home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
The Word 9
/
The Word 9 (Disk 1 of 2).adf
/
Files_1
/
01-LithiumBust.txt
/
01-LithiumBust.txt
Wrap
Text File
|
1996-01-17
|
7KB
|
128 lines
|1-Lithium/Eltech^K!nky
|1-Gets Busted!
|1-The Full Story!
On Tuesday 15th of August at 7:30, I was listening to a message on a
Meridian VMB system (318716). It was a system which I had been using
for many months without trouble. During the message, I noticed the
digital display on my telephone grow very dim. That was pretty wierd,
because it had never happened before. I just put the phone down and
ignored it. That second there was a knock at my back door. My mum came
through to my bedroom and said that there was an investigation guy from
BT and some police officers. I immediately shit myself. Three guys
came in and entered my bedroom. One guy asked me what number I had just
called. I told them I had just dialled a voice mail box system. Then
one of the other guys (who was obviously a police officer) arrested me.
I couldn't believe it. It was like something out of 'The Bill'. You
know, it was the 'anything you say may be written down and may be used
in evidence...' thing. I just sat there, shitting myself. Anyway, it
turns out that one of the guys (Mr. Goran) is from BT's investigation
department. One was from Fraud Squad and the other was a police
officer.
The BT guy started to search my room. He told me he was looking for
credit card numbers and 0800 numbers. I knew I didn't have any CC
numbers lying about, but I did have shit-loads of 0800 numbers scribbled
down on bits of paper. He found these and they were given to the
officer. He spent around 30 minutes searching my room but he found
nothing else. He then told me he had to take away my computer and
examine it (OH NO!). So I had to disconnect all the leads and stuff and
pass my computer over to the officer. Bummer man. They also took my
multisync monitor, Sportster, mouse, CD ROM drive and power supply. Sob
sob. In fact the only thing that they left was my external floppy
drive. I've got thousands of disks containing various scene stuff but
they didn't take any of them. I told them that any information that I
had was stored on my internal hard drive.
My computer bits and pieces were loaded into the back of this red
Rover and I was told to sit in the back. The three blokes all got in as
well and we drove off to the police station. When we arrived, I was
escorted in and I had to answer a few questions from the woman at desk.
Address, age and stuff like that. I was then asked if I wanted a duty
solicitor but I declined, as my step-dad had advised me just before I
left the house. Instead, I asked to see my family's solicitor. They
told me while they try to get hold of him, I will have to wait in a
cell. They asked me if I wanted to make a phone call. I declined.
They then searched me, before leading me to a cell. This was probably
the scariest moment of all, being locked up in a cell. I just layed
down on the wooden bed and tried to sleep. About an hour later (it
seemed a hell of a lot longer!), the cell was opened and I was told they
had my solicitor on the phone. I went into a room and spoke to him,
explaining what exactly I had been arrested for. Unfortunately he was
miles away from the police station and it would take him an hour to
drive there. Bummer. So back I went into the cell for another hour.
Finally I was let out again and I was relieved to see my solicitor
waiting for me. We went to a little room and I started to explain to
him a bit more about the stuff I had been doing. Not only had I been
using a VMB, but also I had been abusing MCI and AT&T 0800 numbers -
using them to call around the world. And I was also using an American
VMB to get access to CompuServe.
After explaning all my phreaking exploits to my solicitor, we went
out and told the BT dude I was ready to be interviewed.
In the interview room was myself and my solicitor sitting on one
side of a table, and the BT guy and two police guys sitting on the
other. A tape was started and we all had to introduce ourselves. Then
the questioning began.
The guy from BT asked all the questions, the police guys and my
solicitor basically sat there silent for the whole time. I guess that
was because they hadn't the faintest idea about telecommunications and
hacking and all the associated jargon. I would say the interview lasted
for an hour, and during that time I admitted EVERYTHING. I had to
becuase they had caught me red handed. There was no way I could lie.
The BT guy presented me a HUGE listing of every number I had called
since January. There was hundreds of pages of this listing showing not
only my out-going calls, but also all the in-coming calls as well. It
listed EVERY 0800 number I had dialled. Bummer.
After the interview, I was led to the photo and finger printing
room. I had my photo and finger prints taken. The BT guy and the
officers seemed surprisingly friendly during this time for some reason.
The BT dude thanked me for being so honest and the officer said that I
would probably only get a caution. I bloody hoped so! Anyway, they
asked me tonnes of questions and there was lots of personal stuff in
there as well. They said it was all necessary. Yeah, okay. After the
questions finished, I was led back to the front desk and I was told I
was going to be released on bail. Phew. I signed a couple of forms and
they asked me to come back on the 4th October (WHAT?! Why so long?!).
On the 23rd of September, I recieved a letter from the police
station. It stated that my bail had been cancelled and that I didn`t
need to turn up on the 4th of October. But it also said the
investigation was continuing and they would notify me by way of summons
if I was to be charged. So I had to just sit and wait.
On the 27th November I finally heard from them again. They had
decided to only caution me and my computer would be returned. Phew.
The guy who had originally arrested me came round to see me later
that day to let me know when I had to go down the the station to be
cautioned. He told me that BT had wanted to prosecute me, but he had
persuaded them not to. Nice one. And on the 21st December, my computer
was returned to me. I had to delete my phreaking files, but that was
all.
I realise I have been EXTREMELY lucky as I know BT actually wanted
to prosecute me. I certainly won't be calling any 0800 numbers for a
while :) I would suggest that none of you lot did either, as it's just
not worth the hassle. If you carry on phreaking, fair enough, but don't
say I didn't warn you. I didn't think I would get caught, but I did.
And YOU could as well. Please think about it.
|1-By Glen
End