The Anarchist Cookbook (25 page)

The fiber-optic long-distance carrier, offering the only operator service alternative to

AT&T has experienced a 40 percent growth in operator service calls since it announced its

service July 1. Amanda Weathersby, US Sprint vice president of product marketing, said

Tuesday, "More and more people are taking advantage of our call completion assistance and

alternative billing arrangements. "Customer surcharges are the same as AT&T with the

added benefit of US Sprint's fiber-optic quality and lower long-distance rates." US Sprint

currently offers person-to-person, station-to-station, call completion and collect calling.

US Sprint has announced an agreement with US WEST Service Link that will allow anyone

to call on US Sprint and charge their calls to a Regional Bell Operating Co. calling card

beginning in first quarter 1988.

"Previously, our operator service was available only on pre-subscribed US Sprint phones

and recently we added operator assistance for US Sprint FON CARD customers,"

Weathersby said. "With this new agreement, we'll be able to expand our operator service

to markets such as pay phones, hospitals, and hotels/motels." The newest 24-hour operator

service center in Dallas began operations on Oct. 5. US Sprint's other operator service

centers are in: Cherry Hill, NJ; Atlanta; Lombard, IL and Reno, NV. US Sprint is a joint

venture of United Telecommunications Inc. of Kansas City, MO and GTE Corp. of

Stamford, Conn.

Pacific Bel Pursuing Calling Card Thief

SAN FRANCISCO--(BW)--Pacific Bell is warning consumers to protect their telephone

calling cards like any other credit card in the wake of a series of frauds by people posing

as phone company employees. A Pacific Bell spokesman says customers in the 213, 805 and

916 area codes are being victimized by someone who says he is a telephone company

employee investigating calling card fraud. The individual calls people at home at odd hours,

asking for their calling card numbers. He then sells the numbers to people who use the

numbers to make long distance phone calls.

As recently as Monday of this week, 180 long distance calls were billed to a Sacramento

area resident who had given his number to the thief just three hours earlier. According to

Pacific Bell, this kind of scheme and other forms of calling card fraud cost telephone

customers nationwide half a billion dollars a year. The company offered these tips to

consumers to avoid becoming a victim

of calling card fraud:

Never give your calling card number or personal identification number to anyone. Any

telephone company employee with a legitimate need to know the number has access to it.

Treat your calling card like any other credit card. Report its loss immediately by calling

the 800 number on the back of the card 800-621-0430. If you receive a suspicious call

regarding your telephone calling card, report it by calling the 800 number on the back of

the card. If you receive a call from someone claiming to be a telephone company employee

and asking for your calling card number, ask for a name and number to call back. Then call

the local Pacific Bell business office to report the incident.

One suspect was arrested in Southern California last week by a quick thinking customer

who did just that. Pacific Bell immediately contacted the local police department. A

suspect holding seven stolen calling card numbers was arrested minutes later. Pacific Bell

and long-distance telephone companies will credit customers for calling card charges

determined to be fraudulent. Pacific Bell is a subsidiary of Pacific Telesis Group, a

diversified telecommunications corporation based in San Francisco.

93. The Phreaker's Guide to Loop Lines by The Jolly Roger

A loop is a wondrous device which the telephone company created as test numbers for

telephone repairmen when testing equipment. By matching the tone of the equipment with

the tone of the loop, repairmen can adjust and test the settings of their telephone

equipment. A loop, basically, consists of two different telephone numbers. Let's use A and

B as an example. Normally if you call A, you will hear a loud tone (this is a 1004 hz tone),

and if you call B, the line will connect, and will be followed by silence.

This is the format of a loop line. Now, if somebody calls A and someone else calls B--

Viola!--A and B loop together, and one connection is made. Ma Bell did this so repairmen

can communicate with each other without having to call their own repair office. They can

also use them to exchange programs, like for ANA or Ringback. Also, many CO's have a

"Loop Assignment Center". If anyone has any information on these centers please tell me.

Anyway, that is how a loop is constructed. From this information, anyone can find an

actual loop line. Going back to the A and B example, Note: the tone side and the silent side

can be either A or B. Don't be fooled if the phone company decides to scramble them

around to be cute. As you now know, loops come in pairs of numbers. Usually, right after

each other.

For example: 817-972-1890

and

817-972-1891

Or, to save space, one loop line can be written as 817-972-1890/1. This is not always true.

Sometimes, the pattern is in the tens or hundreds, and, occasionally, the numbers are

random. In cities, usually the phone company has set aside a phone number suffix that

loops will be used for. Many different prefixes will correspond with that one suffix. In

Arlington, Texas, a popular suffix for loops is 1893 and 1894, and a lot of prefixes match

with them to make the number.

For Example: 817-460-1893/4

817-461-1893/4

817-465-1893/4

817-467-1893/4

817-469-1893/4

. .are all loops...

or a shorter way to write this is:

817-xxx-1893/4

xxx= 460, 461, 465, 467, 469

Note: You can mix-and-match a popular suffix with other prefixes in a city, and almost

always find other loops or test numbers.

Note: For Houston, the loop suffixes are 1499 and 1799. And for Detroit it's 9996 and

9997. When there are a large number of loops with the same prefix format, chances are

that many loops will be inter-locked. Using the above example of Arlington loops again, (I

will write the prefixes to save space) 460,

461, and 469 are interlocked loops. This means that only one side can be used at

a given time. This is because they are all on the same circuit. To clarify, if 817-461-1893

is called, 817-460 and 469-1893 cannot be called because that circuit is being used.

Essentially, interlocked loops are all the same line, but there are a variety of telephone

numbers to access the line.

Also, if the operator is asked to break in on a busy loop line he/she will say that the circuit

is overloaded, or something along those lines. This is because Ma Bell has taken the

checking equipment off the line. However, there are still many rarely used loops which can

be verified and can have emergency calls taken on them. As you have found out, loops

come in many types. Another type of loop is a filtered loop. These are loop lines that the

tel co has put a filter on, so that normal human voices cannot be heard on either line.

However, other frequencies may be heard. It all depends on what the tel co wants the

loop to be used for. If a loop has gotten to be very popular with the local population or

used frequently for conferences, etc. the tel co may filter the loop to stop the unwanted

"traffic". Usually, the filter will be removed after a few months, though.

94. How Ma Bell Works by The Jolly Roger

In this article, I will first describe the termination, wiring, and terminal hardware most

commonly used in the Bell system, and I will include section on methods of using them.

LOCAL NETWORK

The local telephone network between the central office/exchange and the telephone

subscribers can be briefly described as follows:

From the central office (or local exchange) of a certain prefix(es), underground area

trunks go to each area that has that prefix (Usually more than one prefix per area.) At

every few streets or tract areas, the underground cables surface. They then go to the

telephone pole (or back underground, depending on the area) and then to the subscribers

house (or in the case of an apartment building or mutli-line business, to a splitter or

distribution box/panel). Now that we have the basics, I'll try and go in-depth on the

subject.

UNDERGROUND CABLES

These are sometimes inter-office trunks, but usually in a residential area they are trunk

lines that go to bridging heads or distribution cases. The cables are about 2-3 inches thick

(varies), and are either in a metal or pvc-type pipe (or

similar). Rarely (maybe not in some remote rural areas) are the cables just 'alone' in the

ground. Instead they are usually in an underground cement tunnel (resembles a small sewer

or storm drain.) The manholes are heavy and will say 'Bell system' on them. They can be

opened with a « inch wide crowbar (Hookside) inserted in the top rectangular hole. There

are ladder rungs to help you climb down. You will see the cable pipes on the wall, with the

blue and white striped one being the inter-office trunk (at least in my area). The others

are local lines, and are usually marked or color coded. There is almost always a posted

color code chart on the wall, not to mention Telco manuals describing the cables and

terminals, so I need not get into detail. Also, there is usually some kind of test

equipment, and often Bell test sets are left in there.

BRIDGING HEADS

The innocent-looking grayish-green boxes. These can be either trunk bridges or bridging

for residences. The major trunk bridging heads are usually larger, and they have the

'Western Electric' logo at the bottom, whereas the normal bridging heads (which may be

different in some areas-depending on the company you are served by. GTE B.H.'s look

slightly different. Also, do not be fooled by sprinkler boxes!) They can be found in just

about every city. To open a bridging head: if it is locked (and you're feeling destructive),

put a hammer or crowbar (the same one you used on the manhole) in the slot above the top

hinge of the right door. Pull hard, and the door will rip off. Very effective! If it isn't

locked (as usual), take a 7/8 inch hex socket and with it, turn the bolt about 1/8 of a turn

to the right (you should hear a spring release inside). Holding the bolt, turn the handle all

the way to the left and pull out. To Check for a test-set (which are often left by Bell

employees), go inside - First check for a test-set (which are often left by Bell employees).

There should be a panel of terminals and wires. Push the panel back about an inch or so,

and rotate the top latch (round with a flat section) downward. Release the panel and it

will fall all the way forward. There is usually a large amount of wire and extra terminals.

The test-sets are often hidden here, so don't overlook it (Manuals, as well, are sometimes

placed in the head). On the right door is a metal box of alligator clips. Take a few

(Compliments of Bell.). On each door is a useful little round metal device. (Says 'insert

gently' or 'clamp gently - do not overtighten' etc..) On the front of the disc, you should

find two terminals. These are for your test set. (If you don't have one, dont despair - I'll

show you ways to make basic test sets later in this article). Hook the ring (-) wire to the

'r' terminal; and the tip (+) wire to the other. (By the way, an easy way to determine the

correct polarity is with a 1«v LED. Tap it to the term. pair, if it doesn't light, switch the

poles until it does. When it lights, find the longer of the two LED poles: This one will be on

the tip wire (+). Behind the disc is a coiled up cord. This should have two alligator clips on

it. Its very useful, because you don't have to keep connecting and disconnecting the fone

(test set) itself, and the clips work nicely. On the terminal board, there should be about 10

screw terminals per side. Follow the wires, and you can see which cable pairs are active.

Hook the clips to the terminal pair, and you're set! Dial out if you want, or just listen (If

someone's on the line). Later, I'll show you a way to set up a true 'tap' that will let the

person dial out on his line and receive calls as normal, and you can listen in the whole time.

More about this later... On major prefix-area bridging heads, you can see 'local loops',

which are two cable pairs (cable pair = ring+tip, a fone line) that are directly connected to

each other on the terminal board. These 'cheap loops' as they are called, do not work

nearly as well as the existing ones set up in the switching hardware at the exchange

office. (Try scanning your prefixes 00xx to 99xx #'s.) The tone sides will announce

themselves with the 1008 hz loop tone, and the hang side will give no response. The first