Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!killer!vector!nobody From: buita!dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us (David Tamkin) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: autodialing without checking first Message-ID: Date: 6 Feb 89 09:39:22 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 23 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 52, message 6 Ed Ravin wrote: |Numerous messages have been posted to TELECOM about what happens when by |coincidence misprinted, mis-announced or common dialing errors produce |telephone numbers that arrive at some undeserving victim's home instead. |One thing I didn't see posted was what happens when someone calls a BBS and |say "Hey, man, great new board at 123-4567. Call it now!" and mistypes a |few digits in the process. Whoever lives at the wrong number gets a |mountain of modem calls, usually at 3 AM or whenever the BBS junkies are |awake. It doesn't have to be done by typo or out of malicious mischief. When I was active in a user group I posted my phone number as contact number for the group on three or four BBS's. Modems screamed in my ear for months afterward. It is amazing how many half-wits assume (1) that any number they read on a BBS is a BBS and (2) that there is no reason to dial with their fingers and listen with their ears the first time they try it. People as inconsiderate as those, just as much as krackers and phreaks, give telecommunicators a bad name. David W. Tamkin dattier@jolnet.orpk.il.us ...!killer!jolnet!dattier