Is war dialing illegal?
Excerpt from: 2600, Spring 1990, Page 27:
In some places, scanning has been made illegal. It would be hard, though, for someone to file a complaint against you for scanning since the whole purpose is to call every number once and only once. It’s not likely to be thought of as harassment by anyone who gets a single phone call from a scanning computer. Some central offices have been known to react strangely when people start scanning. Sometimes you’re unable to get a dialtone for hours after you start scanning. But there is no uniform policy. The best thing to do is to first find out if you’ve got some crazy law saying you can’t do it. If, as is likely, there is no such law, the only way to find out what happens is to give it a try.
It should be noted that a law making war dialing illegal was passed in Colorado Springs, CO. It is now illegal to place a call in Colorado Springs without the intent to communicate.
|
|
- War Dialing
War dialing, also called scanning, is dialing a large number of telephone numbers in the hope of finding anything interesting. Interesting items often include test tones, computers, Voice Mail Boxes (VMB's), Private Branch Exchanges (PBX's), and government offices. A common technique is to find one telephone number owned by a target and then to war [...]...
- Loop Start
Loop start is a a signaling technique in which a party gets a dial tone by closing (shorting) a DC current loop. In a loop start signaling system, the electrical loop between your telephone and your central office (CO) is normally open. When you pick up the telephone handset, it causes a circuit to be [...]...
- IntraLATA
IntraLATA refers to any telephone call that is made between two separate local telephone companies that are close enough to not constitute a long-distance call. To fully understand IntraLATA and InterLATA systems, a user must understand that a LATA, or Local Access and Transport Area, is a local telephone company that is responsible for managing [...]...