TAP
No. 70
November-December 1981
====================
NAKED CAME THE CROOK
====================
A nude man who came in from the cold to rob a gas station early
yesterday had a decided advantage, police said. The attendant was female.
She fled, leaving the unarmed man free to empty the cash register, then
scroll casually from the scene of the crime.
==================
FREEBASING COCAINE
==================
By Dr. Atomic
Frebasing cocaine is basically a California phenomenon, but it's a
practice that is popular with entertainers and with others who can afford
to indulge in the pleasures of cocaine. Freebase cocaine is smoked in a
special, glass water pipe called a freebase pipe, and after taking a toke
the onset of the high is quick; it comes on faster than snorting and
almost as quick as an I.V. injection -- it's like injecting cocaine
without using a needle. After inhaling the freebase cocaine vapors, your
hearing drops, and you get an incredible rush even before enough time
passes to exhale the smoke. Unfortunately, the rush and the high don't
last long, and the desire to smoke some more coke is compulsive. In
fact, it is so impulsive that people who hang around the freebase pip,
impatiently waiting to get another toke, are known in the vernacular as
"freebase vultures". But, before the cocaine can be smoked, it must
first be prepared.
The cocaine purchased on the street is usually coaine hydrochloride
(HCl), a water soluble salt of cocaine that is suitable for snorting
or injecting, but not for smoking. Cocaine HCl burns at a high
temperature, about 200oC, an if it's smoked, much of the cocaine gets
carbonized, burned up, instead of reaching your lungs as vapors. But, by
changing the cocaine HCl to cocaine freebase, you get more of the desired
cocaine vapors and less carbon because the freebase vaporizes at a much
lower temperature than the cocaine HCl does.
All it takes to change the cocaine HCl into cocaine freebase is a
little home chemistry. It's easy: if you can bake brownies by following a
cook book, you can freebase coke. The only supplies needed are some
inexpensive chemicals and equipment that are easily obtainable at your
local paraphernalia shop.
Equipment and Supplies
----------------------
1 Freebase water pipe, glass
2 Screens, fine mesh, for pipe
1 Glass freebase vial, 1 oz with top (1)
1 Mirror
1 Single edge razor blade
1 Box baking soda
1 bottle of petroleum ether or ethyl ether (2)
1 book matches or butane lighter
NOTE 1: Ethyl ether and petroleum ether will dissolve many plastics, so
the tops of freebase vials are specially made of ether
resistant plastic.
NOTE 2: Use caution when handling ether. The vapors of both ethyl ether
and petroleum ether will ignite explosively near an open flame.
Make sure that the room is well ventilated when extracting with
ether. When freebasing in the kitchen, make sure the pilot
lights are out on the stove and the hot water heater if they
are nearby. Also, don't smoke or light matches while there are
still fumes in the air.
The Freebase Process
--------------------
1) To a 1 oz glass freebase vial, add 4ml to 6ml of warm water. Less
than 1/4 of the vial is more than sufficient water.
2) Dissolve 1/4 to 1/2 gram of cocaine HCl in the water to make a
cocaine solution. Shake or stir if necessary to dissolve the
cocaine.
3) Add about 1/4 gram, more or less, of baking soda to the coaine HCl
solution. It is better to have an excess of baking soda than not
enough. Next shake well. This changes the cocaine HCl to the
freebase.
4) Using a glass eyedropper, add 2ml to 3ml of ether. Shake well. The
ether extracts the freebase cocaine from the water layer. As a rule
of thumb, use half as much ether as water. Since ether and water do
not form a solution, the ether will rise to the top and form a
distinct layer.
___________
|\ /|
| \_______/ | __________ Ether Resistant Cap
|___________|
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
|___________|
| | --------- Ether Layer
|___________|
| |
| | --------- Water Layer
|___________|
Because the cocaine freebase is more soluble in ether than in water,
the ether layer will contain most of the freebase; in effect, the
ether has extracted the freebase cocaine from the water layer. This
first ether extraction is known as the "first wash". The water
layer can be washed one or two more times with ether to extract the
small amount of freebase remaining after the first wash.
5) Siphon off the ether layer with the eyedropper, making sure not to
take any of the water layer. Drop the freebase saturated ether
carefully onto a clean mirror or glass surface. When the ether
evaporates, a white powder should remain; this is the cocaine
freebase, and it's ready to smoke. So what are you waiting for?
The freebasing process removes some of the water soluble contaminants
(cuts) like mannitol and lactose, so the yield, i.e. the weight of the
cocaine freebase obtained will weigh less than the cut-coke that was
started with; however, no significant amount of cocaine is lost, only the
cut is removed. Thus, a gram of cocaine HCl that is only 25% pure is not
a gram of cocaine but a 1/4 gram of cocaine, and the yield of freebase
cocaine, for this particular sample, will be slightly less than 1.4 gram.
The cocaine freebase, however, is nearly pure, compared to the starting
material, and a smaller dose of the freebase will be just as potent as a
larger amount of the cut cocaine. So, start with a small hit, a match
size line or less (20mg to 50mg). Remember, just like snorting ot
injecting, you can consume too much by smoking. Be careful how much you
smoke, and be careful, too, for police and informers: cocaine is still
illegal. Have fun with your chemistry projects, stay high, and stay
free.
=========================
MAN NABBED IN PHONE FRAUD
=========================
EAST BRUNSWICK - A man who described himself as an electronics engineer
has been arrested on charges stemming from the use of a "blue box", a
gadget the size of a calculator that emits electronic signals that
bypasses regular telephone billing equipment.
Tarkeshwar Singh, 50, of 16 Manor Place, was freed on his own
recognizance after he was arrested yesterday in a public phone booth at a
Route 18 department store, Detective Donald Henschel reported.
Singh was charged with possesion of a burglary tool, the "blue box",
and theft of $300 of services from New Jersey Bell Telephone Co. police
said.
Investigator James Witanek of the phone company's security division in
Newark said the investigation had been inprogress for several months.
During that time, he said, Signh used the device for $300 worth of phone
calls to Japan and Hong Kong.
In addition to the "Blue Box", investigators confiscated a schematic
design of the insturment which they said had been sent to Signh by an
aquaintance in West Germany.
"These electronic devices are a continuing problem to the telephone
company," Witanek said.
=======================
THE POSTAL (DIS)SERVICE
=======================
The Department of Agriculture recently completed a major survey, packed
up its findings in some 1,300 boxes and mailed them off to its Des
Moines, Iowa, processing center. While in the fumbling hands of the
Postal Service, more than 600 of the parcels were damaged, lost or
delivered to the wrong address.
We trust that when the Agriculture Department lodged its complaint, it
had the good sense to call rather than drop a letter in the mail.
=====================================
DO-IT-YOURSELF CALL FORWARDING DEVICE
=====================================
Dear TAP:
In Response to several pleas from your pub, enclosed is some technical
data on the Pacific Telephones in Pasadena.
On Hook: 45 VDC
Off Hook: 7.5 VDC @ 6ma Phone Input res: 200 ohms
Ring: Approx 50 VAC (My cheap multi-meter doesn't read AC mils)
T1 (Mic Button) res: 600 ohms
U3 (Ear Piece) res: 20 ohms (leads feeding earpiece show 80 ohms
across them.)
Ringer Coil Res: approx 3K ohms. Only one Coil.
Ring Back #6105-6: (Prefix)-1-(Prefix) gets a wierd "ticky-tock" sound;
(Prefix)-0002 gets a nice 1000 cps tone;
(Prefix)-1118 gets a real LOUD tone;
(Prefix)-0000 gets a central office recording which
includes the unlisted phone number for
the office (in this case, 576-6119);
What was supposed to be the verifying number (Prefix)-1111, gets the
"Not in service" recording;
(Prefix)-0003 gets the referral operator;
(Prefix)-0119 is a private party's home fone;
I'm trying to come up with a design for a "Dial Through Cheese Box"
sort of a gimmick, but it's not what I want. I could do it if we had T-T
phone hereabouts, but we're stuck with impulse dials. Drat. Any ideas?
MATERIALS:
C1- 1.0mfd @ 400 VDC
RL1- 4P.DT Relay, 115 vac coil
T1- Audio Isolation xformer, approx 600 ohms imped, 100 to 200 ohms DC
res.
M1- Timer Motor. 115 VAC 60 CPS
SW1a- First section of timer switch, set for approx 3min closed, 10 sec
open (due to circuit configuration, timer will self index to "open"
position of this switch).
SW1b- Second section of timer switch. Set for minimum possible duration
"on". Indexed to close AFTER SW1A has come OUT of detent. This is the
critical factor in choosing the type of timer. "On" duration must be LESS
than time required for "name caller" to finish dialing.
ADDITIONAL ITEM REQUIRED, BUT NOT SHOWN:
1 ea battery powered "Name Caller" dialing machine or equivalent.
NOTE: Over-ride disconnect switch (Tone Send. Relay?) may be connected
at point x-x.
================
CALLING HIS BUFF
================
LAS VEGAS (AP) - What do you say to a naked burglar?
That's what police were wondering at 5am Sunday when they arrested
Karl Hunsaker, 30 of Las Vegas, as he was climbing down a ladder in the
buff carrying household goods from an apartment.
Hunsaker was booked for investigation of burglary.
Officers gave no reason as to why Hunsaker had no clothes on.
====================
JAIL PHONE LINE BUSY
====================
DELAND, Fla. - A defendant usually gets to make one free phone call,
but for a few inmates at the Volusia County jail that apparently wasn't
enough. Using coin-operated telephones in the jail, at least six inamtes
made at least $32,000 worth of illegal telephone calls, according to
Assistant State Attorney Horace Smith. The inmated charged the calls to
fake credit cards or to telephone numbers of unsuspecting citizens in
this central Florida city, he said. Three inmates have been found guilty
of charges in connection with the telephone case, and three others are
awaiting trial, Smith said.
====================
PHONE CENTER PARADOX
====================
Michigan Bell Telephone Co., the giant corporate institution that
touches all of our lives and wallets, gets absolutely giddy whenever we
reach for the telephone. Bell spends millions of dollars around the clock
and calendar for advertising and public relation to persuade us to reach
more often.
We are taught, however, obliquely, that we are disadvantaged unless we
have telephones handy in every room of the house and office, or if we do
not use them to facilitate every communication. Shop by phone; sell
aluminum siding by phone; solicit and collect money by phone. Telephone
your mother, lover, great uncle and your entire graduating clas at least
once a week, just for the kick of it. Get a separate line for the kids!
Get a car phone! Give a phone to a poor person! And, do invest in one
of those recording devices so you will never, never miss a call, even a
wrong number. That way Michigan Bell will never miss collecting for the
call. We will all live happily ever after.
ONE RINGY-DINGY......
All this, and more, is the implied message of Bell's advertising. I
have no argument with it. I would rather write than phone, or recieve a
letter than a call. Written words are special to me. Spoke words
transmitted by electronic devices may be special to other people. The
absurdity that intriges me is not in the advertising or even the concept
of the telephone as an extension of the human mouth and ear.
Here's the absurdity: In it's ever-dilligent determination to expand
service, the telephone company has opened 35 new Phone Centers around the
state during the past 18 months or so. These are retail stores, more or
less, in which you can purchase telephones (Bell calls them
"instruments") and also arrange for installation when necessary,
strighten out billing problems and generally do your telephone buisness.
These places are designed as walk-in centers, however. Therefore - and
here it comes - they are not included in telephone book listings. This
is not an oversight. The Phone Centers have unlisted telephone numbers.
This is what I call absurd, remembering everything Bell has said about
how essential telephone communication is to life itself.
I know about this because a fellow named Jerry Moons (I think)
telephoned me to tell me about it. He had seen one of these Phone Centers
near Telegraph and 13 mile and wanted to dial it up to ask telephonic
questions.
TWO RINGY-DINGIES....
"I couldn't find a listing," he said, "so I dialed the information
operator. It rang 20 times and I hung up. Then, I dialed Bell
headquarters, and someone there told me the number is unlisted. The
person said Bell doesn't want its people bothered by phone calls. I swear
to you that's what I was told."
I believe him. I confirmed it with a telephone company spokeman. He
said, "The Phone Centers do have telephones, but we discourage telephone
contacts. It's supposed to be a face-to-face operation. You know, a
retail outlet to shop for phones."
He told me a lot of other things. He said Bell workers at the Phone
Centers do not have access to central records and are not really set up
to help with billing problems or repair problems. He said they have to
refer all those things to other departments, that that's a nuisance for
them and a hold-up for customers. He said the main job of the phone
centers is to sell phones and to arrange for service, and that having an
unlisted number helps. All that translates to me as the same thing as
"Bell doesn't want it's people bothered by phone calls."
I love it. Finding a giant absurdity is as exciting as finding the
great pumpkin. Now, it's your turn.
========================
COMPUTER 'ERASES' PHONES
========================
A malfunctioning computer bulletin board almost caused a total
communications blackout yesterday at the Union County administrative
complex in Elizabeth.
All 945 telephones at the County complex went dead shortly before
11:30am. when a memory board in the telephone operations room burned
out, according to James Delaney, director of central services.
Delaney said critical county operations, such as police and emergency
communications, had been carried out over the county's radio system
during the nearly four hours it took for the telephone company to restore
service.
In the meantime, the county's work force either waited until the
telephones were operative, or opted to "hoot it" between various floors
or buildings in an effort to maintain communications until the system was
repaired just after 3pm.
==================
WRONG LINE, INDEED
==================
TEMPLE, Texas (AP) - If you're one of those people who always seem to
be caught in the slowest-moving line at the bank, you might understand
the predicament a would-be robber found himself in recently.
The fellow stepped up to a teller at the First National Bank of Temple
and demanded that she fill his sack with money.
"Give me the money, this is a stickup," the unarmed man told Claudine
Holder.
Holder barely glanced at the canvas bag on her counter. Instead, the
teller, whom bank vice-president Sam Farrow described as "feisty and very
quick-witted," informed the man that he was in the wrong line.
She directed him to stand in a line across the lobby, and while he
waited meekly for service, she called police.
The suspect was arrested and charged with attempted bank robbery.
=======================================
ARMY WANTS TO FIND LONG-DISTANCE CHEATS
=======================================
TACOMA - The Army wants to reach out and touch a few individuals who
like to make illegal long-distance calls at Fort Lewis.
One soldier phoned a number in the Dominican Republic and charged the
$1,296 call to the base.
Another has been calling from a pay telephone on Fort Lewis to a pay
phone outside the Howard Johnson Restaurant in Trenton, NJ and been
charging those calls to a number on the post. Worse yet, says Bill Wood,
a base spokesman, return calls from Trenton are billed to the same
number.
Ordinarily, long-distance bills going through the Fort Lewis
Communications Center average $2,000 a month. In May, the bills came to
$4,500. "Probably half or more of them are fraudulent," Wood says, "but
we are checking and we will find those people."
Those making such calls could be imprisioned for five years for the
offense.
==============================
ABUSE OF REMOTE ACCESS SYSTEMS
==============================
John Petrie has a problem. Petrie (not his real name) is the
communcations manager for a medium size company in the Midwest. His
company has installed a long-distance control system to monitor usage and
get better utilization of long distance facilities. Because the company
has a large number of people traveling, remote access to the company's
long distance facilities was installed to reduce the number of credit
card calls. A series of inward WATS lines are connected to the long
distance control system at headquarters. When traveling, company
representatives can simply dial an "800" number and then their personal
authorization code to get access to the company's long distance
facilities including toll and outward WATS.
The remote access system seemed to be working great. Credit card calls
had been all but eliminated and the overall cost had been reduced. Then
about six months ago, Petrie was in the midst of doing the detailed
monthly billing of calls to station users when he noticed that one person
had been making a large number of 800 number calls via the remote access.
Petrie thought to himself, "This guy's got to be a stupid fool to dial
our 800 number to place a free 800 number call!" When questioned about
the calls, the man denied making any remote access calls at all that
month.
Totally confused at this point, Petrie called several of the 800
numbers listed in the billing report. In every case, when the call was
answered, the familiar toned indicated entrance to a remote access system
were heard. A phone freak was clearly at work!
Petrie immediately changed all codes, pauses and methods of gaining
access to the company's system. That night, the mysterious caller tried
60 times before he finally figured out the new procedures and codes.
Petrie made another major change, but the caller cracked that in about 20
tries, and then placed a call to germany. Petrie removed international
dialing from the system and called the telephone company security
department.
Meanwhile, he decided to have some fun by calling the 800 numbers on
the billing report, contacting each company's switchboard operator and
asking to be connected to the communications manager. According to
Petrie, "The moments of silence were deafening when I told these managers
how I had reached them."
After about a week, the telephone company security people showed up and
after reviewing the documentation were amazed. They traced all of the
called numbers, and came up with nothing but remote access numbers,
"meet-me" conference numbers and services such as Time and Temperature in
upstate Michigan. They did their best to trace calls back to the
originating number, and came up with calls from California out of another
company's remote access system.
Petrie says that to date his company has been hit with about 6,000
fraudulent calls, which cost about $10 an hour. "Even with all this," he
says, "I don't feel we look too bad compared to companies I know who have
been hit for in excess of $2,500 a month on international calls alone. He
seems to take great delight in calling Hertz Rent-A-Car in Guam."
John Petrie's problem is not unique. An informal survey by BCR reveals
that a number of large companies, although by no means all have had some
type of a problem with unauthorized use of remote access facilities.
Indeed, at least one large consulting firm has been investigating this
problem for several clients.
The difficulty in getting access to a companie's long distance
facilities via remote access varies considerably. The system used by
Petrie's company is one of the more difficult ro crack in that it
trquires knowing the proper inward WATS number plus a valid authorization
code. The system used in AT&T's Dimension PBX may be less secure in that
there is one common access code for eveyone. In some systems, no access
of authorization code at all is required. Simply dialing the special
local or inward WATS number gives the caller immediate access to the long
distance facilities. The communications manager of one large company
says that his organization once used inward WATS to access long distance
facilities thriugh a Centrex system without any restriction. A caller
simply dialed "9" and got access to the world. In one month there was
$5,000 to $6,000 in unauthorized calls to destinations such as Israel,
Hong Kong and Portugal. Belatedly, the company charged the system to
restrict remote access calls to the company's tie line network.
A consultant who has studied the problem believes that most abuse of
remote access to long distance facilities involves insiders or other
persons closely associated with the company. Often, it is a consumer or
a supplier who finds out how to use the remote access. Sometimes it is
just the difficulty in keeping authorization codes from becoming common
knowledge within an organization. One company the consultant recalls was
using MCI Execunet service, and the authorization code was supposed to be
known by only a small group of persons. Eventually, it came to be known
by a very large group. "I don't know how much security you can really
put into it," the consultant says, "because once you tell the secretaries
and they have to write memos to someone else, it is very hard to clamp
down on it."
One of the country's largest manafacturing firms uses an
operator-controlled system in which someone calling from outside wanting
to use the long distance facilities must give the operator a four
character code. The communications manager told BCR that while abuse is
"not a significant problem for us, we know that there are people using
the network who are not authorized to do it. Some of them are retiries
from the company who have been around for a while and know the score.
With 10,000 authorization codes, it's not too difficult to find a good
one."
It appears that most cases of abuse are the result of people wanting to
make free telephone calls. But there also seems to be an element of
pranksterism involved. One company in the East, located near a large
university, found they had a lot of outsiders accessing their telephone
system. Suspecting university students, they got persmission to install
a call data recorder on the main university Centrex system. The data
they collected confirmed that the students were, indeed, living up to
their reputation for technical wizardry. they had not only found out how
to access the company's long distance facilities, but its computer system
as well. Fortunately, they had not yet found out how to obtain or
manipulate data in the computer.
John Petrie says one of the prankster's tricks "is to place a call to
Company A's remote access. From Company A's system, they then call
Company B's remote access; then call from Company B to Company C; then
call from Company C back again to Company A and finally to a
non-releasing Time and Temperature number that, of course, will never
hang up. By doing this on a Friday evening (none of the companies being
aware of it until Monday morning), they can tie up entire systems for
many hours of overtime charges."
How easy is it to find a remote access number? If you have some
association with a company that has one or with the telephone company,
the answer is probably: not too hard. But, if you have no inside
information, the difficulty is much greater.
To find out how hard it might be for an outsider, we decided to beomce
a phone freak, and to try to find an inward WATS line connected to a
remote access. AT&T says that there are about 40,000 interstate inward
WATS lines, of which about one-half have unlisted numbers. Presumably, a
small percentage of these unlisted nunbers are for remote access. Our
experience suggests that they are not easy to find.
Knowing nothing about how the telephone company assigns inward WATS
numbers, we began by consulting a readily available directory of listed
800 numbers to see if there was any pattern to how numbers are assigned.
Our assumption was that unlisted numbers would follow the same pattern as
listed numbers, an assumption that seems to be true.
It appears from the directory that 800 numbers do have some pattern;
that the digits in the exchange code vary with the geographical area.
WATS lines in New York, for example, have exchange codes that begin with
a different digit than WATS lines in California. (We deducted the
location from the fact that the listing said that the number was good
anywhere except New York or except California.)
Knowintg that a lot of company headquarters are located in New York, we
selected some exchange codes that appear to be used very frequently in
New York. We dialed these codes with varying combinations of the last
four digits. After gerring three answers and six recorded announcements
saying the number was no good on the first ten tries (one answer did not
answer), we further analyzed the numbers and dialed 30 good numbers out
of the next 40. None of these numbers, however, was connected to remote
access. After these 50 unsuccessful attempts, we got bored and gave up,
deciding we were not cut out to be a phone freak. But had we more
perserverance or an automatic dialer, perhaps eventually we would have
found a remote access system. Of course, even if we had, we would be only
half-way home if the system required an authorization code.
It is this difficulty in getting through the security precautions that
makes most observers believe abuse of remote access results generally
from inside information. For the user being hit, this distinction might
seem academic but it does suggest that a company can cut its losses
substantially by concentrating on more internal security. The following
are some effective measures:
1. Require a proper authorization code in addition to the access
number.
2. Assign remote access authorization codes to a minimum number of
people.
3. Provide enough digits in the authorization code so that you need
assign only a small percentage of the maximum number of
combinations.
4. Change authorization codes frequently.
5. When someone with a code leaves the company, retire the code.
6. If possible, install asystem which tells you if a series of invalid
codes had been dialed in.
7. Never give information on remote access to someone you do not know.
A while back, an individual posing as an Action Communications
Systems employee was calling WATSBOX users and asking for remote
access numbers and codes, ostensibly to update Actions's records.
The caller was not from action.
These precautions should minimalize abuse of romote access, but they
will not eliminate it. Ask John Petrie. He knows.
==================================
HOW TO CHEAT YOUR ASS OFF IN SKOOL
==================================
"I have only learned by copying"
- Pablo Picasso
MAKING IT: Nice people just don't cheat. This is a fact of life. If you
do cheat, you are most likely a rotten no good stinker with
commie friends, dirty underwear and a host of social
diseases. The REVOLUTIONARY 3 STOOGES try to discourage
this type of behaviour. It is both tacky and
unsophisticated. We suggest that instead, you foloow the
advice of our firends from TAKE OVER, in Madison Wis. by
just forgetting the entire mess. Fuck Skool! Forget
cheating. Print up your own degree instead and get on with
living.
(1) Borrow a friend's diploma, put your name in it and make a
copy suitable for framing. You can take the signature from
the old diploma, and get a fascimile when the new President
is named - he will probably have his signature in the papers
or on all kinds of documents.
(2) If you have a Gemini friend, get the friend's transcript and
put your name at the top - if the friend has a degree.
Again, make a copy.
Or, if you have been here one semester - and don't rush, you
have 4 years to graduate the TakeOver way - you can get your
own transcript and simply fill it in with courses it might
have been nice to take. Reduce-xerox your work to fit the
form.
Consolidated Company in Chicago, a Saturn (discreet) firm
will sell you a seal that works like a notary's seal for the
transcript - you must emboss your list of courses and grades
to give it that offical look. You design the embossing seal
yourself; put your birth sign in the center if you like,
some Latin on the outside, with the words "University of
Wisconsin." For Latin phrases we suggest a little joking,
such as "PECUNIA LOQUIT" (Money talks) or "OSCULA ASCULA"
(Kiss my Ass)
(3) Two-thirds graduated already, thank your lucky stars and
proceed to the next part of your education: references.
Choose or aquire three friends who are careful about getting
their mail. Appoint them Deans or Faculty members,
depending on what stationery you can get or contacts you can
aquire, have them write glowing reccomendations for you, and
when your file is built, put it in an employment office.
Some employment offices, such as the University Placement
Bureau, will furnish forms for reccomendations, so you won't
have to get the stationery yourself.
After your file is put in an employment office, job offers
will be sent to you, and, as you apply for them, the
companies may contact your references - let them do it by
mail and you can write replies yourself.
Freed of the ignorance and cruelty of the Capricorns, you
will have time to learn instead of just becoming passive.
You can make life easier for yourself, too, by following
your star on food stamps and welfare, or get a new name by
writing for the copy of a birth certificate of someone your
own age who died young. With this certificate you're on
your way to a social security card, driver's license, phones
in other names, bills falling forgotten into abandoned
mailboxes, etc.
You can have four years of life, not the living death of
crawling from class to class.
But, some object, "What about knowledge?" The person who has
spent time at the university may just turn their eyes up at
such a question, hardly able to believe that someone who
could think he/she would learn anything of the slightest use
while sitting in a lecture hall is not an extraterrestrial
alien. The knowledgable believe that Education, under the
influence of venus, is not at all lovely, but a sort of
venereal disease, a cerebellic gangrene, for which this
paper may be used as a condom (more mundane disease
prevention may be obtained at the WSA pharmacy or the Blue
Bus on Spring St).
FAKING IT: It was the morning after. After, that is, dragging myself
from the gutter in front of the Moonlight Bar to the back
seat of my car. A bristly black hairy tarantula ran
screaming from my mouth. Unknown substances mingled with
cigarette butts in my hair. I had a mid-term exam in
ancient Chinese history in 2 hours. You could say that I
was unprepared. I asked myself, "What would a Mao Tse-fly do
in a case like this?" But the Red Guards were nowhere in
sight. I was on my own. I entered the class, paused and
slowly labeled my blue book #2. I took the time writing a
single grandiloquent concluding paragraph and handed it in.
The professor later apologized for losing my first blue book
and gave me a B. A cheat must always be resourceful.
1) Change the answers on graded tests. Bring them back to
the prof and say, "Hey, I had this answer right."
2) Carry in completed blue books to the exam.
3) At the end of the quarter professors leave graded tests
and term papers in the halls for their students. Take the
best ones and save them for future use.
4) Keep all tests and papers to use again and again, use
your friends' and visit fraternity files.
5) Remember to never put down what you plagerized from as a
source. Use master theses from other colleges, the
papers kept by departments at other colleges for the
"serious researcher" and obscure books from other
libraries.
6) Despite propaganda, term paper companies are OK.
TAKING IT: I know of one student who walked into the school print shop
as exams were being run off, sat down on an inked gally and
walked off with a set of tests on his pants.
1) Bribe or get friends who can get tests, such as janitors
and print shop workers.
2) Go through wastepaper cans for copies.
CRIBING IT: What I have come to call the "Ethiopian Shuffle" was given
to me by a foriegn exchange student and has proven to be one
of the best crib notes in the buisness. Taking a long
narrow strip of paper that is folded like an accordion into
a tiny book, you are able to write 10 times the amount of
info that a normal crib sheet holds. It is then manipulated
with thumb and forefinger.
1) Magic shops have special pensils which write invisible
notes that can only been seen with special glasses.
2) Intelligence is transmitted to several cheaters through
an elaborate signal system. Pen point is up, down is
false. In multiple choice, fingers at chin level mean
number of question - at waist level, number of answer.
3) Put cribs on the seat near your crotch. Open your legs to
see it, close them to hide it.
4) Transistorized tape recorders can be camoflauged as
hearing aids.
5) Be imagnitive. Hide notes everywhere. On skin and
fingernails. As scrolls in objects such as watches and
pens. On kleenex, gum and cigarettes. Write on the sole
of your shoe for easy reading when crossing legs. On
tape in the folds of clothes and behind sheer nylon.
Viva Larry, Curly & Moe,
Pancho White Villa
=====================================
TRANSIT EMPLOYEE SOLVES TOKEN PROBLEM
=====================================
A Transit Worker who took it upon himself to tackle the TA's
$1-million-a-year problem with slug token has come up with an ingenious
$1 solution.
Thomas Costa, a 46-year-old turnstile foreman from Astoris, invented
what he calls a "roll-pin" device at home.
"We were having a problem at the Greenpoint Ave. Station" where thin
steel slugs were showing up reguarly in token clerk buckets, he
explained.
"I came up with it for this one particular slug, but when I brought it
in we found out it worked on all kinds."
The device works by measuring the width of the phony coins and dropping
through those coins that don't fit the dimensions of legitimate tokens.
Forty copies of Costa's home invention were tested in several
high-volume stations in Manhattan with "excellent success," a Transit
Authority spokesman said yesterday.
This week, the TA ordered devices for the installation in every
turnstile in the system.
Slugs and foreign coins, which have plagued the subway system since it
was opened nearly 80 years ago, have been used at epidemic proportions
since the fare was hiked to 75 cents last month.
Nearly 30,000 fare beaters have dropped phony tokens into turnstiles
every week according to transit police.
A peak in slug use was reached in 1976 when 100,000 phony tokens a week
were being used.
Costa submitted his invention to the TA through its employee suggestion
program, which means he gives up all patent rights to the device.
"The TA couldn't pay [employees] for all the stuff they've come up
with," Costa laughed.
"What did he get for developing this thing?" Costa's boss, Joe Spencer,
was asked.
"I kissed him twice," Spencer said.
=======================================
COMPUTERS MONITOR PHONE LINES FOR FRAUD
=======================================
New electronic "watchdogs" are making it increasingly difficult to fool
Ma Bell.
The watchdogs are computer monitoring systems that have been set up to
fight telephone toll fraud, which cost New Jersey Bell Telephone Co.
millions of dollars last year through phony credit card numbers,
fraudulent third-party billing and the use of eletronic devices to
bypass automatic billing equipment.
The loss due to electronic fraud only can be guessed at, since the
devices work by circumventing company billing, but Bell spokesman Ted
Spencer said the company had lost $2.3 million through more conventional
fraud-schemes in 1980. The costs eventually are passed on to customers.
Company officals say telephone bill cheaters come from all segments of
society, including college students, immigrants, middle-class
suburbanites, buisnessmen and the poor.
* * *
For example, a 70-year-old Patterson woman recently was caught charging
more than $7,000 in overseas telephone calls to Greece using s "blue
box," a device that emits tones reproducing the signals that guide
telephone switching equipment.
Last week an Israeli couple was charged with making calls to Israel
with a blue box from pay telephones throughout Union and Middlesex
counties.
After in investigation by the telephone company, a computer analyst
making $45,000 a year was charged with making fraudulent credit card
calls on his lunch hour to Iran.
John T. Cox, Bell's district staff manager, said the detection systems
for illegal electronic devices were getting better all the time.
"If you're using a blue box on a regular basis in New Jersey, you're
going to be caught," he said flatly. "I can almost guarantee it."
Escorting a visitor through s seldom-seen computer room at Bell, Cox
pointed out teletype monitors that can pick up the use of the device and
immediately tell investigators where a call is being made from, so that
cheaters frequently are arrested by local police while still on the
phone.
Those found guilty of using a Blue Box can be fined, jailed and forced
to make restitution.
* * *
A blue box is nothing more than a tone generator that gives its user
access to the telephone company's long-distance lines by fooling
automatic equipment. Users generally dial an 800-toll-free number and
send a pulse that allows them to dial anywhere in the world without the
calls registering as a toll call.
The device was named for the color of the first boxes sold through
underground publications, but they have grown in sophistication. Cox
displayed several confiscated boxes built into small handheld calculators
and boxes the size of a cigarette pack. A young electronis ebgineer from
Verona was arrested two years ago with a blue box he built directly into
his telphone.
"The devices sell for up to $500, but it's not worth it." Cox
commented.
Bell prosecutes every blue box case it uncovers and works with police
departments to move quickly in catching users. Because the Blue Boxes
show no record of calls, Bell has run across cases of criminals involved
in drugs and prostitution using the devices.
Cox said the use of blue boxes was falling off, explaining "People are
realizing they're going to get caught."
* * *
Since January, Bell investigators have come across 32 cases that have
resulted in 12 arrests and 11 convictions.
Computer monitoring equipment can also pick out the use of other
devices, such as black boxes, which avoid charges for incoming calls to a
phone, and red boxes, which generate the sound of coins dropping in a pay
phone. Cox said new billing control systems would seeon eliminate the
electronic boxes.
Of more concern is nonelectronic fraud, which Cox said was growing
nationwide. It can range from charging a long-distance phone call to a
stranger, to using a stolen credit card, but computers are being put to
use here.
Bell plans to introduce a special billing system that will need
personal codes to operate, similat to automatic tellers being used by
banks. Customers also will be able to stop anyone from billing a call to
their number with an automatic computer block that signals an operator
not to accept such calls.
However, it is impossible to stop all-fraud. Cox pointed out, "The
people who are perpetrating the frauds know our systems."
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