Hackers Use Messaging Systems To Make Calls

UPDATED: 10:52 AM EDT July 19, 2004

CINCINNATI -- If you’ve thrown out your old answering machine and replaced it with voicemail, you could be the target of a scam.

The scam involves hacking into a voicemail system and using it to rack up long-distance phone charges, WLWT Eyewitness News 5 reported.

Rob Himmler found out about the scam the hard way when someone dialed into his voicemail system.

«He or she was then able to reprogram the system and make long distance calls to the Philippines,» Himmler said.

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Sanford Nowlin
Express-News Business Writer

Let the phone wars begin.

Time Warner Cable today begins selling phone service in the San Antonio area, becoming the latest — and, some analysts argue, the most formidable — competitor for hometown telecommunications giant SBC Communications Inc.

The service, called Digital Phone, uses a technology called Voice-over-Internet Protocol — or VoIP — that allows Time Warner to provide local and long-distance service over the same fiber optic network it uses to deliver cable television.

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By Kenneth B. Lourie
July 16, 2004

I’m trying to figure something out. Something that I’m not losing sleep over (I think that’s been caused by the caffeinated iced tea I’ve been drinking), but still something that’s beginning to occupy some mental space. Space that I’m sure could be utilized for 1,001 better uses, but space nevertheless that belongs to me and, unfortunately for the future betterment of mankind, is hardly filled with tales of great Ulysses, as it were. But rather space filled with the minutiae that so frequently fill my head, as you regular readers know all too well.

In this particular instance, the minutia to which I refer is whether in fact it would be beneficial to me financially to terminate my land-line service at home (where I lease no phones, yet do pay for expanded local service that makes certain long distance exchanges local) and apply the $60 average monthly cost or a portion thereof (which contains a modest benefit package including an answering service) and buy more cellular minutes instead.

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