Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: karl@ddsw1.mcs.com (Karl Denninger) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: US West and the War on Drugs Message-ID: <6268@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 11 Apr 90 14:32:52 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Karl Denninger Organization: Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. - Mundelein, IL Lines: 35 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 247, Message 4 of 14 In article <6248@accuvax.nwu.edu> telecom@eecs.nwu.edu (TELECOM Moderator) writes: >What they have done is replaced touch-tone pay phones with rotary dial >models at about eighteen locations in Minneapolis and St. Paul to make >it harder for drug dealers to conduct business with telephone pagers. >A common way of purchasing drugs is to telephone a drug dealer's pager >and then punch in a phone number or some other pre-arranged code, >according to police. But the "astute" drug customer does have a way to continue to reach his or her dealer -- simply toddle down to the local Radio Shack store and buy one of their $10.00 tone encoders. Now you are independant of the Bell Co's DTMF pad, and you can still page people. With the amount of money that changes hands daily in the drug trade, I wouldn't be surprised if some dealers start GIVING the encoders to their "better" customers. So much for that strategy. I used to have one of these (before it broke) for a different purpose -- my home phone was rotary dial, and I wanted to be able to use some of the 950xxxx numbers to make long-distance calls -- which required an access code. With rotary service, entering said code was impossible, thus the encoder. I wonder how many DTMF encoders Radio Shack will sell in the next couple of months. I can see it now -- some guy in Radio Shack wanting to buy 100 DTMF encoder boxes.... :-) Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, !ddsw1!karl) Public Access Data Line: [+1 708 566-8911], Voice: [+1 708 566-8910] Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. "Quality Solutions at a Fair Price"