Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Tue, 9 Apr 91 14:52 GMT From: Steve Forrette Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Pacific Bell "Airport" Credit Phones Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 281, Message 7 of 8 Lines: 56 I was at Oakland International last week, and took a closer look at the Pacific Bell "airport" payphones. You know, the special ones, that accept coins or mag stripe cards, and have the LCD display (the ones that were in "Die Hard 2," supposedly in DC). Not only does the mag stripe reader take RBOC and AT&T calling cards, but it takes Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners, and JCB. This is the first RBOC payphone that I know of that takes commercial credit cards. When you use it, it's quite a Mickey-Mouse setup. If you use a calling card, the phone simply dials the number, waits for the ka-bong, then sends the card number and PIN via DTMF. It would take me longer to get the card out of my wallet then dial the numbers myself. And of course, that's assuming that I wanted to waste space in my wallet for the calling card anyway. But for the credit cards, it is even more silly. The phone dials a seven digit number into some computer verification system somewhere. The remote system answers with a short tone, then the phone sends the dialed number. Another remote tone, then your credit card number is sent out. This is all via DTMF and with the caller hearing the whole process. The credit card procedure takes many seconds to complete. Now, let's say I wanted to have some phun, and recorded the process at the payphone. At home, I could decode the digits by playing them to my voicemail board, or by using a test device of some sort. Then, from any phone, could I not call the seven digit number that the payphone did, enter the number I wanted to call, then my credit card number, and have the call billed to my credit account? Presumably, the charges wouldn't be too outrageous, since I'd be "using" a Bell payphone to complete the call, right? And as long as I used only my own credit card, would this even be considered phraud? This assumes that the number that the payphone called does not have Caller ID. Since Pacific Bell has SS7 mostly deployed in the Bay Area (although CLASS features aren't offered yet), it is conceivable that they can tell if the calling phone is really the payphone at the airport, since this use of Caller ID would clearly be for internal telco use. But, for some reason, I don't think that this is the case. I'd bet that I could use the above procedure to call from home. Here's a scenario for you: Let's say I were far away from the airport, and called the secret number it calls for credit card calls, send-paid from some other payphone. If I entered my credit card number and called someone, it would establish a pretty good alibi that I was at the airport at the time of the call, would it not? You know, sometimes I'm thankful that most of us Digesters aren't crooks! :-) :-) And since when did Pacific Bell get in the business of accepting major credit cards for phone calls, anyway? Steve Forrette, forrette@cory.berkeley.edu