How I Social Engineered my Telco (TELUS) into admitting they had a tap on my line
The Clone, 2004-06-01
Phone service isn't getting hooked up until tomorrow.
To make a long story short, Telus called me today to verify for the third time, our service address. So I called back and did it. I asked why there was a problem, and the associate told me it was due to some software issues with my home line and that Telus would need an extra day to get things sorted out. After being put on hold for 20 minutes, he came back and then told me that we can expect service by Wednesday. Since he was wasting all my time, I let him go.
After work I called back and complained and demanded that the $35.00 charge for hook-up be removed because it caused me a huge amount of inconvenience. The woman on the other end of the phone went on this huge rant about the service charge being CRTC regulation, a policy, blah blah blah. Following her policy BS, I asked for a manager. She said "well the manager is going to tell you the same thing I just told you." I retort "You know, I work in the customer service industry too. And what you just said to me, the 'my manager is going to tell you the same thing' is text book example of BAD customer service. Just give me the manager." So she then explained that she'd firstly have to get manager approval in order to do this. Of course she didn't get this so-called "approval" so I ended up being stuck with her.
I asked her a few questions that intrigued me about why my line had "software issues". And I ended up asking if she saw the following things on my line: "pen register" "soft tap" and she admitted that yes it's true. There is "PEN REG" on my account next to WIP; Work In Progress.
This means my line was being tapped. No question about it. A pen register is basically software at the switch that monitors #'s that "suspects" with Telus have on their phone lines. If you have a pen-register monitoring you, it monitors all #'s dialed.
Out of anger and disappointment, I cancelled the service transfer.
the end.