I remember working C64 BASIC code to hack out call progress detection back in the early 80's. Had a Code-A-Phone where we pulled the 8042 microcontroler and emulated it with the C64. The Teltone/SSI chips (981, etc.) really saved our asses. Then I figured out how to brute-force calling card numbers with the hardware. Long story short, three years in Club Fed.
I was recently setting up a web power switch and its manual said the scripting language it used was BASIC, and I instantly flashed back to writing
a Star Trek II (Kaaahhhnn) simulator in BASIC during the 80's that had photon torpedoes about 1cm x 1cm. Strange how the brain works sometimes. Well, it
wasn't as sophisticated as your call progress detection hack, by any means, but I wish I had managed to saved that 5 1/4" floppy, just for grins.
Also, I believe this might be the first time in my years of having a slashdot login that I recall seeing someone admit to spending time in the slammer without posting as an AC. Cheers #1563, and happy for you that you left the club in time to garner a four-digit slashdot userid! I'm not jealous or anything. Ah, I'm off-topic. Been here 12 years and have a six-digit userid, I'll be off-topic for once. Heh.
But to get back on topic, though most likely nobody will read it. Working for an ISP off-and-on these last 15 years has nearly forced me to want to line up these scammers... well and do something not nice to them. Perhaps force them to watch under bright lights whilst someone social engineers one of their family and gets them to give up their life savings, at least their email password so we can login to their webmail and send nasty emails to all of their contacts. This is a symptom of having lots of customers do just that and *poof* we have thousands of emails going all over the place and Yahoo and what not deferring everything, so customers call up wondering why their email (forwarded joke, with attachments) to Grandma hasn't arrived yet. Maybe these scammers are desperate, maybe not. But it's kind of like shitting on someone else's lawn and not cleaning it up. *Someone* has to, and it's usually us.
I did login to the latest Nigerian scammer's web site, at some colo center in Germany btw, and enter a username of "GO BITE YOURSELF HOSER" and a password of "GET A LIFE". Wish I could say I tied them up on the phone for 30 minutes, but that is my contribution so far.