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I broke IKEA (2023)

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Re: I broke IKEA (2023)

#41
post #35
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back when international phone calls were a real thing, messing with answering machines that had default settings was a typical fraud vector. People would change the message to say 'I accept' a couple dozen times. Then, they'd lace a collect call with a third party payer, pointed at said answering machine... which accepted the charges. Just not best done from one's home phone, as sufficient charges pointing to the sam…

I don't understand. A collect call (in The Netherlands) would just move the costs of the call to the reciever. Why is it beneficial to call an answering machine and have its owners pay for it?

"third party payer"

Re: I broke IKEA (2023)

#42

This feels extremely legally risky EDIT: I'm getting downvoted. I think people have gone to prison for a lot less than this, at least in the US, please be careful and playfulness is not a legal defense

You're not wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if someone at Ikea got mad and pulled up some laws from the phreaking days.

Re: I broke IKEA (2023)

#44

This feels extremely legally risky EDIT: I'm getting downvoted. I think people have gone to prison for a lot less than this, at least in the US, please be careful and playfulness is not a legal defense

You're correct. At a minimum this would be a federal crime under the CFAA if you are in the US.

Re: I broke IKEA (2023)

#45

Long ago I got a Psion Series 5. One feature was that it could dial a phone number (output the DTMF) for you. Messing around I've day I realized a contact could have a very long phone number. This was also back in the day when answering machines existed and many had a 2 digit code you could punch in to get into the menu from the outside line. My contact called Answering Machine had a very long phone number that got m…

This is basically what Rupert Murdoch did throughout the late 90’s and into the 00’s, minus the message changes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hacki...

Re: I broke IKEA (2023)

#47
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Might be a fun follow-up to try and decode whatever's in there.

There’s a comment in the post that offers a plausible explanation

The comment (from the author):

> shared it with a few people who Know Telephone before I posted it here, and their theory is that what we're hearing at the end is the audio path going open-circuit when the PC crashed. It probably blue-screened, and we're hearing the EM interference from the CPU or I/O controller hub as Windows writes a minidump, then begins waiting for a debugger to attach (the blerps at the end being scans for connected serial port, PCI, network or 1394 debug hardware)

Re: I broke IKEA (2023)

#49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking the same thing! I don't get spam calls often but when I do I really want to punish them for wasting my time.

I mean I already mute and mash till the line drops when they do come in, but they may not continue doing so at a low enough rate to keep that feasible, and boringly mechanical but necessary tasks are always prime candidates for automation in any case.

I don't have the time to set up Asterisk but this story inspired me to generate a collection of handy random DTMF tones that could semi-automate a mute and mash approach.

Enjoy.

https://we.tl/t-IHXSHQ6FU3

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