One thing the author missed was the early BBS warez scene. Some people would use war dialers not to find open modems, but to systematically hack long distance c

One thing the author missed was the early BBS warez scene. Some people would use war dialers not to find open modems, but to systematically hack long distance calling card codes from the phone company and private companies. It would call the main number, then sequentially or randomly enter codes, then enter a target phone number like a BBS. If a modem picked up, the code worked and it would save it. If not, after x seconds it would hang up and start over. You'd leave it running overnight and maybe get a code or two, or none. They might last a few hours or a few weeks. There were also plenty of sites where people would post the codes, but those would usually get shut down pretty quick so best to hack your own. This would allow you basically free (to you) long distance access which you'd then use to connect to long distance bbs's to download games. This was mid 80's and started with Vic20/C64/Amiga as well as 286's when IBM's/Clones started hitting the streets. Then the internet became a thing and everyone moved to ftp's and hacking permissions to make hidden directories.