PRIVATE PAYPHONES #4


Hiya.  Here again with Lesson 4 of Phreaking Private Payphones: Dirty Tricks.
Dirty Tricks involve things you can do to piss off the owners of a private
payphone (you know, the ass that won't refund your quarter even though you
know he owns the store and the phone).  1.  The Oyster Trick.  This one is
particularly disgusting.  Materials required: 1 gooey, slimey oyster  (the
slimier the better!) and 1 piece of A.B.C. gum.  (already been chewed).
Put the piece of gum at the very bottom of the coin return chute and stuff
it down into the oyster drain hole there.  Then, put the oyster in the coin
return, and leave.   Come back later that day and remove 1 gooey oyster and
shitloads of change that people were too grossed out to retrieve.  If the
owner of the phone gets a handful, oh well.  2.  The Balloon Trick.  This one
is similar to the oyster trick but you use a balloon to block the coin return
chute by inflating it very little and stuffing it up the thing.  Later come
back and prick the balloon, and jackpot!  -  Both Tricks 1 and 2 annoy the
owner by causing customers not to receive their change back, causing com-
plaints to the owner, and possibly a service call.  By the way, Tricks 1 and
2 also work on Bell Payphones...  3.  The "Dead Phone" Trick.  This one only
works because the general populace is too stupid to listen for dialtone before
inserting the Quarter.  Step 1, locate the conduit described in the last
installment carrying the power to the phone.  Cut the 2-4 wires carrying the
power. (Usually 12-48 V.D.C., though be careful! some phones use 110 A.C.!!)
anyhow all day the idiots come up to the phone, pick up the handset, put
in a  Quarter, and gulp!  the phone has no power, so not only is there no
dial tone, but it can't activate the coin relay to return the Quarter!  Later
that day, come back and reconnect the power, and make a call, but hang up
before anyone answers and JACKPOT!  All the change hung up in the coin relay
comes back down the coin return.  Do this a couple of times until the relay
is clear of coins.  Some phones automatically eat on power-up, so this may
not work, but if it does, it may not get all the coins in the relay.  This
Trick will most usually generate a service call, and when the tech gets there,
there won't be any problem! - (snicker).  In the next Lesson, we'll get into
HACKING payphones!!!  - YES, HACKING! - most private payphones have internal
MODEMS! - those that do not are remotely controlled by DTMF's instead of
carrier modems, but can also be hacked.   Well,  Until Later.