Re: Need Help With Phone Pranksters

Article: 7405 of alt.hackers
From: scotty@cybernetics.net (Scott Chilcote)
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
Subject: Re: Need Help With Phone Pranksters
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 1995 17:17:03 -0500
Organization: NT/AiC
Lines: 44
Approved: One can only hope
Message-ID: scotty-1702951717030001@47.23.33.162
NNTP-Posting-Host: nntpadd.bnr.ca
Status: RO

In article <3i18ak$gjj@horus.infinet.com>, twemling@infinet.com (T. E.
Wemlinger) wrote:

> I am hoping someone on this group can help me figure out a way to deal
> with some phone pranksters (kids) who have been leaving obscene messages
> on my answering machine / voice mail. I have caller ID (but they are
> naturally coming in as anonymous calls), and I just signed up for call
> return on a trial basis.
>
snip-ola
>
> Tom Wemlinger
> twemling@infinet.com

I have yet to attempt this, but you say you're signing up for call return...
In our area, you can dial "*69" to immediately redial the last
called number
(one can only guess why such a memorable number was chosen).  The reason I
haven't tried this is because it costs $.75 a pop.

Armed with this, a cassette recorder, and a little rubber-cup phone mike
that Radio Shack may still sell, you could potentially record the tones
that it sends when it dials the number back for you.  The reason I say
"potentially" is because the tones may be suppressed on your end.
Anyway,
if you get the tones on tape, you can then do trial-and-error to find out
which ones they are...  Unless you have access to some equipment that can
analyze the tones.

Also note that most local phone companies are willing to help people who
are being harassed by anonymous callers.  Check in the front pages of your
phone book; you'll probably find a number just for this purpose.

ObAmazinglySimpleHack:
Free Clue -- use ":set showmode" in vi, a bloomin' miracle for
newbies.

ObLessObviousHack:
Put a trailing slash ('/') on paths in your CDPATH definition.  Helps
greatly when you have directories with the same name here and there.

--
--------------------------------------------------------
My opinions are my own. I can't even GIVE them away!
--------------------------------------------------------
Scott R. Chilcote/NT       Email: scotty@cybernetics.net

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