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For all you Hackers out there, This is a very interesting
collection of words and sentences. What would happen to you if
you got caught?? ( Like I know, You NEVER Get caught! Neither do
I )
Recently, here in Cherry Hill, NJ, a BBS system by the name "Hackers
Heaven" was closed down by police. The sysop(s) and users of this
system were trading pirated programs, unauthorized MCI access codes,
passwords for several computers in the area, etc. Unlike what
happended on the west coast where a system was used to post a single
PACIFIC BELL access code without the sysop's knowledge, this sysop was
well aware of the situation, and as far as I know, even supported it.
(I assume this by rumor, and by what the name suggests). My viewpoint
differs from the situation out on the west coast; in this case,
it appears to be the sysops own damned fault! How can someone be as
nieve as that! I'm glad the sysop out west was released without
charges, but these kids should go to jail! It's shit like this that
gives us sysops a bad name!
The system was being run on an Apple IIe and with only a simple
questionaire, users were granted access to use. Rumor also says that
the FBI was also involved with some fake numbers of some sort.
Charges seem to be based however on theft of access codes from Dial
America; a local long-distance company.
-Brian Sietz-
Sysop FIDO#82
The following is a reprint from an article by David Lee Preston
appearing in the March 12 issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Editorial notes [] by myself appear within.
About $35,000 worth of computer equipment has been confiscated
from two homes in Cherry Hill and one in Voorhees Township as part of
an investigation into an alleged ring of youthful computer hackers,
Camden County Prosecutor Samuel Asbell said yesterday.
Investigators with search warrants seized computers, modems,
printers, disk drives, software and other equipment, which four
residents of the houses allegedly had used to gain access to Dial
America, a two-year old long distance telephone service based in
Camden, Asbell said.
Although no arrests were made during the Saturday sweep, Asbell
said his office planned to charge about 20 South Jersey youths with
using personal computers to make long-distance calls through Dial
America.
Most of the members of the alleged ring live in Camden County, all
are males, and the oldest is 20, he said.
Hackers are personal-computer enthusiasts, often in their teens,
who use their technical skills to gain illegal entry into private or
corporate computer systems.
[Ed: Bullshit! That is only the derrogitory term for "Hackers". The
real meaning is more subtle and not so clearly defined. Hackers are
generally computer enthusiasts, most often not associated with
anything harmful. Using this definition, I myself am a "hacker"]
Gade Kreckel, president of Dial America, said Dial America began
an investigation in November after a customer reported that there were
several calls on his bill he had not made.
The firm, in the Wilson Building on Broadway, used its computers
to identify calls being made with stolen account numbers and
transferred those calls into fake accounts, he said.
"Before the calls ever got onto our customers' bills, we
transferred them into a fraud account," he said. "In other words,
customers get a clean bill."
The firm turned the case over the prosecutor's office about three
weeks ago, Kreckel said. He said the fraudulent calls made during the
investigation cost his firm as much as $6,000.
Asbell said the alleged hackers would telephone other hackers on
computers around the country and trade information such as computer
access codes.
"We have taped conversations between the computer hackers," Asbell
said. "We have calls throughout probably most of the United States...
Once you have the access code to Dial America, you can go trade it to
somebody in the state of Oregon for the access code to VISA or
Mastercard."
Dial America says it has 4,000 customers in Burlington, Gloucester
and Camden Counties.
"Unless you are from South Jersey, you couldn't use our service,"
Kreckel said. "They would get on there and make long-distance calls.
For example, one says, 'Do you have Pac-Man? OK, transmit it to me.'
And in return, he might give him Donkey Kong, then pirate video games
and send them back and forth."
The alleged hackers also were trading AT&T credit-card numbers,
Kreckel said.
The first seizure took place about 7:30AM at the home of a Cherry
Hill juvenile, Asbell said. Later that morning, investigators seized
more equipment from a juvenile in Voorhees, he said. About 11PM, they
executed a third search warrant at the Cherry Hill home of two
brothers, ages 18 and 20, he said.
At each house, Asbell said, the parents reacted with "actual shock
and dismay as to what was taking place."
He said the parents were "very cooperative in the first two
instances" but that the Cherry HIll brothers' father initially
resisted the investigators' efforts.
"They don't realize that stealing from a Dial America, or a Sprint
or MCI, is no different from walking into a 7-Eleven and stealing five
or six thousand dollars," Kreckel said.
The ability of long-distance companies to trace fraudulent usage
has improved measurably in the last year, Kreckel said.
"When the long distance-industry was in a different stage a year
ago, computer hackers found it pretty easy to get into systems without
being detected," he said. "But nowadays, it's such a stupid crime
because it's so easy to catch them."
"The sad part about it is it's almost 95 percent minors that are
involved in this thing. And that's the case with almost all the
computer hackers."