Third Party Payphones
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By: The Jedi
Theres been alot of discussion lately about paperclipping and redboxing on
payphones so I decided to write up an article about that subject to be
included in this issue of PHUN. Here are a few things that you'd might find
interesting about payphones....
NOTE: All the payphones discussed in this article refer to Non-New York
Telephone PayPhones. There are plenty of third party payphones in New
York. The easiest way to tell if the payphone is from New York Tel is to
look right under the keypad where is says what numbers to dial for
information. All New York Payphones will have their Logo printed
somewhere on that label. If it isn't New York Tel, there will be a
company name and number listed to call for refunds. Thats the company
that owns and operates that perticular payphone.
2 - Ripping off the handsets. Now exactly the best way to phuck over the phone
company but still is fun if you have nothing else to do. Just take a pair
of pliers, grip them, and turn the opposite direction of the way that the
steel is woven. This will expose the wires. Cut the wires, and bring your
handset home with you!!
3 - Breaking into the jack. From what I've seen by repairing payphones, all
the ones that I've seen have a regular phone jack somewhere in the
fortress or nearby. This allows you do do a great many things. First lets
talk about the jack's location.
The fortress phones that have those big green walls to then are the
easiest ones to get into. The location of the jack is in the "Stem". Right
about Knee high there should be a green plate with 6 or so wierd looking
screws holding it in place. To get that panel off requires a special
screwdriver. Somewhat like a "Allen Wrench" with a little hole in the
middle. You can probably pick up a screwdriver like this in most hardware
stores.
On the fortress phones that are silver and skinny, the jack is usually
location in the ground underneath cement. Don't even bother with them.
On payphones located inside stores, just follow the two wires coming out
of the phone, it should lead to a beige box with a lock on it. Pick the
lock or break open the box and you'll see the jack.
Ok, now that you're into the jack, you can dial anywhere you'd like to.
Remember, that phone jack is almost exactly like the jack you have in your
house. Just pick up a cheap $5 phone from radio shack [A small one
preferrably since you dont want to look obvious] and hook it in! By doing
this, you're bypassing all the security of the phone [etc...Please Deposit
.10 cents for the next XX mins.].
4 - Get the Coin Box! Not that easy but one of my friends managed to bring
home a parking meter so it IS possible!! Theres two locks you must get
past in order to get to the coin box. First, get a piece of metal and make
the following.....
___
__| |__
|__ __|<===-- about 1/4 of an inch
| |
________| |________
/ \
| |
\___________________/
This key will allow you to get past the lock in the front of the
payphone. Ok, pick the lock on the bottom left-hand side of the payphone
[or drill a hole in it] and then put that key in the front lock and turn
it clockwise [to the right for those of you that can't tell time! heh].
Pull out the coin box and go and play 2000 video games!! Each coin box
holds up to a maximum of $150-175 dollars.
5 - Reprogramming the payphone. The most fun thing and also most dangerous!
First off, these aren't the stupid NY Telephones, they will call back the
company automatically if you dont do this correctly! All of the phones
that I work on have burnt-in Eproms that are for service. You can do
things like.....
A) Change the refunds number. This is a number to get in touch with the
company that operates the phone and get a refund sent to you by mail. When
you dial it, you won't have to put in a quarter for the call. Now, if you
can change that number to whatever you'd like, you can make a free phone
call from that phone anytime you want!
B) See how much money is in the coin box. You don't want to waste your
time if theres only $5 in there do you?? You can also erase that amount,
making it a pain in the ass for the technician who now must count it out
himself!
C) Theres a couple of other things in there that I haven't found out about
yet but as soon as I do, they'll be in the next issue fer sure!
Ok, the lock for this is either in two places. Check the top of the
payphone, if theres a lock there, thats the one that you want. It's called
a service lock. If it isn't there, check the right-hand side of the
payphone. If it's there, you'll need that key that you've made also. Pick
the top lock and use the key for the one underneath it. Once you do that,
you should get one of the following....
1 - If the payphone has a LCD Display on it, you'll see a menu
displaying the following...
Service Mode:
Now you'll have to hack out the code. It's usually four digits so
it should take too long. I'm not about to list the ones that I have
because I know some asshole will wind up trashing my phones!!!
Theres a few codes that are possible and each do different
things. For instance, one code will give you access to the coin box
counts and test modes while another will give you access to
programming the emergency numbers and refund numbers. Be sure NOT
to go into the payphone test mode!! This is cause the payphone to
display
PHONE SELF-TEST: Please Do Not Use.
What happens here is that the phone calls up the company that
operates the payphone and tells whoever picks up the phone, the
amount that is in the coin box and whatever thats being do to the
phone! You're asking for trouble with this mode.
2 - If there is no display, listen to the handset. A voice will prompt
you to enter your service entry. It works exactly the same way as
the LCD Display but just with a voice.
3 - Either way, once the lock is turned back into the original position,
the phone will go into self-test mode. The way to get around this
is to open up the phone. Just pull the front end of the phone
towards you, this will release half of the phone. Find the power
supply board. On some models, it will have the power supply on the
main board [The one standing upright], on others, the power supply
will have it's own separate board located underneath the main board
and coin mech. You'll notice which ever section that has a
transformer on it, thats what I'm talking about. Ok, there should
be a little orange switch there. If you pull in out, that will turn
the phone off. Pushing it in will turn the phone back on again. If
you pull it out and then push it in again, the phone will do a quick
check of itself [about 3-5 seconds]. Now, put the front end of the
phone back onto the fortress and turn the service key quickly. If
you do this quick enough, the phone won't have a chance to go into
service mode or self-test. It'll be like you never broke into it in
the first place!
6 - Once you get past the service lock. You can now get inside the payphone
itself. Pull the front end of the payphone towards you, then lift. Inside
you'll see various electronic boards, a coin mech, etc... On some models,
you'll also have a modular cable coming in from the jack, hook up your
portable phone to it and dial up! Trash the boards, take some home. Thats
where the real damage comes in! The average payphone costs about $1,200 to
1,500 bucks and most of that is because of whats inside, not the fortress
itself.
7 - On most payphones that are in stores, they'll be a couple of wires coming
out of it. If the phone was hooked up sloppy, they'll be exposed. One wire
is for power, the other goes to the jack. Cut them or pull out the jack.
Everyone that puts money into it afterwards will lose it!
8 - On the Intellical and Echotel payphones, theres a special feature that
will allow the owner of the phone to log into it remotely from a computer.
As of now, I don't have the exact information on how to break into it
through modeming but I do know that it is definately possible! Once you
login, you'll be able to reprogram the rate tables. A rate table is a
eprom that contains all the information on the rates for calls such as how
much it costs to call long distance and the amount of time per call thats
allowed. If you're able to reprogram the rate table, you'll be able to
make free phone calls anywhere for an unlimited amount of time. As soon as
I figure out how to crack the program thats used to call in, I'll write
the information in the next issue. Stay tuned!
Well, that should be enough for all you guyz to have fun. The next issue will
have a detailed explanation on how the payphone itself operates and whatever
else I might find out that interesting. Until then, if you have any questions,
you can leave me some email.
