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#16
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
"J. P. Gilliver (John)" wrote
| Were you thinking of a case where they want | access to your computer? Even then, if you let them | run some kind of remote desktop, you'd have to be | a very clever hacker with knowledge of bugs in | that software to attack them back. | | ... yes, that's what I was thinking of. Pretend to do what they ask but | instead, upload something nasty. However, as you say, almost certainly | not possible. One of my brothers fell for that one. They downloaded a remote desktop program but only used it to move things around and open windows, in order to convince him that they were, indeed, Microsoft and that they did, indeed, have control over his computer. They didn't try to upload anything and as near as I could tell didn't change anything. Fortunately, my brother's a starving artist and had no credit card number to give them. That was all they were interested in. With that particular scam, and the "you're infected!" type of scams, they seem to try hard to act legit and get people to pay them willingly. |
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#17
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
VanguardLH WROTE: Been too long to remember but I once played with an automated phone system using my computer, analog modem, and some software. When a new Did you get through to any good games companies? Such as the one that had "Global Thermonuclear Warfare"? No, unlike David in "Wargames", I wasn't dialing numbers to find some computers that would answer phone calls. I used my setup to screen incoming calls. The WOPR computer never called me. |
#18
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
I want to do their systems some harm ... That would make you worse than the scammer calling you. You become part of the problem. Until you *agree* to commit some action on your own computer, they haven't done anything illegal to your property. At best, they might've violated the Do-Not-Call list *if* you subscribed. Are you going to ASK them if you can commit harm to their property as eventually they will ASK you to grant access to your computer or ASK you for your credit card number? What do you think will be their response when you ask for access and permission to harm their computer(s) or telephony equipment? |
#19
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
In message , VanguardLH
writes: J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: I want to do their systems some harm ... That would make you worse than the scammer calling you. You become part of the problem. Until you *agree* to commit some action on your own computer, they haven't done anything illegal to your property. At best, they might've violated the Do-Not-Call list *if* you subscribed. Are you going to ASK them if you can commit harm to their property as eventually they will ASK you to grant access to your computer or ASK you for your credit card number? What do you think will be their response when you ask for access and permission to harm their computer(s) or telephony equipment? *Legally*, with the twisted legal systems in both our countries, you're probably right. *Morally* ... well, they're wanting to do evil to me who hasn't ... well, to use the example usually quoted in crime series I _have_ had parking tickets, but I think have always been successful in challenging them; whereas I'd be wanting to do evil to people who have done evil to many and will continue. *Practically*: I'm not going to succeed (or even try) anyway, as I don't have the necessary skills (and CBA) - but if I did, I can't _really_ see them complaining to the authorities ... -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Anything you add for security will slow the computer but it shouldn't be significant or prolonged. Security software is to protect the computer, not the primary use of the computer. - VanguardLH in alt.windows7.general, 2018-1-28 |
#20
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
VanguardLH wrote:
Ed Cryer wrote: J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: In message , Mayayana writes: "Ken Blake" wrote | There are many "poor sods trying to make a living" with whom I don't | sympathize--bank robbers, hired killers, mafia members, and so on. Â*This is really only a UK problem. The majority of the calls I get are scams. Both state and federal gov't have stopped enforcing DoNotCall lists. But CallerID means I never have to answer scam calls in the first place. In the UK they don't seem to have a CallerID function. We've had one for years. There are even 'phones you can buy that screen calls based on them (you press a button to add them to your blocklist). We call it CLI - calling line identification. (Not sure why - maybe CallerID might be confused with the criminal investigation department!) I don't see why _I_ should pay out for such a 'phone, though. The CLIs are often spoofed though - for example, calls obviously from Asia show as UK ones, or they show as ones which if called back are non-existent. I've tried to argue that the telecomm.s companies are participating in the deception by passing on these faked CLIs (which ought to be detectable), but unsurprisingly I haven't got anywhere. Â*But I agree with you. I always hang up on bank robbers without so much as a how do you do. (-: I'll repeat it in case the thread wander has diverted attention from it, but I still suspect the answer's no (as I can't think how it would work), but: anyone think of a way we could upload something to their systems? (If only a list of numbers to call - including the private lines of their prime minister and the heads of crime families, and every police station in their country ...) Have some harmless fun. Do you remember the old dial-up connection sound? Record this; https://youtu.be/PDE9b5iU8vI and keep it handy on a phone or tablet. Next time you get a call, just give a whistle and play it into the mic. Ed (:- If you have an answering machine (where you can listen to new calls to screen them by waiting for someone to start leaving a message and then pick up the handset if you want to talk to them), you could add the "service disconnected" tone to the beginning of your outgoing voicemail message. Robodialers will not remove you from their calling list if you hang up on their call. You'll go back into their queue. However, many robodialers are calling non-verified phone numbers and will update their list when they hit a disconnected number. They only have so much time to make so many calls, so they don't want to waste time redialing a dead number. Only add the 3-tone sound to the start of your outgoing message. Do not add "This line is no longer in service." You want the robodialer to hear the tone and remove you from their calling list. Real humans will hear the tone which is immediately following with your real outgoing message to them. https://lifehacker.com/182989/stop-t...ted-line-tones You need to hunt down a recording of just the SIT (Special Information Tone) sound - just the sound and not followed by a human-like explanation. You want to confuse the robodialer, not human callers. I had to find someone that had recorded just the tone. At Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specia...rmation_tones), record their vacant SIT. You only need one copy (wiki pays the tone twice). I did find another copy at: http://www.yourhomenow.com/sound/sit-tone.wav Your outgoing message would be something like "SIT You have reached yourname. Please leave a message after the tone. Thankyou." The robodialer will drop the call after hearing the SIT. Since most robodialers will disconnect after the 3rd ring, they won't hear the 3-tone sound at the start of your outgoing message. Most answering machines won't let you configure them to answer on shorter than 4 rings; however, some let you send all calls to voicemail. With monitoring (aka screening) enabled on the answering machine, you could hear it was a real human and perhaps someone you want to talk to to interrupt the voicemail to take the call. Lots of answering machines have screening. Been too long to remember but I once played with an automated phone system using my computer, analog modem, and some software. When a new call was received, and just like the voice prompts you get at large companies that make you drill through their menus, this setup would have callers press "1" to forward the call to you. All it did was have the modem ring an attached phone. Robodialers cannot follow instructions. Since the instruction was issued during the robocall and before any human spammer picked up the call, they wouldn't hear the instruction to hit "1" to forward the call. There's some way of keeping a telephone line open even when the number called hangs up. I've been on the receiving end of this from a spam auto-caller. It calls, I answer, it starts telling me how fabulous it's company's product is, I hang up, wait ten seconds, pick up phone, and the thing's still droning on; and it does that until it's finished its little lecture. How do they do that? Ed |
#21
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
In message , Ed Cryer
writes: [] There's some way of keeping a telephone line open even when the number called hangs up. I've been on the receiving end of this from a spam auto-caller. It calls, I answer, it starts telling me how fabulous it's company's product is, I hang up, wait ten seconds, pick up phone, and the thing's still droning on; and it does that until it's finished its little lecture. How do they do that? Ed (This applies here in UK - probably there as well.) If only one party hangs up, the connection remains open - for a time. I presume it's to prevent _accidental_ termination of a call due to noise on the line, or similar. (It _can_ even be useful - lets you hang up one 'phone and pick up another, say if one handset's battery runs out, or you want to go to another one next to your desk or something.) It _does_ time out eventually, but after quite a lot of seconds. Banging on the rest _sometimes_ clears it. Unfortunately, it's well known to be misused by evil folk: they'll ring up pretending to be your bank or whatever, then suggest you hang up and call the bank using a number _you_ choose. Unfortunately, they keep the line open - even playing you a recording of the dial tone when you hang up and pick up again, so you _think_ you're genuinely dialling. Because of this, I think there are moves in place to force the telecomm.s companies to prevent it, mainly I think by shortening the timeout-on-one-party-hangup. In the meantime, the advice is - should you receive such a call apparently from your bank, though this is unlikely - that tells you to call them back, to first call some unrelated number, such as a relative. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Anything you add for security will slow the computer but it shouldn't be significant or prolonged. Security software is to protect the computer, not the primary use of the computer. - VanguardLH in alt.windows7.general, 2018-1-28 |
#22
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , VanguardLH writes: J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: I want to do their systems some harm ... That would make you worse than the scammer calling you. You become part of the problem. Until you *agree* to commit some action on your own computer, they haven't done anything illegal to your property. At best, they might've violated the Do-Not-Call list *if* you subscribed. Are you going to ASK them if you can commit harm to their property as eventually they will ASK you to grant access to your computer or ASK you for your credit card number? What do you think will be their response when you ask for access and permission to harm their computer(s) or telephony equipment? *Legally*, with the twisted legal systems in both our countries, you're probably right. *Morally* ... well, they're wanting to do evil to me who hasn't ... well, to use the example usually quoted in crime series I _have_ had parking tickets, but I think have always been successful in challenging them; whereas I'd be wanting to do evil to people who have done evil to many and will continue. *Practically*: I'm not going to succeed (or even try) anyway, as I don't have the necessary skills (and CBA) - but if I did, I can't _really_ see them complaining to the authorities ... They have lots of money to lose if they were forced to discontinue their operations. They'll hire lawyers and harass you in court. I used to go to a music shop called CD Shack. Radio Shack threatened to sue them because they claim to have trademarked "Shack". Didn't even make it to court. The shop caved and changed their name. I forget what it was all about but some 30 years ago someone I knew was suing Microsoft. In court, he had one lawyer. Microsoft have 25. The judge commanded that only 2 lawyers could sit at the defendent's bench an voice any objections or arguments. Those two could consult the others but the others had to stop interferring with the case. As I recall, Microsoft successfully lured the plantiff by an out-of-court settlement. Buffaloing by police or lawyers isn't a new tactic, and it often works. Intending to do harm is not the same as doing harm. Only a few crimes have "intent" laws, like intent to murder. Intent to steal your money probably isn't directly legislated, so until you give them your money (or credit card) and until they actually take that money or use that credit card number then the argument about [future] intent is conjecture. They haven't harmed you until they actually do it, not because they might lead up to that harm with spam/scam phone calls. Sometimes there is evidence proving intent but often it is suppositional. If you could gather evidence of their other intents along with evidence of actual harm (they committed their intent) and in sufficient number then you might win in court. Well, you might win the case but financially you would still lose in having to pay a lawyer or an entire fleet of lawyers. I'm reminded by users that try to send fake bounces in some uneducated attempt to harm the spammer that spewed out their crap. These users are generating bounce spam which incurs bandwidth and disk resources at the ISPs or e-mail providers along with often hitting innocents (because spammers don't give out their true e-mail address but may use someone else's e-mail address, especially one that got harvested). Fake bouncing can be detected since the receiving mail server did not generate it. The user's client generated the fake spam, er, fake bounce. Fake bounces are irresponsible and employed by users that have no clue how e-mail works. Fake bounces are known as backscatter, and users that receive misdirected backscatter can report it as spam (from YOU) as well as e-mail providers can kill your account for generating the backscatter. People might bump into you a lot at a theme park but, as an adult, you don't go spouting "I'll sue you" for all those assaults. Learn to hang up your phone. Or employ one, or more, of the suggestions mentioned so far. Passive action is the only legal action to which you have recourse. Active action where you try to harm others puts you in the same camp as the evildoers you're complaining about. You devolve to their level. Just because you think a group of tall fat blacks staring at you as you and they approach each other is not a sufficient excuse to whip out a handgun and start firing at them. You getting scared is not an excuse to kill. You being nuisanced is not an excuse for harming the property of others, just as you're not allowed to shoot at others yelling obscenties at you, either. Life is full of nuisances. You either acquire a thick-skinned ego as you age into adulthood (mentally if not physically) or you go hide in a cave away from all humans. |
#23
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Ed Cryer writes: [] There's some way of keeping a telephone line open even when the number called hangs up. I've been on the receiving end of this from a spam auto-caller. It calls, I answer, it starts telling me how fabulous it's company's product is, I hang up, wait ten seconds, pick up phone, and the thing's still droning on; and it does that until it's finished its little lecture. How do they do that? Ed (This applies here in UK - probably there as well.) If only one party hangs up, the connection remains open - for a time. I presume it's to prevent _accidental_ termination of a call due to noise on the line, or similar. (It _can_ even be useful - lets you hang up one 'phone and pick up another, say if one handset's battery runs out, or you want to go to another one next to your desk or something.) It _does_ time out eventually, but after quite a lot of seconds. Banging on the rest _sometimes_ clears it. Unfortunately, it's well known to be misused by evil folk: they'll ring up pretending to be your bank or whatever, then suggest you hang up and call the bank using a number _you_ choose. Unfortunately, they keep the line open - even playing you a recording of the dial tone when you hang up and pick up again, so you _think_ you're genuinely dialling. Because of this, I think there are moves in place to force the telecomm.s companies to prevent it, mainly I think by shortening the timeout-on-one-party-hangup. In the meantime, the advice is - should you receive such a call apparently from your bank, though this is unlikely - that tells you to call them back, to first call some unrelated number, such as a relative. https://www.niceincontact.com/blog/c...ts-home-agent/ CCD is a throwback to the old days of mechanical switches at the phone exchanges. Some PSTNs will disconnect an idle call after 2 minutes. You'd have to ask yours how long they keep a call connected when one of the parties has hung up on their end. |
#24
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
In message , VanguardLH
writes: J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: [] *Legally*, with the twisted legal systems in both our countries, you're probably right. *Morally* ... well, they're wanting to do evil to me who hasn't ... well, to use the example usually quoted in crime series I _have_ had parking tickets, but I think have always been successful in challenging them; whereas I'd be wanting to do evil to people who have done evil to many and will continue. *Practically*: I'm not going to succeed (or even try) anyway, as I don't have the necessary skills (and CBA) - but if I did, I can't _really_ see them complaining to the authorities ... They have lots of money to lose if they were forced to discontinue their operations. They'll hire lawyers and harass you in court. 1. I'm not talking about the (barely) legal companies that provide arguably genuine services - offer to, and do, "clean your computer" or other arguably genuine (if usually unnecessary) services. They're on a par with companies that offer to do a "winter service" on your car. I'm talking about the companies who, through deliberate deception, install malware on your computer, either intending to subsequently be able to blackmail you if you want your files back, or to steal card, account etc., details. Or both. I think it is this latter type of caller most of us in this thread are thinking of. 2. Lighten up! I was really only making a humorous suggestion - which I think most others here recognised as such. [] Buffaloing by police or lawyers isn't a new tactic, and it often works. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barratry_%28common_law%29 - bullying by excessive use of lawyers. I presume hard to prove though. Intending to do harm is not the same as doing harm. Only a few crimes have "intent" laws, like intent to murder. Intent to steal your money probably isn't directly legislated, so until you give them your money (or credit card) and until they actually take that money or use that credit card number then the argument about [future] intent is conjecture. They haven't harmed you until they actually do it, not because they might lead up to that harm with spam/scam phone calls. I suspect even obtaining card details under false pretences is a crime, even before they're actually used - surely certainly so if the obtainer is not who they claim to be (e. g. Microsoft). May differ US/UK. IANAL. [] I'm reminded by users that try to send fake bounces in some uneducated [] I'm with you there, as (a) the spammer may well have (mis)appropriated someone else's genuine email [though the majority of spam email I've seen looks as if it's from unlikely emails], (b) the original reason suggested for backscatter - that bounces would result in the removal of your address from lists as "invalid" - has rarely if ever been shown to be valid [most "spam lists" propagate one-way: there's little incentive to revise them, they being of dubious legality in the first place]. It's cognate with "do not feed the trolls" in newsgroups - less likely to result in action against you, but irritating to other users. [] -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go. - Oscar Wilde |
#25
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
On Fri, 20 Jul 2018 23:28:44 +0100, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
Because of this, I think there are moves in place to force the telecomm.s companies to prevent it, mainly I think by shortening the timeout-on-one-party-hangup. It was only if the called party hung up and it's been changed to only a couple of seconds now and has been for a couple of years. -- Regards - Rodney Pont The from address exists but is mostly dumped, please send any emails to the address below e-mail rpont (at) gmail (dot) com |
#26
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
In message . me.uk, rp
writes: On Fri, 20 Jul 2018 23:28:44 +0100, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: Because of this, I think there are moves in place to force the telecomm.s companies to prevent it, mainly I think by shortening the timeout-on-one-party-hangup. It was only if the called party hung up and it's been changed to only a couple of seconds now and has been for a couple of years. Thanks. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf "There are a great many people in the country today who, through no fault of their own, are sane." - Monty Python's Flying Circus |
#27
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
On Fri, 20 Jul 2018 13:02:07 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:
Ed Cryer wrote: J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote: In message , Mayayana writes: "Ken Blake" wrote | There are many "poor sods trying to make a living" with whom I don't | sympathize--bank robbers, hired killers, mafia members, and so on. Â*This is really only a UK problem. The majority of the calls I get are scams. Both state and federal gov't have stopped enforcing DoNotCall lists. But CallerID means I never have to answer scam calls in the first place. In the UK they don't seem to have a CallerID function. We've had one for years. There are even 'phones you can buy that screen calls based on them (you press a button to add them to your blocklist). We call it CLI - calling line identification. (Not sure why - maybe CallerID might be confused with the criminal investigation department!) I don't see why _I_ should pay out for such a 'phone, though. The CLIs are often spoofed though - for example, calls obviously from Asia show as UK ones, or they show as ones which if called back are non-existent. I've tried to argue that the telecomm.s companies are participating in the deception by passing on these faked CLIs (which ought to be detectable), but unsurprisingly I haven't got anywhere. Â*But I agree with you. I always hang up on bank robbers without so much as a how do you do. (-: I'll repeat it in case the thread wander has diverted attention from it, but I still suspect the answer's no (as I can't think how it would work), but: anyone think of a way we could upload something to their systems? (If only a list of numbers to call - including the private lines of their prime minister and the heads of crime families, and every police station in their country ...) Have some harmless fun. Do you remember the old dial-up connection sound? Record this; https://youtu.be/PDE9b5iU8vI and keep it handy on a phone or tablet. Next time you get a call, just give a whistle and play it into the mic. Ed (:- If you have an answering machine (where you can listen to new calls to screen them by waiting for someone to start leaving a message and then pick up the handset if you want to talk to them), you could add the "service disconnected" tone to the beginning of your outgoing voicemail message. I recommend that instead you use the free NoMoRoBo (https://www.nomorobo.com/). It works very well. |
#28
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
"Ken Blake" wrote
| If you have an answering machine (where you can listen to new calls to | screen them by waiting for someone to start leaving a message and then | pick up the handset if you want to talk to them), you could add the | "service disconnected" tone to the beginning of your outgoing voicemail | message. | | | I recommend that instead you use the free NoMoRoBo | (https://www.nomorobo.com/). It works very well. He seems to be talking about a landline, which is what many of us are using. Nomorobo characterizes VOIP as a landline, but they're of no use for an actual landline. |
#29
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
In message , Ken Blake
writes: [] I recommend that instead you use the free NoMoRoBo (https://www.nomorobo.com/). It works very well. Looks like an excellent service! Unfortunately: 1. I suspect it's US (and Canada?) only. [Rather silly: I had to select from a list of providers, at the bottom of which was "other (landline)"; when I selected that, it popped up "sorry, 'other (landline)' doesn't support noroboco yet." Which made me wonder why they've put it in the list.] 2. It appears only to be for robot (automatic) callers. I suspect that wouldn't stop the "there is something wrong with your computer" evils. -- J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf Now, don't worry. We'll be right behind you. Hiding. (First series, fit the sixth.) |
#30
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telephone hackers - can we upload something?
On 07/20/2018 11:26 AM, Mayayana wrote:
[snip] Few are legit. So I just ignore them, unless they're someone I know. The few people who get blocked can leave a message. The whole thing used to drive me crazy when I answered each call. Now I use a lot of email and usually only need to glance at the phone when it rings. Many of the junk calls I get are identified with a city (rather than someone's name). I don't answer those but give the caller a chance to leave a message before blocking the number. Junk callers seldom do. Thursday, a got a surprise. A legitimate call from my city name. It was a notice about a county-wide burn ban. So "city name" calls aren't 100% junk, just about 99.5%. Other IDs I see with junk calls are "TOLL FREE CALL" and excessively-generic business names (like "JKL Partners"). | I'll repeat it in case the thread wander has diverted attention from it, | but I still suspect the answer's no (as I can't think how it would | work), but: anyone think of a way we could upload something to their | systems? (If only a list of numbers to call - including the private | lines of their prime minister and the heads of crime families, and every | police station in their country ...) I don't see how that might be possible. You're on a phone call. There's no server connection going on. I won't let any unknown person have access to my computer. Were you thinking of a case where they want access to your computer? Even then, if you let them run some kind of remote desktop, you'd have to be a very clever hacker with knowledge of bugs in that software to attack them back. -- Mark Lloyd http://notstupid.us/ "When a minister says that God will help you, ask him to put up the collateral." [Lemuel K. Washburn, _Is The Bible Worth Reading And Other Essays_] |
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