Fun and Games at a 2600 Meeting
In a bizarre story that's still in the process of unfolding, hackers at a 2600 meeting in New York City were monitored by investigative agents of some sort and then harassed by a mob of police.
During the meetings, we get quite a few phone calls at the payphones from people all over the world. While one of us was on such a call, the strange man in the suit holding a deskphone was first noticed. Nothing unusual there; Citicorp is filled with suspicious and unusual kinds of people. (We fit right in.) But then we managed to overhear what he was saying. He was describing what the people at the meeting looked like!
We started watching him very closely. So closely that we're sure he soon realized what a bad undercover investigator he was.
We videotaped him. We took his picture. We recorded his voice. We even tried to be friendly but he got embarrassed and disappeared.
Ten minutes later, close to a dozen cops suddenly materialized on the scene. They demanded to know who we were talking to on the phone. Friends, we told them. Then they told us to hang up.
"We know you're pranking 911," one of them said to one of us.
"Right now we're trying to decide whether or not to lock you up."
Pranking 911? They had to be kidding! Maybe a group of five-year-olds would be doing that, but not a group of hackers that knew all about 911 tracing capabilities. More importantly, it was something none of us would ever want to do.
We told them this and we asked if they had actually received calls from this location. Did ANI spit out those numbers down at headquarters?
The leader of the cops seemed to get confused at this point and started conferring with some of the others. Then, just as quickly as they had arrived, they left.
What was it all about? We may never know for sure. But we do know that intimidation tactics and frame-ups will ultimately fail.
Incidentally, 2600 meetings take place in the public lobby of Citicorp in New York City (53rd Street between 3rd and Lexington) from 5 to 8 pm on the first Friday of the month. Those payphone numbers are: 212-223-9011, 212-223-8927, 212-308-8044, 212-308-8162, and 212-308-8184.
There will be several 2600 meetings in California this summer involving American and Dutch hackers. For more information or to meet up with us while we're over there, call 2600 at 516-751- 2600.
Citicorp is just filled with suspicious-looking types.
Who was this strange man? Why was he watching us? And what was the deskphone for?
This man found a nice post to lean against for two hours.
Close to a dozen cops suddenly materialized.
The leader of the cops seemed to get confused.
Relax, it could be an innocent tourist taking pictures of all the cops.