How To Order And/Or Create Your Own Telephone Calling Card Numbers

I can't believe I haven't done a file on calling cards yet. I've been ordering calling cards since I was in diapers and there's not even a PLA file on it. What in the hell is wrong with me? I wrote a file on calling cards a few years ago but I lost it in a freak accident with the lawn mower, I think. Not much has changed since then, though.

It's really simple and I hardly think that the subject really deserves more that a paragraph, let alone a whole file my my pointless babblings should drag it out a little more. (See? Two meaningless paragraphs already...)

I usually make their pin number something meaningful such as my first name so I can call them up pretending to be phone company security, "Yes, sir, well, I see here that your pin number on that fraudulent card spelled out the word RBCP (my real name). Now on my records here I show that you had a disagreement with a RBCP in high school and we suspect this may be an act of revenge on his part..."

So no matter who your target is, write down all the information you have on them. Mostly you will just need their name and phone number but it helps to have their address and possibly their social security number in case the phone company wants to verify it.

Sometimes they'll want to call you back at your home and if you're not at home then they'll want your social security number to make sure that you're really who you say you are. Look up the residential billing office in the front of your phone book. (Or if it's long distance, call information.) Here's how my conversation with the billing operator usually goes:

OPER: May I help you?

RBCP: Yeah, I had called earlier today about ordering one of your calling cards...I just wanted to go ahead and set that up if I could.

OPER: Could I have your home telephone number, area code first?

RBCP: Sure, it's 512-370-4680.

OPER: Your name?

RBCP: Geraldo.

OPER: How many cards will you be needing?

RBCP: Oh...just one is fine.

OPER: Okay, I've placed the order for you and your card will be there in about two weeks.

RBCP: Okay, thanks! Hey, am I going to have the same pin number as I selected when I called last time?

OPER: I don't show that you called before.

RBCP: Oh, yeah, I called asking questions about the card and the operator said that I could make my pin number the same as the pin number on my ATM card.

OPER: What pin number would you like?

RBCP: 7448.

OPER: Okay, it's taken card of. Thank you for using AT&Roy.

It's actually not really even that hard. But sometimes the operator will want some additional information such as your social security number or she might want to call you back. If I don't have their social security number I just hang up and call right back saying that I got hung up on and continue the order and the new operator will give me my pin number with no questions.

Another way to get card numbers would be to send the actual card to a post office box. (See PLA024 for P.O.Boxes) First you'd call up the billing office and ask for all of your future bills to be sent to a new address which is your post office box. Then you'd call back and say you'd like to order a calling card and don't bother asking for a personalized pin number. In less than two weeks you'll receive the card in your box. It'd be a good idea to forward their phone bills back to the original address unless you're not planning on keeping that box for much longer.

Don't place the order from your home! They're the phone company, for god's sake and they'll be able to check their little ANI machines a few months down the road and see who called them for that order. (It happened to me once.)

When you're done with a call, don't hang up! Instead, wait for the person on the other end to hang up, then press the # key. AT&T will say, "Please enter another number now..." Dial the area code and new number and it'll put you through again without having to re-enter your calling card again.

Tricks:

By blocking your ANI and then calling AT&T, you can make your calls seem to come from anywhere in the United States. The person you've ordered the calling card for won't have to pay for the charges if it's obvious that it's fraud that he didn't have anything to do with. But what if you make all the the phone calls appear to have been made from his own home? Then what's he gonna tell the operator? "Well, even though all the calls are coming from my home, I know nothing about this card..."

Dial zero. Ask the operator to dial a toll free number for you. Give her the number 1-800-225-5288 and she'll put it through. (That's 1-800-CALL-ATT) When you get the "AT&T" stuff, hit zero to get an operator. She'll ask you what number you're calling from. Give her the number to the calling card victim's home. She'll ask for the number you're calling to and for your calling card number and put your call through. After you're done with the call, your can hit the # key and dial other numbers just as if you'd dialed direct and it'll all show up as being made from the victim's home.

In the past, I've made my calls seem to come from the White House, from local police stations, pay phones outside the victim's home, and from the victim's grandma's house and mom's house and friends' houses. I'm sure this confuses the hell out of him.

Caught Again:

Of course, I got sloppy a few times and got caught. While living in Los Angeles and using a card from my friend's house, I charged about $40 worth of calls to a calling card number in Oregon. The phone company didn't even calls us about the charges, they just tacked 'em onto my friend's phone bill and I paid them.

Another incident was when a stupid friend of mine in Highland, Illinois used a card I gave him every night from his home. When the phone company called his mom, she gave my name and phone number so the phone company called me. I admitted that it was me to keep my friend out of trouble and told the lady that the card number was written on a pay phone and I didn't know I was doing any- thing wrong. She said in first-time situations like this they don't prosecute (I stiffled a laugh) and they'll only charge me for the fraudulent calls made from my friend's house. A week later I got the bill, threw it in the trash and moved to Indianapolis to meet Jim Bayless.

Only very few times has a phone company called a friend of mine that I called on the card and tried to find out about me. When they did, my friends would just play dumb. This happened once to Martini (618) when a sherrif from the small town of Roscoe, South Dakota (I ordered a calling card from there) deicded to investigate for his buddy, I guess. Martini said she didn't know anything and that was the end of it.

That's It:

Now you know how to stock up on calling cards. Zak recently placed an order for a calling card through MCI and got a personalized pin with it and it worked forever. He even gave the guy's incorrect address and birthdate but it still worked. So, it's something I'm gonna try soon but don't really know enough to write about yet.

Phearless:

I have to show you guys this...A few years ago, a guy I know decided to create his very own kewl elite hacking and phreaking group, although the only hacking he has ever done in his miserable life is extract the PKUNZIP.COM file to get into someone else's WWIV DOS.

Phearless (a.k.a. Jason Phillips) of Wood River, IL decided to call his k-rad group P.H.U.C.K. This creative title is an acronym for Phreak/Hacking United Corporate Khaos. (Seems he ran a little short on creativity there at the end, huh?) Anyway, what am I getting at? Well, uh...nothing. He's lame, that's all. Below is an edited version (VERY edited) of a k-k-kewl file he wrote for the group. It was originally about ten pages long but I shortened it.

How to disable Caller ID.

blah,blah,blah,blah...He rambles about his amazing hacking group...

Okay. Onto the program... Do you know how to disable call waiting? You just use the *70, feature, right? Easy, eh? Yep well all you do is lets say you're gonna call my bulletin board and I was a lame-paranoid bastard with no life who has Caller ID. Well, all you do is before my number you type *71,. The number would look like this:

*71,1-618-254-4016

You see, 70 disables call waiting and 71 disables Caller ID. Are you kicking yourself in the ass now for not find this out by yourself? To find little secrets like this, you just dial 0 and talk to the Ma Bell operator. You'll be amazed at how stupid the Fone Operators are...They'll tell you anything.

Well, that's about it. That amazing top-secret classified phone company "secret" that he "social engineered" out of a "stupid" operator and unveiled to us just happens to be available to anyone that knows how to open their phone book. It's listed in there along with all the other standard *xx commands that everybody knows about and always has been. (Actually, I think the 618 code is *67 now. It used to be *71 when they first got it.) He wrote that file before Caller I.D. was even available to the area. (Ahead of his time, I guess.)

Anyway, I've had Jason's phile in my hard drive forever now and the only reason I kept it this long is for the comic relief and thought maybe I could share it with everyone else. He wrote a few others, equally pathetic. That's it for this issue, though. Now get out to a pay phone and start ordering those calling cards before they quit offering personalized pins! See you in PLA029.