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IP: a bit more on the Airport Telephone scam from Telecom Digest
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 08 Jul 1998 06:37:03 -0500
Subject: Airport Pay Phone Taps Used to Steal Calling Cards Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1998 15:14:32 PDT From: tad () ssc com (Tad Cook) (This story has greater detail than the one recently on using 3-way calling to steal calling card numbers. tad () ssc com) Airport pay phone taps used to steal calling cards New York Times NEW YORK -- Federal investigators said the scam was ingenious in its simplicity: Five people in New York City would tap into public pay phones at major airports across the United States, and then steal calling-card numbers punched in by unsuspecting travelers. After a seven-month investigation by the Secret Service, the scheme ended last month with the arrest of four men and one woman. The case, which investigators and telephone-company officials said is the first of its kind in the nation, is only the latest machination in a $4 billion-a-year telephone-fraud industry that keeps reinventing itself. "This is something new that we have not seen before," said Boyd Jackson, the director of network security at AT&T Corp. and one of the industry experts who helped federal investigators on the case. "And there is nothing I am aware of that customers can do to fully protect themselves." Federal investigators, who said that calling-card theft costs telephone companies and consumers millions of dollars annually, have yet to establish an exact figure for how much this scam netted. And because of the scheme's simplicity, and the fact that a thief can tap into phones from hundreds of miles away, the authorities are fearful of copycat crimes. Mary Jo White, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, whose office is prosecuting the case, left open the possibility of more arrests, saying an investigation was continuing. Investigators said the suspects stole hundreds of calling-card numbers by dialing into public telephones in O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta, Houston International Airport and Denver International Airport. Federal documents say the scheme worked this way: The defendants would call phones at the airports. When someone waiting to use a phone picked up a ringing phone, they would hear what sounded like a dial tone, which was activated when the suspects initiated the phones' conference-call feature. Even if the caller was startled by the dial tone and hung up, the tap remained activated for 15 seconds, ensnaring callers if they picked up the phone again or if someone else waiting in line tried to use the phone. Calling-card numbers that the victims punched in were recorded by the suspects, who then would translate the tones back into corresponding numbers using a device called a dial-number recorder, prosecutors said. Such recorders are commonly available at electronics stores. "This is the first time we have ever seen this type of setup with these dial-number recorders," said Denise Gibson, a spokeswoman for the New York City field office of the Secret Service. "Unfortunately, these are well-known and readily available electronic devices." After obtaining the calling-card numbers, thieves typically make a profit by selling them on the black market to other criminals and unwitting consumers. The Secret Service, a branch of the Treasury Department that investigates financial crimes, was tipped off to the scam by AT&T, Bell Atlantic Corp. and MCI Communications Corp. after they received an unusually high number of complaints from customers who had recently used their calling cards in airports. On June 18, Secret Service agents arrested Benito Lopez, Juan Morel, Miriam Mercado Florian, Julio Olivo and Gladys Brito, all of New York. In the suspects' apartments, investigators said, they confiscated dial-number recorders, audiotapes, lists of public-telephone numbers and lists of calling-card numbers. The five suspects, who each could face a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted of fraud, could not be located for comment. They were arraigned and released on bail last week in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where they are scheduled to reappear for a preliminary hearing July 20. Federal and telephone-company officials said they were concerned about not being able to prevent copycat crimes because under such a scam, a thief does not have to be on location and there is no way for consumers to differentiate between fake and real dial tones. Calling-card scams began with the actual theft of cards. That scheme was foiled by telephone companies providing customers with personal security codes not printed on the cards. Thieves responded by glancing over the shoulders of callers and writing down their calling-card numbers and security codes as they punched them into telephones. Telephone companies say they put a dent in this so-called "shoulder surfing" by furnishing pay phones with automatic card readers, and plastic shields and other measures to obstruct the view of potential thieves. In recent years, more enterprising thieves have obtained calling-card numbers and security codes by contacting customers and telling them they were telephone-company operators who needed to verify their card numbers. One federal official expressed a grudging admiration for the latest scheme. "From a personal perspective, I thought it was rather ingenious," Gibson said. "It has alerted us to a potential problem that we are sure other criminals will be able to duplicate."
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- IP: a bit more on the Airport Telephone scam from Telecom Digest Dave Farber (Jul 08)