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From: jet@karazm.math.uh.edu (J. Eric Townsend)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Traps = Card Dropping (was: Autodialer Ruining My Life!
Message-ID: <12173@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 14 Sep 90 20:16:29 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 647, Message 5 of 9


In article <12105@accuvax.nwu.edu> you write:

>If the Annoyance Call Bureau there operates
>like Illinois Bell's, they will put a trap on the line and try (no
>guarentees) to capture the number of the calling phone.

In Houston during the mid 80s, there was a strong rumor in the phreak
community that SWBT regularly "dropped cards" on long-distance calls
from certain apartment complexes (complexi? :-) as well as on local
calls from certain "suspicious" numbers.

"Dropping a card" was described as making a physical log (printing on
a small card, thus the phrase) of the originating number, the number
called, the time/date of the call and the length of the call.

Is there anything (in Houston or elsewhere) that would substantiate
this sort of rumor?  Is this the equivalent of a trap?

Just curious...


J. Eric Townsend -- University of Houston Dept. of Mathematics (713) 749-2120
Internet: jet@uh.edu   Bitnet: jet@UHOU    Skate UNIX(r)