Phone Losers of America |
The Phone Losers of America (PLA) is a small .
= The e-zine =
The PLA e-zine was originally distributed electronically via a dial-up Bulletin board system, with an option to buy the magazine and have it shipped by mail. It is not recommended that anyone follow any instructions in any article, as while they can often be amusing or interesting, they are also often illegal.
Listed below are the five most read issues, along with short summaries. The author, named Brad Carter, goes by the aliases RBCP and Alex , the latter being his middle name. He lives in Wood River, Illinois with his two kids. Although the webmaster, he hasn t done much in the way of pranks for some time now.
== Issue #1: Hacking a WWIV BBS ==
[http://www.phonelosers.org/issue/pla001.html Read this issue]
The first issue is a parody of the common how-to-hack articles being distributed at that time. The humor in this article is that the word hack refers to an axe, and that the seemingly absurd methods to gain access to a WWIV BBS did not exceed the difficulty of actually breaking into such a system (although there are no files on how to break into the WWIV BBS).
== Issue #3: Revenge ==
[http://www.phonelosers.org/issue/pla003.html Read this issue]
This issue frequently finds itself into Internet discussions in response to a person seeking revenge. The methods in this article are written with incredible detail, which include:
== Issue #14: Cordless Phone Hell ==
[http://www.phonelosers.org/issue/pla014.html Read this issue]
The first victim of the PLA, Dino Allsman, is repeatedly harassed using a radio scanner and transmitter to interfere with his cordless phone. Most cordless telephones on the market today have some form of encryption mechanism to prevent people from doing what is done in this issue.
== Issue #19: Fun with Call Forwarding ==
[http://www.phonelosers.org/issue/pla019.html Read this issue]
The telephone service known as Call Forwarding is explained in detail in this issue, along with methods of ordering it discreetly and passing the costs to someone else. Ways to set up a teleconference are also touched upon, along with ways to divert the costs to another phone line.
== Issue #24: Dabbling in Credit Card Fraud ==
[http://www.phonelosers.org/issue/pla024.html Read this issue]
This issue describes how the author would go about getting credit card numbers, along with how to cover up one s tracks when committing credit card fraud. The author, however, was eventually caught and forced to pay restitution and serve a short jail sentence. To this day, though, people do refer to this issue, and the author has even gotten e-mails from Nigeria asking him for advice and credit card numbers.
= Red boxing =
In [http://www.phonelosers.org/issue/pla024.html PLA Issue #2], RBCP shows how one can modify a Radio Shack tone dialer , originally meant to give rotary phones the ability to use DTMF ( Touch-Tone™ ), to generate the correct frequencies to emulate a red box. From the first red boxing binary and text files up to the early 1990 s, the only way to make a red box was to wire one from scratch using circuit schematics. This incredibly simple hack allowed people with little or no knowledge in circuitry to manufacture their own toll fraud device.
Radio Shack discontinued their tone dialer and most payphones in the United States can no longer be red-boxed.
= Phone Mobbing =
Phone Mobbing is the act of having a large group of people continuously call the same phone number or group of phone numbers in an attempt to harass and annoy the called party.
[http://www.phonelosers.org/phone_mobbing.html Read about the PLA s phone mobbing adventures]
Self-professed members of the PLA have targeted large media groups, including Loveline on [http://www.mtv.com MTV], where they prank call Jimmy Kimmel of Crank Yankers , and Hannity and Colmes on [http://www.foxnews.com Fox News], where they yelled R-rated expletives to describe George W. Bush on a television station many believe has a conservative bias.
= Cal s Forums =
Cal s Forums or the Phone Loser Community Forums is the forum for the PLA. The forum has many member(s) who talk about prank calls to off-topic discussion, future phone mobbings, and hacking.
Cal s Forums replaces the old FruitWare Forums that used to be the original forums for the PLA.
= PLA voice bridge =
The PLA also hosts a conference call at 413-370-0333 ext. 752. There are daily conferences from 8pm EST to 12am EST. The voice bridge is very active during this time which can be noticed, with many people talk and background noise such as soundboards, which many of users frown on.
Sometime the bridge will be interrupted by Internet troll who ruin the conservation and fill the line with noise. Because of this some of callers will move to a different conference. Recently, members of Cal s Forums have founded the Anti Voice Bridge Cruelty Society, which aims to try and stop the annoying nonsense occurring on the voice bridge. One member, who goes by the name of BaconStrips, makes many prank phone calls from the Voice Bridge. Many also use it for group entertainment.
The voice bridge once had a secret 1-800 number, but was quickly shut down.
= External links =
*[http://www.phonelosers.org Official Phone Losers of America Web Site] *[http://cal.phonelosers.org PLA Forums] *[http://www.new100mph.com The Phone Losers of Washington State] *[http://www.westcoastphreakers.com West Coast Phreakers] *[http://telecom-munist.phonelosers.org Telecom-munists] *[http://www.plabridge.com Anti Voice Bridge Cruelty Society] *[http://www.digitaloverdrive.org/pla Phone Losers of Middle Tennessee] *[http://www.ausphreak.com Ausphreak]|
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