Answering Machines ------------------
There are several methods of ruining your friends' lives via their answering
machines. You can fill their incoming message tapes with bogus messages,
you can turn them on/off remotely and hear/erase all the messages, and
in some beauties, you can change the outgoing message. The latter is the
most devastating of all answering machine methods, and it will get the
most space here.
- Most answering machines today have
"beeperless remote" features, even in the bargain-basement models. Normally
they are protected by a security code of between 1 and 3 digits, and quite
often even the 3-digit ones are so easily cracked it's disgusting. Once
"inside" an answering machine, you can do a number of things. Always, you
will be able to hear, and later erase, any incoming messages. This is helpful
to the prankster in that it lets him intercept his target's important messages,
indicating the target's future whereabouts for later attacks. It also,
of course, can be used to prevent the target from receiving important messages,
with possible dire consequences to the target's social/work life. - Another
interesting feature of many answering machines is the ability to change
the outgoing message. When I bought my own unit, the last thing I asked
the salesman was, "Can you change the outgoing message from remote?" As
soon as he said "No" I bought it. That's how you should shop for answering
machines too, as is about to become clear... A few messages to replace
a target's answering message with: Blackmail messages: "Hi, you have reached
Wayne's House of Drugs. Currently we have Home Boge, Mexican redhair, Black
hash from California, crack and Ice in stock. Please leave your name, phone
number, and the amount and kind of poison you need and I'll get back to
you. Thanks and Party Hardy! BEEEEEEP" "This is The Installer's Codeline.
Here are this weeks codes: 604 385 9682 0194. 604 477 9980 6682. 604 727
4432 8282. These are all BC Tel Calling Cards. Please leave your codes
at the tone. BEEEEEEEEP" A slightly less malignant blackmail message: "Hi,
this is the Silva Residence. No one can come to the phone right now since
we're having our nightly session of hot steamy gay family orgy fun. As
soon as we get out of the shower, we'll call you back. See ya later, you
hunk of man-meat you! BEEEEEEEP" For a machine in a doctor's office: "You
have reached Dr. Jones' office. We are sorry, but this office is closed
due to a pending malpractice suit. Thank you for calling. BEEEEEEP" For
a known police informer (to wit: a NARC): "This is the Sidney RCMP. There
is no-one in the station to take your call right now. If this is an emergency,
officers are available at the Sidney Donut Shoppe, at 656-4983. BEEEEEEEEP"
(The above blackmail messages also work well for narcs) Universally useful:
"This answering machine accepts all collect calls. (10 second pause while
operator does her thing) Here are this weeks codes: (etc etc etc)" Here's
something I have never tried, tell me if it works for you: Send your mark's
machine several seconds of 2600 Hz and the appropriate MF coding for a
nice faraway lame BBS or something, as the outgoing message. Then advertise
(anonymously) on some other faraway BBSes the existence of a new BBS with
no download ratios, 25,000 files, etc etc etc. What happens is that when
someone calls LD (and they will), the answering machine will start blue
boxing. The phone company will not be pleased. I'm sure you can think of
a lot more.
- Here are a few hints and pointers:
My ex-roomie, a consummate dick-head worthy of everything he has gotten
in the process of beta testing these pranks (as a matter of trivia, he's
the Wayne in Wayne's House of Drugs) has a nice Cobra answering machine.
Well, not only did he pay 3 times for his machine as much as I paid for
mine, but his has only a wimpy one-digit code (it's 5) and lets you change
the outgoing message from remote. Other answering machines have a 2 or
3 digit combination but actually accept ANY digit on the row or column
of the "actual" code number, thus bringing the number of possible codes
down to near-zero. Still other machines have stupid codes like 123, 369,
etc (some of those are the previous kind). Almost all answering machine
codes are hardcoded; I have seen dip-switches and PC-mounted rotary switches
allowing owners to change their codes at will, but these beauties are rare,
fortunately. The best thing you can do is acquire a library of users manuals
for various machines to learn their code conventions and instruction sets.
This can be readily accomplished by hanging out in department stores etc
that sell the things. There is no Canadian Law explicitly dealing with
answering-machine tampering, but all of these pranks can lead to your being
charged with common mischief at the least. Caveat Trickstor. Linemans'
Handset Methods ------------------------- Please don't refer to a homebuilt
lineman's handset as a "bud box", "brown box", "beige box", "tan box",
"modu box", "terminal box", or anything else so lame. There is no technical
wizardry in ripping the mod plug off your phone and replacing it with 'gator
clips. If you can get a real handset, do so because they are specially
ballasted to allow near-silent line interception whereas modified Flip-fone
]['s will always generate a nice clunk on the line when you attach, and
often will even tinkle the bell on phones in your target's house. Using
a handset to do nothing but place phree phone kawlz is lame; the true misanthrope
phreak knows the true power of his tool. - Custom calling! It's been said
that the only person you can't prank is someone who lives in a cave as
a hermit. And it's true in phoneland too, the more services your target
subscribes to, the easier it is to have phun with his miserable little
life. Take call forwarding. If your mark has this most useful of services,
you've got it made. Goto your target's phone terminal box-ette on the side
of his house one fine sunday morning (revenge on the Lord's Day is no sacrilege
to an anarchist) at 4:30, clip on your awesome modu-box, and try a few
of these little gems: :Forward all his calls to 911, the police or Fire
Dep't. Guaranteed results at the very first incoming call. :Forward calls
to Dial-A-Prayer, Dial-A-Meditation (we have a great Sri Chinmoy recording
in Victoria, BC, at 604-595-2721). I used to do this with my own line sometimes,
it really fucks incoming callers minds up. :Forward calls to yourself.
Risky, but if your mark doesn't have an answering machine you can use your
own machine to use the above-mentioned Answering Machine methods. :Forward
calls long-distance. In 604, calls that are forwarded long-distance are
paid for by the forwarding party, i.e. your target. It should work the
same in many other area codes too, call your local telco customer service
rep to find out. This can have horrible implications... :...if you forward
those calls to a BBS, or better still a code-line and advertise your mark's
number as the "new local node for the MegaLeech AE". :Forwarding to a 1-900
or 1-976 dial-it service works well too. Since most of these are voice-only,
it is very easy to program a large number of people to start calling your
mark on short notice, and the target gets stuck with the bill. :Forwarding
to your phone comany's local security office is a sign of true arrogance
on your part, as everyone gets hosed. Do it sometime. :Forward calls to
a number that is not in service. Effect is self explanatory. :Set your
own (or another target's) call forwarding to forward to your primary target.
Then have the target's forwarding set to your own number (or the secondary
target). Can you say endless forwarding loop? Be warned that some phoneco's
have gotten wind of this concept and installed anti-loop safeguards. :Forward
calls to just about anything offensive and blackmailable, gay sex lines,
the Nazi Party, the KKK, the Jehovah's Witnesses, need I get graphic? :Forward
to voice-mail systems. These are great as most will record MF tones so
the abovementioned blue-boxing-answering-machine trick will work, in a
roundabout way, via forwarding. They also let you wash your hands clean
of any answering-machine/forwarding combos you pull. Electrical Fun --------------
As any phone freak worthy of his k-bud box knows, telephones require certain
specific voltage levels in order to operate. Run them too far below these
voltages, and they crap out and die. Run them too high, and they blow up
and melt. - An old trick, but it has been such a great standby for tricksters,
no phone tricks file is complete without it: Drive to your target's residence
(4:30 AM on a sunday is definitely the best time for this). Have an accomplice
keep the motor running and the car door open. Head on up to that trusty
little grey box on the side of Mr. Victim's house, and attach the 'gator
clip ends of your "suicide plug" to the phone terminals. Now, I sure hope
you brought a LONG suicide plug because it is likely that the only outside
120VAC outlet on the house is on the other side. Murphy's law applies to
revenge just as in any other walk of life so be prepared. Now, when you
plug that suicide plug into Mr. Outside Outlet on Mr. Victim's house, the
effect will be immediate and striking: Every phone in the house will ring
loudly and violently. Older mechanical phones might survive having 110
VAC running through them continuously for several minutes, but electronic
phones and especially MODEMS will be destroyed. You run the risk of being
charged with arson if you are caught, so don't be. RUN, don't walk, to
your waiting getaway vehicle and HAUL ASS OUTA THERE before someone comes
to the window and gets your licence plate. If you don't mind paying a price
for your assured freedom, placing a timer ($9.95 at London Drugs for the
cheapest light timers) on the suicide plug will give you a nice safe delay
but you'll miss the fireworks...
- "The Scarlet Box" was a resistor,
circa 6000 ohms, placed across the phone terminals. It had the effect of
putting a load on the line that caused horrible noise. Another thing to
do is try a capacitor instead, a nice non-polarised electrolytric can.
It does wonders to the lines bandwidth.
- How about this: Basic phone service
carries its audio on a DC bias "carrier." Transformers and capacitors don't
like DC but they pass AC just fine. So, put a cap in series on the line.
Phone rings, yes, because ringing voltage is AC. Phone give dial tone?
Noooooo.... Fixer stop talking in Taiwanese english now. - If your mark's
phone terminal box is adjacent to several others, or shares a box with
others, then start connecting them together in parallel. Make sure you
match rings with rings, tips with tips. Many interesting effects. Krazy
Glue the boxes shut when you're done to "save your changes" permanently.
Well, that's it. This file is probably 100% illegal and banned by law,
but damned if I'm not going to exercise my right to copyright it. This
file is not in the public domain. Sysops of other BBSes are licensed to
distribute it free of charge on the sole condition that it is distributed
in its entirety and with all bylines and copyrights intact, and with no
text added. I've been in the IBM world too long, you can probably tell,
but it roast my butt what some lamers are doing to decent text files these
days. (C) 1990 The Fixer.