4 ms·

Back when I was a kid I had alot of fun using methods to get free phone calls on these things. Like, beyond just red-boxing or whatever (Past that time). In Ja

Back when I was a kid I had alot of fun using methods to get free phone calls on these things. Like, beyond just red-boxing or whatever (Past that time). In Japan, they would just accept DTMF tones from anything that would generate them. There was all these people using hacked cards that they installed countermeasures against which were hilarious because people using these hacked yakuza cards would keep one foot in the doorway in case the fabled alarm would go off, i knew a guy who did this thinking naaah it would never happen to me. NOPE happens to him, he had to squeeze himself out of that phone booth and run after a red light started flashing and the door slammed shut on his shoe... Literally just playing the DTMF tones into the handset would have gotten past that on every 'grey phone' out there (The ones that advertise ISDN connectivity). Wouldn't be surprised if that still works if they still have those phones anywhere. The other way I did it in another country was a telephone company test line (toll free!) which would give you 30 seconds of silence then a dial tone (presumably 'remote'). From this dial tone you could call anywhere in the world. We got some list that phonelosers used to make and called places like the president of Kenya. This guy mentions using a payphone which accepts incoming calls to get the internet as a kid in the 90s. Those which still rang on incoming were mostly gone by my time but a few were still configured to act like that. Was fun to sit down the road with a cellphone and watch people be scared to pick up the line after watching it ring for a few seconds.

meep0l 4y ago
Could you elaborate on the "fabled alarm?"
- jamal-kumar 4y ago
  Yeah a red light would flash over the booth and the door would shut closed, hence having to put your foot in there. Alot of people buying and using these cards were like 'bullshit!' but this guy who told me about this figured to err on the side of caution anyways and ended up having to comically escape the situation with all these people looking at him. This was like 5 years before my own time in Japan but pretty hilarious nonetheless
  - Gordonjcp 4y ago
    I'm not saying you're wrong but a) this sounds like a massive safety issue and b) this sounds like exactly the sort of thing I'd say to anyone trying to get a dodgy phone card from me, "yeah you need to wedge your foot in the door in case it detects the card is hooky, and tries to lock you in" just so I could stand there and laugh at their contortions trying to keep one foot outside while they use the phone.
    - jamal-kumar 4y ago
      Heh yeah I feel the same but the 90s were a different time Remember playgrounds back then? I remember one around Osaka Castle which was like a huge children's slide with those industrial conveyor rollers you rode down on pieces of cardboard (to go stupidly fast!),which I'm sure you could pinch yourself on really bad.
jamesy0ung 4y ago
> In Japan, they would just accept DTMF tones from anything that would generate them. There was all these people using hacked cards that they installed countermeasures against which were hilarious because people using these hacked yakuza cards would keep one foot in the doorway in case the fabled alarm would go off, i knew a guy who did this thinking naaah it would never happen to me. NOPE happens to him, he had to squeeze himself out of that phone booth and run after a red light started flashing and the door slammed shut on his shoe... Literally just playing the DTMF tones into the handset would have gotten past that on every 'grey phone' out there (The ones that advertise ISDN connectivity). Wouldn't be surprised if that still works if they still have those phones anywhere. How did this work? Did it literally lock you inside and how did you exit?
- jrockway 4y ago
  Apparently GlaDOS was the president of NTT at the time. She really wanted a deadly neurotoxin emitter on every handset, but it was deemed too costly.
- jamal-kumar 4y ago
  I elaborated on this on another reply. It's something that happened in the late 90s, some time after I was in Japan myself. I trust the source, his Japanese wife corroborated it somewhat embarrassed.
patio11 4y ago
NOPE happens to him, he had to squeeze himself out of that phone booth and run after a red light started flashing and the door slammed shut on his shoe.. This did not happen. Almost no Japanese public telephones even in 2022 have a) doors which lock or b) motors/servos to operate the door. The exception on motors is a specialty item "automatic door (electric type)" which is sold primarily as an accessibility aid for people who cannot operate unpowered doors. The door, in all cases, is for caller privacy, not for preserving the integrity of telephone billing. I feel _extremely_ confident in this, and confident that you would get an immediate on-the-record denial from NTT if you asked. One reason among many: if the phone booth was physically capable of locking people inside that would endanger human life in a natural disaster, and the first rule of engineering in Japan is that one's system must function during natural disasters. On this I will see "I once talked to a Japanese woman" and raise you "I have written the acceptance testing protocols required by that 'rule' for a firm which produced publicly-deployable hardware artifacts." plus "I have two working eyeballs and can confirm the absence of a motor in almost all telephone deployments." (Apologies for someone-is-wrong-on-the-Internet here but we were extremely serious about rule #1.)
- jamal-kumar 4y ago
  Were you an employee of NTT? Why didn't you install DTMF filters on the phones lol I was calling like new zealand and shit. And I'm talking like, 20 years ago plus here... It could be bullshit for sure, I'm relating someone else's story.
pavel_lishin 4y ago
> phonelosers Wow, there's a name I haven't heard or thought about in years... I wonder if RBCP's writings are still floating around somewhere. Even the fictional ones (especially the fictional ones, I guess) are amazing.

meep0l 4y ago

Could you elaborate on the "fabled alarm?"

jamal-kumar 4y ago
Yeah a red light would flash over the booth and the door would shut closed, hence having to put your foot in there. Alot of people buying and using these cards were like 'bullshit!' but this guy who told me about this figured to err on the side of caution anyways and ended up having to comically escape the situation with all these people looking at him. This was like 5 years before my own time in Japan but pretty hilarious nonetheless
- Gordonjcp 4y ago
  I'm not saying you're wrong but a) this sounds like a massive safety issue and b) this sounds like exactly the sort of thing I'd say to anyone trying to get a dodgy phone card from me, "yeah you need to wedge your foot in the door in case it detects the card is hooky, and tries to lock you in" just so I could stand there and laugh at their contortions trying to keep one foot outside while they use the phone.
  - jamal-kumar 4y ago
    Heh yeah I feel the same but the 90s were a different time Remember playgrounds back then? I remember one around Osaka Castle which was like a huge children's slide with those industrial conveyor rollers you rode down on pieces of cardboard (to go stupidly fast!),which I'm sure you could pinch yourself on really bad.

jamesy0ung 4y ago

> In Japan, they would just accept DTMF tones from anything that would generate them. There was all these people using hacked cards that they installed countermeasures against which were hilarious because people using these hacked yakuza cards would keep one foot in the doorway in case the fabled alarm would go off, i knew a guy who did this thinking naaah it would never happen to me. NOPE happens to him, he had to squeeze himself out of that phone booth and run after a red light started flashing and the door slammed shut on his shoe... Literally just playing the DTMF tones into the handset would have gotten past that on every 'grey phone' out there (The ones that advertise ISDN connectivity). Wouldn't be surprised if that still works if they still have those phones anywhere. How did this work? Did it literally lock you inside and how did you exit?

jrockway 4y ago
Apparently GlaDOS was the president of NTT at the time. She really wanted a deadly neurotoxin emitter on every handset, but it was deemed too costly.
jamal-kumar 4y ago
I elaborated on this on another reply. It's something that happened in the late 90s, some time after I was in Japan myself. I trust the source, his Japanese wife corroborated it somewhat embarrassed.

patio11 4y ago

NOPE happens to him, he had to squeeze himself out of that phone booth and run after a red light started flashing and the door slammed shut on his shoe.. This did not happen. Almost no Japanese public telephones even in 2022 have a) doors which lock or b) motors/servos to operate the door. The exception on motors is a specialty item "automatic door (electric type)" which is sold primarily as an accessibility aid for people who cannot operate unpowered doors. The door, in all cases, is for caller privacy, not for preserving the integrity of telephone billing. I feel _extremely_ confident in this, and confident that you would get an immediate on-the-record denial from NTT if you asked. One reason among many: if the phone booth was physically capable of locking people inside that would endanger human life in a natural disaster, and the first rule of engineering in Japan is that one's system must function during natural disasters. On this I will see "I once talked to a Japanese woman" and raise you "I have written the acceptance testing protocols required by that 'rule' for a firm which produced publicly-deployable hardware artifacts." plus "I have two working eyeballs and can confirm the absence of a motor in almost all telephone deployments." (Apologies for someone-is-wrong-on-the-Internet here but we were extremely serious about rule #1.)

jamal-kumar 4y ago
Were you an employee of NTT? Why didn't you install DTMF filters on the phones lol I was calling like new zealand and shit. And I'm talking like, 20 years ago plus here... It could be bullshit for sure, I'm relating someone else's story.

pavel_lishin 4y ago

> phonelosers Wow, there's a name I haven't heard or thought about in years... I wonder if RBCP's writings are still floating around somewhere. Even the fictional ones (especially the fictional ones, I guess) are amazing.