PLA Issue #20: Alternatives to CN/A

This file will contain just about every way there is that I know of and have
used to gather information on an individual. Also included throughout the
file are samples of conversations you would use to get what you want. Most

methods I’ve outlined here are completely annonymous and over the phone.

1. Residential Billing Office
2. Finding Out Info With Address (Library Methods)
3. Using Radio Shack as a CNA
4. Pretend To Be An Ameritech Recording
5. Pretend To Be A Manager
6. Become An Activist
7. Answering Machine Hacking
8. Impersonating The IRS
9. Getting Copies Of Their Phone Bill
10. Finding Out What Their Number Is After They Changed It
11. Getting His New Number From ANI

Method one is called the phone company’s Residential Billing Office which is
the place you call up when you want to make changes in your phone service or
to have a new phone service installed. When you get a phone service installed,
you give them all kinds of useful information like your full name, address,
where you work, your birthdate, social security number, etc.

You also give them the name of a friend or relative who they can contact in
case they need to get in touch with you and so the long distance companies can
call them everyday and beg them to sign up for their service. Is what I do to
get all of this info on anyone I want is call up the residential office and
pose as the owner of the phone wanting to make a change in my service. Of
course, I cancel the change a few hours later so no one will ever know I was
there. And it rarely fails to work for me. You can even get someone’s private
second number using this method.

When you call the office and say you want to make a change in your service,
they immediately ask you for your phone number. When they type in your number
they see on their computer screens a whole page of information on you. Hell,
I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew my dog’s name. They’ll usually say
something like, “Okay, and you are Rich?” Presto! You now have their first
name.

If they don’t give you the name right away, ask for it. Say you’re not sure
who’s on the bill now because you have so many roommates that live with you.
They never fail to tell you.

I’ve only found two problems with this method. One would be a paranoid gimp
such as Darin McCall. If a person suspects someone is fooling around with his
phone line and trying to make changes he can call up the residential office and
ask them to password protect his line. This means that anyone who wants to do
anything with his line including finding out any kind of information would have
to tell the residential operator this password.

One way to get around this is to call your victim and pretend to be with the
phone company, saying there’s been some unusual activity on their account, etc,
etc, and ask them what their password is. Another way I’ve gotten away with is
to call the billing office and say I’d like to change my password. They ask for
my number and then ask what I’d like my new password to be, forgetting to ask
me what my current is. This has worked twice for me.

The second problem is people like me who give false information when they hook
up their phone. When I got my phone service, I gave them a fake last name, a
fake social security number, a billing address at a post office box and tell
them I work for a bank or something like that. (That’ll be the day.) Most people

don’t give the phone company false information because they really have no
reason to. So don’t rely on the information you gather 100%. There’s a small
chance that it could be bogus. (Very small!)

Now I’ll type out some sample conversations that I’ve had with the billing
operators to show you how it’s done, some problems you run in to and how to
cover them up.

Dialing 800-244-4444…ring…ring…ring…

After selecting the correct information on their automated introduction, I’m
connected with a live operator who has a terrible hangover from a bell party
she went to last night…

HER: Residential Billing, this is Sheila. May I help you?
YOU: Naw, I was just calling for my health. I need to make a change in my
service. I want call forwarding.
HER: Okay, could I have your complete phone number?
YOU: Sure, it’s 618-797-2339. Do you want me to spell it?
(Note, I’m exaggerating the sarcasm just a tad bit.)
HER: Okay…(type type type!)…Alright and who am I speaking to?
YOU: Uhhh, this is Scott.
HER: That’s funny, I have a Robert as the billing name.
YOU: Oh, him. That’s my roommate. Robert Dawson, right?
HER: No, Robert Coyner.
YOU: Oh, yeah, him. We have two Roberts living here.
HER: Okay, I see. (gives me a fake bell-type laugh.)

See how easy that is? Now the conversation would go on with her trying to
sell you the special rate you get when you order three services or more.
NEVER hang up as soon as you get the information. Always finish out the
conversation and then call back later that day and cencel the service you
ordered. Or you could do something like this…

HER: Okay, we’ll have call forwarding hooked up for you this Tuesday
morning and the hook up fee will be a one-time charge of $15.65. Would
you like that billed to you all at once or in payments?
YOU: Oh, goodness gracious heavens to betsy! (Sounding shocked) That’s a lot
of money. I had no idea it would cost me that much. Maybe I should wait
until Robert gets home and ask him if it’s okay to pay that much since
he is the one who pays the bill. He’s my sugar daddy, you see. Could you
take my order off and I’ll have him call back this evening?
HER: Sure, Scott, no problem. (I hear her scratching her underarm in the
background.) Will there be anything else for you then?
YOU: No, I think you’ve done just about enough for me today. (smirking)
HER: Alright, well you have a really nice day.
YOU: And you have a cheesy evening. Happy Haunaka.

So now you’ve got the name. It’s Robert Coyner. So you call up the billing
office again and of course you get a totally different operator. I have
called them many times and never get the same operator more than once. Kind
of like lightning never striking twice in the same place.

YOU: Hi, this is Robert and I want to make some changes in my service.
HER: Okay, could I have your billing number?
YOU: No…Just kidding! It’s 618-797-2339.

I won’t go into detail on this. Just order call forwarding again and near
the end of the conversation say…

YOU: Oh, by the way I’m employed by a different company now. Do you want to
put the new one in there?
HER: (Surprised because no one ever asks this.) Oh, sure! Where do you work
now?
YOU: (Proudly) I’m a garbage man for the city of Roxana. (Wiping a tear from
my eye.) Is my old job at 7-Eleven still listed in there?
HER: No, we still have you listed as the assistant manager of K-Mart.
YOU: Yeah, that’s where I worked at before I went for my career as a stock
boy at the supermarket.

Presto, you now know where they worked when they installed their phone
service. Of course, they could have changed jobs by now but at least you have
something. You want the social security number? Well, on a totally different
call you do basically the same thing.

YOU: Oh, by the way, I finally found my social security number. Do you want
me to give that to you?
HER: (Confused) What are you talking about? We have your social security
number right here in the computer.
YOU: Well, that’s strange. When I applied for my service, I couldn’t find
my social security card and never gave it to them. Maybe my wife
called and gave it to you. What number do you have there?
HER: 341-69-3926
YOU: Hmmm, well that’s my number. My wife must have called already. That
bitch, I’m going to have to beat her when she gets home.

Just don’t forget to call back and cancel the services you’ve ordered after
a few hours. (Or right away, it doesn’t matter.) A word to the wise, if
you’re planning to make some harrassing changes in their service, don’t do
it from your home phone. This IS an 800 number and they can find out where
the call is comming from if they need to. This happened to me when I canceled
a former boss’s phone service. My district manager confronted me saying
that the call had come from my work phone. (Where I had made the call from.)

Every library has what is called a criss-cross directory, usually published by
Haines or Cole’s. This book will list every listed phone number in order. You
simply find the phone number you’re looking for and if it’s listed, the name
and address will be next to it.

Another method of searching is by address. All the addresses in the city are
also listed in order so you can look someone up by their address. To get the
information you need, call the library and just tell them what you need and
they’re usually happy to give it to you. Just remember, when you make Conan
the Librarian jokes, the lady gets pissed off.

Also, you can go into the library and ask to look at the directory. When she
gives it to you, sneak off to a secluded isle and shove the book in your
jacket and haul ass. This is a handy book to own.

This may sound crazy, but I swear it has worked for me. Again, you have
somebody’s phone number but you don’t have their address or their name. If
it’s late in the day and the phone company’s billing office has already
closed down for the day, Radio Shack is always open until 9:00!

A few years ago, Radio Shack got was using those old fashioned digital
cash registers to ring up sales and using their TRS-80 color computer to send
in the nightly reports to Fort Worth, TX. Finally, they decide to go high
tech like all the other low income electronic stores and do everything on a
computer. And everyone who shops there are probably familiar with the
salesman asking you, “Could I have the last four digits of your phone
number?”

When you give them these four numbers, they get a small list of maybe two or
three names who have those four digits for their phone number. This is where
we come in with a phone call to their store…

BOB: Thank you for calling Radio Shack, Amierica’s Technology store. You’ve
got questions? We’ve got answers! This is Bob, how may I help you this
evening. (I wonder if they could make that introduction any longer?)
YOU: Hi, Bob. This is Frank from Radio Shack #1365 here at St. Louis Center.
I just had a kid come in here and get a refund for something he bought
yesterday and after he left I took the thing apart and the whole
inside is missing from it.
BOB: (In astonishment) You’re kidding…
YOU: Nope, all I got here is the casing to a $250 police scanner. Now he
gave me his real phone number and he lives there in your area and I
need you to type the digits 3902 and see what you come up with there.
BOB: (Typing)…I have three listings here.
YOU: Okay, could you read off all three names? I’m going to find out which
one of them is him and call up the police.

It’s that easy. If the person you’re looking for has shopped at that Radio
Shack store in the last year, you’ve probably got his name and address now.
If that store didn’t work, try another one. And another, and another, and
another until you find one that he’s shopped at. Everyone shops at Radio
Shack SOMEtime. Remember, the name you have could be someone else that lives
with him, but at least you’ve got a start.

This one works especially well with elderly people. You call up the number
you have and pretend to be the Phone Directory’s automated system. Here’s
what you say after they answer:

(In a clear and distinguished voice) Hello! This is the Illinois Bell
Ameritech automated address and phone number system. To ensure that your
information appears correctly in the 1995 edition of the phone book, please
state your Name, Address, City and phone number after the tone. If you wish
to remain unlisted this year, please say so after stating your information.
Thank you for choosing Illinois Bell… (beep!)

A non-touch tone beep can be generated by pressing the 1 and 2 buttons on
your phone at the exact same time unless you have a generic telephone. Most
people will state their information but there are those who are skeptical
and will just hang up. If you want, be persistant and keep calling them.
After they give you their information, you can mess with their minds if you
want to by saying things like, “Thank you! Now please state your Visa card
number…okay, now state your bra size…What color is your phone…What
color is your toilet…Please state your lover’s name…”

If you know of a place where your victim has worked or is working you can
call up their employer and squeeze a little information out of him. The
conversation would go something like this:

(In this example you’re calling McDonald’s)

MCDS: (Cheery girl) McDonald’s, may I help you?
YOU: Yeah, put your boss on the phone, you little tramp!
MCDS: (Still cheery) Thank you, please hold on…
YOU: (Waits for her to go fetch the manager from flipping burgers.)
MCDS: Hi, this is Manager Jerry speaking. (Who’s he trying to impress??)
YOU: Hi, Jerry, this is Walter from Blockbuster Video rentals in
Belleville. I’m doing a reference check on a John Light you had
working there. I need to know the dates of his hire and termination
and I need to know whether he was fired or if he quit.
MCDS: Okay, hold on just one second…(He digs through that highly
sophisticated filing system that only a McDonald’s manager could
devise. He finds John’s files mixed in with a box of hairnets.)
MCDS: Here it is. I have John hired on July of 1992 and he quit on August
of 1992. (How long do you expect someone to last at a place like that?)
YOU: And he quit? He wasn’t fired?
MCDS: No, he quit. But he was a dandy little worker, he was.
YOU: Okay, that’s all I really needed to know. Oh, by the way, would you
happen to have his phone number there on his application? It looks like
he forgot to write his down here.
MCDS: Uh, sure. It’s 254-4016.
YOU: Boy, are you dumb. I’m just some kid trying to get this guy’s phone
number. Have a nice future at McDonald’s, you twit. (Hangs up.)

So maybe I didn’t say that last part, but I have tried this twice now, once at
Long John Silver’s and at McDonald’s and it worked both times. I think asking
for his phone number just kind of catches the guy off guard and he rattles it
off with no hesitation. If it doesn’t work one place, try another place he
worked at. You might also try getting a social security number like this. You
could probably do the same thing for other information such as him social
security number and his underwear size.

You only have their address and the library won’t give you any information you
need so your only choice is to become an activist and start a petition. Get a
clipboard, paper and a pen. Quickly write up a petition to save something
worthwhile like, “We the undersigned, are petitioning against the city’s
decision to tear down our local grade school and turn it into a landfill.”
Make up a whole bunch of names and sign them to your petition. Get about 25
names to make it look legitimate.

Now go up to the guy’s door and knock. When he answers have a prepared speech
ready about what you’re petitioning against and convince him to sign it too.
Be really friendly and outgoing with him so he’ll like you and want to help
you out. You might also ask him to include his phone number after he’s signed
his name so you can contact him about other local situations that might affect
him. Who knows, he could fall for that one.

Assuming you can decipher his adult signature, you now know who lives there.

The answering machines that let you call in remotely and retrieve your
messages are very commonplace these days. The owner of the machine can simply
call his own house from the office and punch in a small code to listen to his
messages. For us, it’s a guaranteed lode of information. Their messages can
contain all sorts of useful information such as phone numbers to close
friends and relatives, when they’ll be out of town, who their doctor is, where
they work, just about anything. When someone leaves a message they assume that
only the person they’re leaving it for will hear it. Fools.

Usually the code is only two digits long and very easy to break. On one brand
of machine the code is only one digit long and on some it can be three. Wait
until their not home and start working on their machine. Call their house and
after the tone start hitting random numbers to see if you can break the code.
Here are some helpful guidelines:

• A standard feature on a lot of brands of machines lets you not have to
  listen to their outgoing message everytime you call. If you get sick of
  the outgoing message try pressing “*” and sometimes that will bring you
  directly to the beep.
  
• Some machines only give you a certian amount of time to press in the
  security code so if you’re not quick enough it’ll hang up on you. Call
  back and try again.
  
• Other machines want you to press and hold the numbers of the code for about
  one second. So start from “1” and work your way up until you either hit the
  code right or it takes too long and hangs up on you.

When you’re trying codes try every number once and then do the same thing
again over and over until you’ve hit the right number. Most answering machines
are just looking for those right two numbers and don’t care what else you’re
hitting.

After you’ve finally got it, keep calling back and use the process of
elimination to narrow your way to their code. Let’s say that when you hit
“123456” it lets you in. Next time you call, try “12345” and see if you still
get in. If you do, try “1234” and so on until you eliminate your way down to
their two or three number code. You’ll know when you’ve broken in when it
starts giving you weird beeping noises.

After you’ve figured out their code, sometimes you have to dial one more
number to hear the messages. Most of the time the machine will automatically
play the messages after you put in the security code but on some you have to
dial number “1” or something like that. Not really that hard to figure out.

For the more malicious people out there, you can do more than just listen to
their messages, a lot of machines will let you change the outgoing message,
erase all the messages and monitor all the sounds in their house. Of course,
when you start fucking around with them, they know you’re there and the whole
purpose is defeated.

Now that you’ve figured out their code, you want to call every day that you
can and take notes of all the messages that you hear. Even the small things
could mean something to you one of these days so write down every name and
phone number that’s put on there. Write down all the personal information you
hear because you never know what you’ll be able to use in the future.

Try to make sure you’re not erasing his messages every time you call or he’ll
start to wonder why he never gets messages anymore. Sometimes an answering
machine will automatically erase the messages after you’ve listened to them
remotely unless you put in a code afterwards.

Recently, I called up a few hospitals where someone I knew worked and I needed
a little information on him. I was amazed at how easily they give out
information when they think you work for the IRS. I was able to get his
social security number, phone number, home address and they even told me where
else had wrote down that he worked at in the past.

Call up the place where he works. If it’s a bigger type business such as a
hospital or the White House, ask for the personell department.

HER: Yes, this is Sherry, may I help you?
YOU: Hi, Sherry, this is John from the IRS. We’ve been investigating an
employee we think is working there for you. Could you tell us if there’s
a Beavis Martin working there?
HER: Just a second……Yes, he’s working here.
YOU: Okay, do you have a fax machine there where you could fax me his job
application and tax forms?
HER: No, we don’t have a fax machine.
YOU: Could I just get a little inforamtion over the phone then?
HER: Sure.

If it’s a little business like a video store or something, they usually won’t
have a fax machine so you have nothing to worry about. If it’s a bigger
business they might have them so you wouldn’t want to ask them that unless
you have a fax machine where you can recieve the fax. Or you could always
have them fax the papers to a local copy shop where you can pick them up. (Wait
a second, I think I’m repeating myself here…)

Ask the lady what social security number he put down explaining that he has
been known in the past to write down bogus numbers to avoid paying taxes. Ask
what his phone numbers is, and anything else you feel would be useful for you.
Tell her that this whole thing is strictly hush-hush and that she shouldn’t
mention to Beavis that you’re investigating him. This will really lower her
opinion of her employee, knowing that he’s into tax fraud.

First of all, you need an address where the phone company can send their bill
to. You don’t want to use your own address as that would be really stupid of
you. Get a bogus p.o. box, vacant house, or fill out a change of address card
and forward mail going to a certian address in his name to you.

Call the residential billing office and explain to them that you want all your
future phone bills to be sent to a p.o. box instead of your home from now on.
She’ll gladly make that change and his next phone bills will start arriving
at the new p.o. box.

Now you want to get copies of their past phone bills. Call up the residential
office again and tell them that the company you work for has agreed to
reimburse you for all the company-related calls you’ve made from your home in
the last four months but you’ve thrown all your phone bills away. Ask them if
they can mail you your last four or five phone bills. They can and they will.

Now in two weeks you’ll recieve copies of his phone bills from the last four
months and be able to see all the long distance calls he makes. After you get
the bills you’ll want to call the residential office again and change his
billing address back to how it was so he won’t know anything ever happened.

Another thing to do if you want to continue recieving his phone bills and
don’t really care if he knows is to call the billing office and tell them on
your next phone bill you want a list of every local number that was dialed so
you can “see why your kid’s making so many phone calls”. My dad did that to
me once and there was about fifty pages of bulletin boards I’d called, not to
mention third number billed calls.

Knowing what he calls locally will help you out a lot. You’ll be able to see
exactly what he and his family calls, who his friends are, their may be some
personal numbers in there that he calls, etc. You can also see if he’s the
type of person to call phone sex alot.

One more thing, if you’d like to get a new calling card number, since you now
recieve his phone bills, you can order a calling card for yourself and you’ll
recieve it just like you do his phone bill.

Let’s say our man is fed up with us. He’s tired of having his boss question
him about tax evasion, tired of having his phone bill messed with, tired of
people playing on his answering machine, and tired of petitioners comming to
his door all the time. He decides to pay the $90 to have his phone number
changed to an unlisted number.

Ha!, you think. He’s just wasted $90 because I’m going to get his new number.
If you’ve been watching this guy closely you’ll know who his best friends are
and who his relatives are. You know exactly who calls him alot because you’ve
been monitoring his answering machine for two months now. Maybe it’s his poor
mother across town or maybe it’s his best friend that you’ll pick, it doesn’t
really matter.

Now it’s very simple. Let’s say you pick his mom and dad’s house. Call the
phone company’s billing office and pretend to be the dad or have a girlfriend
pretend to be the mom. You’ll be doing basically what you did to get copies of
his phone bill but this time you’re going to get copies of his parents phone
bill. First, tell the billing office you want every local number accounted
for on your bill. Then call them back later and change their billing address
to your p.o. box.

Now just to make sure that they’re going to call thier son, you can call them
and leave messages on their machine saying that you’re their son and to call
him when they get in, it’s important. Even if his parents can tell that you’re
not really him, they’ll probably call him and tell him what happened.

At the end of the month, you’ll get their bill which will have every locally
called number on it which will include their son’s new phone number. Call up
their son and say, “Ha ha! You can’t hide from me!” Read in the paper the
next morning about how he committed suicide by hanging himself with his
telephone cord.

Oh, and while you’re at it, doesn’t mom and dad need some new calling cards?

Otherwise known as Automatic Number Identification. This means that in the
middle of the night you go to his house, open his phone box, plug in your
phone and dial the ANI number which will read off his new number to you. You
could also call up a friend that has Caller I.D. The best ANI I know of is
1-800-MY-ANI-IS.

Just make sure to be really quiet out in his back yard and watch out for those
motion sensor lights that everyone has these days. Those things will be the
death of people like me.

If you have any additions or comments about this file, please contact me.