to take some phone calls.
I know that, because we haven't been on the air in three weeks,
so we have some catching up to do.
Just a couple of brief items,
and then we'll open up the phones.
212-279-3400.
New York State driver's licenses have these interesting little messages on their renewals,
their renewal forms.
If your name has changed, go to a motor vehicle's office to renew,
bring this form and proof of your name change.
All fine and good.
Here's the scary part.
You must supply your Social Security number.
Authority to collect Social Security numbers is granted under Section 502 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law.
The information will be used only for exchange with other jurisdictions
and to invoke driver license sanctions for delinquent child-slash-spouse support payments.
Your number will not be given to the public
or appear on any form or information request.
Well, it's nice that they're so concerned about our privacy,
but I think we should keep in mind that in certain states,
your Social Security number is printed on your driver's license.
And the reason they're able to print your Social Security number on the driver's license
is because you gave them your Social Security number.
So, if you give them the method to do this,
one day they may do this.
They may just chuck away that last sentence that says your number will not be given out
and say, well, times have changed.
Now it's time to give your number out.
After all, a few years ago, your Social Security number was for Social Security.
You know, it wasn't a tracking number.
It wasn't your name, your real name.
You see, you can change your name.
That's easy.
They don't care about that.
It's that number that follows you around wherever you go.
And that's what they want.
I'm amazed they don't have it already, but they don't have it.
And they know they don't have it.
They know that they can force you into giving it to them.
It's something that you need to also take a look at.
I'm not sure if any lawsuits are being filed in regards to this.
It's possible that some people are fighting it.
We'll be looking into that, see if that happens.
I just saw one of these a day or so ago, so I'm kind of shocked by that myself.
All right, we have an announcement from 9X.
This comes in the latest telephone bells in the 9X Extra.
What you should know about calls to information services.
Calls to exchanges.
I'm going to read this, and I'd like to know if anybody catches what I'm about to say.
You know, there's something unusual in the sentence I'm about to read.
And some alert people may catch it, some people may never catch it.
But we'll just see what happens.
Okay, what you should know about calls to information services.
Calls to exchanges.
394-540-550-910-920-970-976.
And 700 or 900 area code numbers provide information services.
Blah, blah, blah.
Okay.
Joker, you think you have it?
Okay, what?
I mean, besides the fact that they used exchange and area code synonymously?
No, they didn't.
No, they got it right.
They got it right.
Calls to exchanges.
I'll read it again.
Exchanges 394-540-550-910-920-970-976.
And 700 or 900 area code numbers.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, so they actually got it right this time.
I'm like AT&T, which seems to mix them up.
No, what's unusual about this is that there are two exchanges in there I've never heard of before.
910-920.
Where did they come from?
You ever hear of these?
Okay, well, let's do a little bit of digging here and see just what these exchanges are all about.
Now, as far as I know, 394 is a low-cost mass announcement service.
I don't know who uses it.
If anybody knows the 394 number out there, I'd like to know what it's for.
540 are, I guess, those interactive ones, you know, where you play around in voicemail menus and pay lots of money for the privilege.
550, they're kind of like the conferences, I think.
970, they're adult-oriented services.
976 are mass announcements like time, weather, OTB, lottery numbers, things like that.
And 700 or 900, they're nationwide things, which are too complicated to get into right now.
But 910 and 920, what are those?
Those are new.
I've never heard of them before.
And, well, let's start off by dialing the friendly 9X operator, who hopefully won't transfer us to information and incur a charge of 60 cents or something.
They'd like to do that.
9X, huh?
Yes, hello.
I was wondering if you could help me.
I just got this notice in my phone bill saying that I can block calls to 910 and 920 exchanges.
I've never heard of those exchanges before.
Do you know what they're for?
What does it say?
910 and 920?
Yes, that's right.
Hold on.
Let me just check.
Thanks.
Okay, those are customer dialable only.
They're just like, do you know what 900 calls or 976 numbers are?
Yes, I do.
That type of a call.
Is it exactly the same as that?
No, it's different.
It's a, I don't know who belongs to it, but it's that type of a call.
It would be in the same category.
Uh-huh.
Okay, so.
What you need to do is call your business office during business hours.
Okay.
And they can have that blocked for you.
Just call the number that appears on page one of your 9X bill.
Okay.
Starts with an 890 number.
Okay, great.
Okay.
Thanks for your help.
All right.
You know, the funny thing is that everybody is more than eager to tell you how to block the numbers,
but nobody seems to know what the numbers are for.
I called the business office earlier today.
Unfortunately, they don't open now.
We have some real fun.
And they basically had no idea what 910 or 920 were for.
They just said, well, if they say we can block it, we can block it for you.
You know, I'd like to know, what am I blocking?
You know, what are these numbers?
I've never heard of them before.
So let's try a couple of experiments here.
Let's see what happens when we dial 910, followed by 9901, which usually identifies the switch.
We're sorry.
Your call cannot be completed as dialed.
Please check the number and dial again.
Okay.
Well, that led to a dead end.
Let's try 920 with the same last four digits, see what happens there.
Okay.
That's going somewhere.
The area code for the number you dialed has been changed to 718.
Please dial 1 plus 718 and the number you wish.
This is a recording.
G1.
Gee whiz.
Well, okay.
So the switch identifier was changed to 9901.
I mean, to 718.
Okay.
Let's try that.
Let's try calling.
See if we...
Actually, I'm going to try something else first.
I'm going to try calling just a regular number, 910-1212.
See if that gets us anywhere.
We're sorry.
Your call cannot be completed as dialed.
Please check the number and dial again.
Okay.
Well, let's try that 718 number.
Let's see what kind of mass announcement we're connected to here.
Our Lady Mercy.
Uh, hello?
Yes.
What am I reaching?
Our Lady Mercy Hospital.
I'm reaching a hospital.
Um, okay.
I thought I was reaching a mass announcement service.
No.
Um, all right.
Uh, this is 910?
No.
I'm sorry.
920.
920-9901?
9-1?
Uh, 9901.
That's the number here.
Our Lady Mercy.
How long have you had that number for?
For years.
For years.
I'm talking about number.
Really?
Did the phone company send you a message saying you're going to have to change that number soon?
No.
Okay, because they're giving out the, uh, the 920 as like a 976 number.
Yeah, but that's our hospital main number is 920-9000.
And that also 920 is at Montefiore, so I don't think that's going to happen.
Oh, okay.
And there's a lot of hospitals at 920.
Really?
Mm-hmm.
Uh, what, what part of Queens is this?
No, this is the Bronx.
I'm sorry, the Bronx.
Mm-hmm.
Okay, well, uh, I'll contact 9X about this.
Okay.
Sorry to bother you.
Okay, bye.
Bye.
Well, I think they've been enough more than they can chew this time.
9, uh, 920 apparently is firmly held by some hospitals.
Up in the Bronx, so, um, that's interesting.
That's very interesting.
Okay.
I didn't expect that to happen.
Okay.
I'll be making some phone calls to find out what's going on with that.
Okay, speaking of people making phone calls and getting unexpected results,
this is our final demonstration for tonight.
And then we'll be opening up the, uh, the telephones, uh, for our phone calls at, um,
212-279-3400.
Um, there's been a lot of talk on the internet and in various other places, uh, recently about
a certain scam that's been going on.
Well, this is, this is, I guess, kind of an old scam.
That's not really that old.
But it's, it's been going on for the past few months, maybe even more than that.
Um, and, actually, I don't know what I'm getting here.
Okay, something weird's going on with the phone.
Okay, let's try that again.
Okay, we're trying to, we're trying to access something on the, uh, on the old answering
machine here, which we recorded for the show today.
Okay, now we're going to, uh, okay, this is, this is a, a 70s vintage answering machine
here that, that we set up especially for the program tonight.
Okay, and you know what?
I don't think it's going to work.
I don't think this is going to work today.
Okay, we're going to have to do this some other time.
But basically, there is a, a scam going on involving the, um, the 809 area code.
You know, there's another way.
We had a backup plan.
We're going to try this.
Actually, I'm going to try doing this while I'm talking.
Uh, this involves someone sending you email saying that, uh, your account is in arrears
and you have to call this number right away in order to, uh, to fix the situation.
And, actually, you know, I'm not going to do this right now because we're running kind
of late, but I'm just going to, we'll, we'll get into this maybe next week as far as what
it actually sounds like.
Um, by calling this 809 number, you wind up spending something on the order of $25 per
a minute, thinking you're talking to a human when in actuality you're talking to a computer.
That's something that, uh, I think we're all kind of concerned about.
But we'll be getting into that next week because we're going to run out of time if we don't
get to the phones right away.
212-279-3400 is our telephone number.
And I guess we should just go to the phones.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Uh, yes.
I was listening to your show partway and I was wondering what you were saying about,
um, social security numbers and driver's license?
Yes, uh, New York State is now requiring people to give them their social security numbers.
Now, I'm not sure if this is being challenged in court.
I intend to look into that to see if the ACLU or some other organization is actually challenging
New York State on this one.
But, uh, obviously the, the ramifications of something like that are kind of, um, kind
of distressing.
Yes, that is distressing.
Is this tied into the barcodes that they're putting on back of driver's licenses now?
Well, I'm sure it's going to be tied in in some way.
While they say they're not going to be publishing your social security number, I'm sure it's going
to be included in a barcode or a mag stripe or something, uh, encrypted onto your license.
Uh.
And that number will follow you around wherever you go.
Okay.
Are you going to be giving updates on this situation?
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
When we find out more, and if anybody out there knows things that we haven't said already,
uh, we urge them to contact us as well and we'll pass that on.
Great.
Thanks a lot.
I really enjoy your show.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Thanks.
212-279-3400.
Good evening.
You're on Off the Hook.
212-279-3400.
Yeah.
Speak up.
Oh, am I on the air?
Yes, you are.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Okay.
Um, well, first of all, I want to commend 9X in offering us the opportunity to block calls from
hospitals.
I'm tired of these hospitals calling me up in the middle of the night.
No, no, no.
This is to block you from calling a hospital.
Well, that's another thing.
I mean, sometimes, that's what I mean.
Like, in the middle of the night, I just call the hospital, you know, and 9X is going to
save me that trouble.
Uh-huh.
So, anyway, but I actually had a question about 9X.
Yeah.
I had my, I don't know, I was just looking for advice.
Um, they, they, I got a $900 9X bill.
Okay.
Uh, because they, somehow, somebody called up and disconnected my phone.
That's what they told me.
All of a sudden, my phone was disconnected.
You, you weren't able to get a dial tone or incoming calls?
No, it just disappeared.
And they said, you called up and disconnected the service, which I hadn't done.
You know, you can do that automated now.
You can call up an 800 number and disconnect your line without even speaking.
Well, I, I didn't, I didn't do that, though.
Somebody might have done it to me.
Yeah, I'm sure somebody did.
I mean, it happens all the time.
Well, except for then, then, I, maybe, you know, I, you're, you're, you're maybe more,
uh, suspicious than me.
But then what happened, may, so maybe you, you're going to think that there's, anyway,
what happens is about three weeks later, my, my long distance service suddenly changes.
I had an MCI plan and shifted in MCI to another plan that was about 800 times more or something.
I mean, just drastically more money.
They changed your plan?
Right.
Okay.
And they, and when I finally got to the bottom, at first I thought it was, I didn't know why
that happened.
And I finally got to what seems it says that somehow from that three weeks earlier when
my phone had disconnected, it triggered something that, that three weeks later they would change
my service for some reason.
Well, now, what, what kind of service could they change you to that would incur a charge
of $900?
Well, I mean, it should have been like $200.
It wasn't, it wasn't like I didn't make some long distance calls.
I did.
I called Germany and all that.
Right.
But you've got a pretty good calling plan there if you can save $700 like that.
Well, I'm, I don't know.
I, it, maybe it was maybe a difference of $400.
It was a big difference.
Okay.
And then some of it is local calls.
I mean, you know, I, I don't know the numbers.
Basically, when they restored your service, they gave you the wrong plan.
They didn't, they were, well, no, because at the, for that three weeks later, it changed.
For the first three weeks after they restored my service, it was the right plan.
Okay.
So, is there, you think there's some kind of scam with that?
Well, I'm not quite sure I understand what happened.
After three weeks, they, they, what, reverted to another plan?
Right, that I never had before.
Okay, can you tell us something about this plan?
I can, I can give you more information if I know.
I think it's like the, like the, like the, for example, it, it would be,
you know, instead of 39, 39 cents a minute I was getting or something like that for,
to Germany, it would be $1.10 or something like that.
What company are we talking about here?
MCI.
MCI.
Okay.
Well, now who disconnected you from?
Was that 9X?
9X did that.
Okay.
So, what probably happened was MCI began treating you as a different customer, maybe a new customer
or something like that, and, and didn't revert to your old status as far as 39 cents a minute.
They, isn't it friends and family or you select a country or something like that and you get
a certain rate to that country?
Is that how it works?
Yeah, but the thing is I got rid of MCI totally after this.
Right.
And I, and I got EOT.
E-O-T?
Yeah.
Empire One Communications or something.
Empire Long Distance.
Empire One Long, no, telecommunications.
Okay.
Wow, that's interesting.
But they're cheaper.
They're very cheap.
Yeah.
And they're good.
Are they?
How cheap are they?
Okay.
For Germany, I have 37 cents a minute.
Okay.
And there's no, no restriction.
There's not a limited time thing like MCI was.
And then the other place I call a lot is South Africa.
Uh-huh.
And it was 79 cents a minute.
Okay.
So, I like them.
Well, that's, uh, that's, that's a good price.
But have you, have you contacted MCI about your phone?
I contacted MCI, wrote letters.
I even, you know, CC'd the, uh, and wrote a letter to the, the, the address in the beginning
of the phone book.
And, and I got the, the information in the FCC.
I was going to send it to them, but you have to write it the correct way.
And I'm planning to do that and complain and.
Hmm.
Well, no.
Because MCI called, on the phone, they agreed they would give me a credit.
And then they wrote me a letter saying that they won't.
And I've called them again.
And now they're saying, no, that I have to pay those charges.
The difference.
And now my phone bill, that's like three months old.
And now MCI, I mean, now 9X is going to cut off my service because I haven't paid the
bill until this is cleared up.
Well, no.
If you tell 9X that it's in dispute, they will take those charges off and it will be between
you and MCI.
Tell 9, tell 9X that you're having a dispute with MCI.
They will take those charges off.
And in fact, 9X doesn't even act as a billing agent many times for a long-distance company.
I wish they didn't.
No, but you do not have to have your local phone disconnected because of a dispute with
a long-distance company.
Yeah.
That's absolutely true.
And all you have to do is contact them and say that, you know, the amount is in dispute
with MCI.
They will take it off and you will fight with MCI then.
Right.
All right.
Well, enjoy your show.
All right.
Well, good luck.
Thanks.
All right.
Take care.
There's all kinds of battles being fought out there between consumers and big corporations.
And some of them are quite interesting.
Good evening.
You're on the air.
Okay.
Speak up.
Hey, how are you?
Okay.
Yeah.
It's been about two or three years that they've asked for social security numbers, at least
here in White Plains they have.
I don't know if they started it here as a pilot project.
Well, you know, since you only renew your license every four years and soon it's going
to be every five years, I guess you don't find out about it until your number gets
called.
Possibly.
What I did was I have several social security numbers, so I gave them one of my ones that
I don't use with the social security administration.
Now, tell us about that.
You have several social security numbers.
Well, yeah.
You just have to make it look.
You see, if you make it radically different, you really can't claim that you didn't remember
it correctly.
Uh-huh.
But since you're not required to carry your social security card, if you juxtapose some
of the last two digits, just be consistent.
I used the correct one with the social security administration and on your tax forms.
Right.
But now most of the credit card companies are asking for your mother's maiden name.
Right.
At least I've noticed that in the last few months.
They've been doing that for quite some time, actually, but a lot of them will accept that
instead of a social security number because they don't use the number for social security.
They use it as reference.
Sure.
Sure.
So, yeah, and I don't believe it has much to do with child support.
I mean, at this point, you can't leave the country without showing ID.
Your papers, please.
You can't take your money out of the country.
Uh-huh.
There's really not much you can do except stay here and work really hard.
That makes you a good citizen.
Right.
And don't say anything nasty on the Internet, but what did I want to say?
In terms of those barcodes, they're put on with graphite, and if you take a simple pencil eraser
and erase some of the smaller lines on the barcode before you install your registration on your window,
they will not be able to swipe it correctly.
It may come up, but it's not going to be yours.
When do they swipe it at all?
Well, I don't know, because I don't get tickets, because I'm pretty careful, but...
Sounds like you are very careful.
Well, I am very careful.
I've got a clean record, but the thing is, but the point, what I'm trying to say is that
the meter mates will become accustomed to swiping these things, and they, of course, will,
when they get a swipe and it doesn't go through, they'll probably just go to the next car.
I mean, I really can't see them.
They'll just give up in frustration.
I can't see them standing there trying to do the thing manually.
They'll probably just go to the next car if it doesn't come up correctly.
They're writing down numbers as that extra bit of effort that a lot of them don't.
I bet I'm not saying anymore if my car will get destroyed.
Well, you know, yeah, I'm not a scoffler, but I will say that, you know, unfortunately,
if you look at the Constitution, the driving isn't in there.
So anything that's not a right in the Constitution, they're just going to always make more difficult.
But, you know, I guess if the founding fathers had known that, they would have said the right
to life, liberty, happiness, and going to zero to 60 in five and a half seconds.
Yeah, if they didn't have cars back then, how could they be expected to?
Certainly.
All right, well, I'll let you go.
All right, thanks for calling.
And, you know, I've heard that I don't know anybody who practices this.
Admittedly, I don't.
At least, I don't know if I do.
If you have a second Social Security number, you can figure out a way to get one, and if
you do not use it for fraudulent purposes, that is, to cheat on taxes or to earn extra
income or do something nasty, it's not illegal to have a second Social Security number.
That's what I've heard.
The trick is, how do you get one?
You know, that's something that I think begs a little discussion.
Good evening.
You're on Off the Hook.
How you doing?
Okay, how are you?
All right, I've run the new driver's license through the Track 2 reader I got, basically.
A lot of curious people out there.
I did that a while ago.
Actually, the barcode actually represents your actual license number.
It's to make sure that the front information matches, in case people, like, alter the front
of the driver's license.
Yeah.
And it's in the Track 2 information.
The one thing that doesn't show, it's interesting, my friend has a DWI.
It doesn't show on the front of his license, but it does show on the mag stripe, so if
the cop swipes his badge, it can show when his, you know, points come off.
Really?
So you're saying that driving offenses show up in the magnetic strip?
Right.
And at what point is that updated?
That's a good question.
But when he renewed it, he still had, like, three points on his license and so many months
and whatever on his license, and it was in the mag stripe.
It's not in the barcode, though.
The barcode's just a check to let the officer know that the front hasn't been, you know,
manipulated with ink and whatnot.
Uh-huh.
I'm curious why the cop can't simply check on the computer.
Why does he need to be able to...
That's a good question.
We sat down, we played around with a couple of, we've got about 30 or 40 people together,
and we ran all their licenses and compared it against their conviction stubs.
And it's coded information, like a 62 was, I forgot what it was.
Apparently there's some sort of, like, a chart they use that refers to the type of most
recent defense, I guess, but it was numbered.
It actually doesn't come out in alpha carriers.
It actually says code 62 is this.
You know, we were able to figure out who had DUIs, DWIs in length, and we found that's
how it changed the, there's, like, three digits that are used to indicate a clean record,
comes up with, like, a bunch of zeros in it, and date of birth and whatnot is encoded
in the mag stripe.
But they've been requiring Social Security for a long time.
If you do anything that makes money driving, cabs, buses or anything, any old bus driver,
everyone was a Class 1, 2, well, they're no longer Class 1, 2, and 3 anymore, but when
they were Class 1, 2, and 3 licenses and you made your money by driving, they required
your Social Security as a check for income tax invasion.
Right.
And...
You also need a special license now if you want to be a tow truck driver.
Oh, well, yeah, well, that has to do with other incidences.
That's a special, you know, they just keep breaking it down into more fees, more licenses,
and more fines and whatnot.
But...
I had a couple interesting instances with a driver's license.
One, when I moved from Northern Virginia to New York City, my driving record is gone.
I've had it...
It, for some reason, didn't carry over, which is good in my case.
Well, that's what they accused Bernie Esso.
They said that he somehow wiped away his driving record.
Right.
I didn't get that at all, but...
They probably lose them all the time.
What I find...
Well, how do they recirculate?
I'd be curious to see what's hard-coded onto the MagStripe, but when I was recently stopped
for an altercation with an officer, they basically ran my card through, and it just brought up
the database on me.
It wasn't hard-coded onto the Stripe.
They had the driver's license.
My address on the driver's license is actually different than my actual address, which has
been the file change.
They knew the new address.
They knew all of the information and any previous infractions were on that.
I'm wondering how much is actually coded into the Stripe, or how much of the Stripe is used
to trigger a database that can then be upcoded when it's swiped by the police.
Well, we're out of time for today, but those questions certainly will remain, and I urge
people out there to play around and figure out what things are on your driver's license.
You do have the right to know this information, so let us know what you find out.
And we are out of time for today's edition of Off the Hook.
I want to thank everybody for calling in, and we'll be back again next week, 8 o'clock
to 9 o'clock here on WBAI New York.
It's Emmanuel Goldstein.
Have a good night.
The telephone keeps ringing, so I ripped it off the wall.
I cut myself while shaving.
Now I can't make a call.
It couldn't get much worse.
But if I could, they would.
Bumbin' Leap on for the best expect from work.
I hope that fun is good.
Bumbin' Leap.
No!
Bumbin' Leap.
Thank you.
WBAI-FM, listener-supported non-commercial radio.