Subj : Funny code section
To : andrew clarke
From : mark lewis
Date : Sun Mar 14 2010 09:48 am
ac>> Apparently 555-1212 is Directory Assistance in the US and Canada.
MvLe> Ah I see. I suppose that should be rejected back in the day when
MvLe> people actually took phone numbers seriously. These days nobody
MvLe> cares :)
ac> I don't think anybody really cared much back then either :)
uh, yeah... they did too... how were/are they supposed to be able to verify a
caller without one? consider a caller who forgets their password... the sysop
can easily call them at their voice number if there's a large set of log
entries about an incorrect password... if they haven't been calling or
forgotten their password, it likely indicates someone trying to hack the
account...
i've also mentioned call-back verifiers and that they pull the number to call
back from the user's bbs record... since most systems do not allow for numbers
to be duplicated, this is one way of being more sure that someone is who they
say they are... if there are family members or roommates calling the same
system from the same number, then they can contact the sysop concerning the
duplicate number condition and the sysop can then decide how to handle the
situation...
it hasn't been all that long ago, guys... POTS is still alive and well and
active ;)
