Additional TracFone Documentation -

Written by: The Clone
Last Modified: July 31, 2001
Reference file: www.nettwerked.net/trapfone.txt
Official Web-site: www.trapfone.com


  Add 22 Units, example PIN pattern:

 *#33248#
 351113928640001534XXXXXXXXXX

 *00##0 SEND
 0108508300003015 SEND

  Reset Codes:

 *#33248#
 **00##0 SEND END
 20144471340001534XXXXXXXXXX "CODE ACCEPTED"
 1836127313041701 SEND

-

 Example:

 TracFone has a deal going on that gives you 30 free minutes to your phone
 if you purchase three cards in a row before their expiry dates kick in...

 - Customer purchases a $7.99 TracFone pre-paid phone card, expires June 30
 
 - Customer purchases another $7.99 Tracfone pre-paid phone card, expires June 30

 - Customer purchases a $20 out-of-state TracFone pre-paid card from Hawaii,
   expires June 30

 - Customer enters: *#32248# and the PIN codes affiliated with the cards he
   purchased.

 - Customer verifies the free time deal on TracFone's official web-site:
   www.tracfone.com
 
  Customers original total was: 152 Units
  Customers total with deal should be: 182 Units
  Customers actual total: 212 Units

  Q: Where did the additional 30 free minutes come from?
  A: Who knows. My guess is the FCC... ;)
  
  Q: What are we dealing with here?
  A: We're dealing with a flaw in TracFone's HLR-like (Home Location Register)
     billing system.

This flaw, though very beneficial to customers, proves to be quite a large one.
With enough patience, one could really exploit in a way that would allow them
to make a lot of free phone calls. 

This, among thousands of other telco bugs have been discovered (and are waiting
to be discovered) throughout the industry's many years of existance. Telco bugs
are slowly patched after years of exploitation by phone phreaks, but patching
doesn't do anything but spring up a dozen or so more bugs just waiting to be
patched by the slow and (often) lazy phone companies.

The real problem lays in the hands of the telco engineers and programmers.
By keeping the software the programmers write and the hardware the engineers
develop in a completely proprietary format, the progression in security and
overall functionality of the finished product is less than acceptable.

What the telecommunications industry needs to do, is to start releasing their
developed software and hardware in open-source or open-source-like format.
Start by having a large group of telecom security experts as well as engineers
and programmers from around the world help to improve the product - this will
create whole new jobs, improve functionality and security 10-fold, and destroy
the software monopolies companies like Nortel and Lucent have over us.