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From: garif@cmcl2.nyu.edu (Talking Head)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom
Subject: Re: Answering Machine as Room Bug
Message-ID: <12380@accuvax.nwu.edu>
Date: 20 Sep 90 17:26:35 GMT
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X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 662, Message 6 of 10


wilkins@jarthur.claremont.edu (Mark Wilkins) writes:

>This individual, who wants to remain anonymous for obvious reasons,
>received an extremely odd call on her answering machine at home.

I get these on my office answering machines quite often.

The conversations that I overhear usually concern me or my data
centers.  Eighty percent of the time its interesting in a negative
sort of way.

>The question I have is this: Does anyone know of a way that someone
>inexperienced with such matters could accidentally set up a three-way
>call?  Or did this have to be intentional?  Ignore, for the moment,
>the possibility of a strange switching error.  Specifically, do many
>types of production phone equipment have bugs which could cause this
>sort of thing?

Sure, quite a few people who call me use either a) antiquated AT&T
PBXs with three-way calling or b) brand new systems that are set to
the wrong PBX selector.  When they call me with three-way, i.e. when
they're talking to someone and want to bridge me in, my answering
machine will answer and normally they will either hang up or leave a
message and then hang up.  The trick is this: with the old AT&T PBX
the flash is signalled by going onhook then offhook in a short
interval; this causes the PBX to hang up the third call and lets the
primary continue hir call with the original called party. (with the
new switches, the flash will not work properly if the PBX selector is
set incorrectly) Sometimes, the PBX will not hang up the call and you
will continue to talk to the third party...

Next time you initiate a third way call and get an answering machine,
be sure your third party is properly disconnected, else hir answering
machine may confer your conversation at a later time.

>As it turns out, the position was not funded by higher-ups and
>therefore nobody got the job.  However, it is good to know that things
>like this can happen, I think, because such accidents could cause
>significant damage.

Damage?  That depends on to whom.  I'm usually quite entertained when
individuals who work for me call and say they can't do something or be
somewhere then promptly inform someone that I am a gullible fool.  A
better example: someone was trying to sell me a very expensive car; he
called me and left a message stating that he couldn't do better than
$NNN,NNN; then he goes on to tell some lady (turns out to be his
ex-wife) that the car was as good as sold and that I would never try
to negotiate a price that would even get near the $NN,NNN that they
paid for it two years hence.  Well, you can imagine that I didn't
quite pay what HE was asking and instead negotiated with HER and got a
Big Cash Savings.  The Bell System at work.  You just have to make it
work for you.

Forgive me if I've rambled.  I'm a bit surprised people haven't caught
on to this neat little phenom yet.  I "use" it all the time.


Lee Chen
garif@nyu.edu