In April of 1985 a writer for the Milwaukee Journal newspaper answered his phone only to find himself on a conference call with teenage hackers. These hackers told Eric K. Meyer, the journalist involved, details of his academic records from his high-school years, his electricity bill and his work history. All of this stemmed from an article Eric had written on a credit card fraud ring in Wisconsin. Also, important to note that the act of “doxing” or “doxxing” as we know it now did not have that name back in the 1980’s.

This blog is part of a series on the times that journalists have found themselves getting too close to the world of hackers, inadvertently becoming part of their own story. You can find some other entries in this series here and here.

Fraud has been a part of the history of hacking since day one in one form or another, whether it was to make free phone calls or to use stolen credit card numbers to purchase more computer equipment.

By 1985 small groups of kids across America were following ‘how to’ guides that they found on shady bulletin boards which gave them step by step instructions on finding card numbers and how to then order merchandise, hopefully without getting caught.

In order for a house to qualify as an inconspicuous drop spot, it must meet several requirements. It must look like a place where people could really live and be getting things sent through UPS to them. It must be a place that the owners will not 'visit' too regularly. It may have a 'FOR SALE' sign in front of it, but it is better if it doesn't. And most important of all, it must be a place that you can check up on often. Make sure you WRITE DOWN the address in a place where you will NOT forget it and where it will be readily accessible when you are ordering merchandise. (SEE STEP III)

‘Credit Carding made easy’, by ‘David Lightman’, text file, March 28th, 1985

I wrote a couple of small blogs about the Nihilist Order, a carding group that made the news in 1986, but many others were busted before them. One such group of carders was in the small town of Waukesha, Wisconsin, when they got caught it became a brief news sensation.

‘Young hackers involved in major scam‘, UPI, The Bulletin, 30th April, 1985

The article above details how six students at Waukesha’s North High School were caught using stolen credit cards to get “thousands of dollars worth of computer goods and services”, with the help of a “manual” on carding prepared by “Iceman, Leader of the Black Triangle”.

The “scheme involved purchasing thousands of dollars worth of computer-related equipment”, the kids had their carded computers and parts “sent to a mailbox rental service in Waukesha” which must have worked fine for them until “the Secret Service installed a video camera to monitor pickups from the box”.

The story initially broke in the Milwaukee Journal, which also carried some commentary from John Maxfield (aka ‘Cable Pair’), infamous 1980’s anti-hacker hacktivist, who was happy to name the BBS (‘The World of Cryton’) that he thought the accused kids had gotten their fraud manual from. Unfortunately the current owners of the Milwaukee Journal have decided to remove their newspapers archives that were online, so I can’t include that primary source and Iceman’s carding guide is also not archived anywhere I could find.

When this initial article was written by Eric K. Meyer and published in the Milwaukee Journal it got the attention of hackers elsewhere in the US. I wonder personally if this reaction was down to camaraderie, hatred by hackers across the U.S. of John Maxfield or because Eric was somehow disparaging of hackers in his original article.

‘Hacker Raids Private Files of Reporter‘, AP, Observer-Reporter, 10th May, 1985

“A teen-age computer enthusiast has penetrated telephone and electric company records to compile a shockingly revealing dossier on me starting with only a telephone number”

Eric K. Meyer, Milwaukee Journal, May, 1985

Eric K. Meyer answered his home phone on a Sunday in May of 1985 to find himself on a conference call with a number of teenage hackers, one of whom identified as himself as “Master”. This hacker proceeded to outline to Eric certain private details of Eric’s life, what we would now call “doxing” (or “doxxing”).

I spoke to Eric via email and he told me “credit card numbers had been stolen and used to order computer components for delivery to a private mail drop.” He also clarified that “hacking had absolutely nothing to do with the theft of the credit card numbers. They were obtained via dumpster-diving at a Kohl’s Department Store in Waukesha, Wisconsin. In those days, most credit card sales slips had a sheet of carbon paper that copied the imprint information onto a receipt for the customer. Stores threw away the carbons… One sheet of carbon paper contained all the numbers needed to steal a card number.”

Kohl’s Department Store, Waukesha, Wisconsin

From the Associated Press’ reporting in ‘Hacker Raids Private Files of Reporter‘, we know that the hackers were able to “obtain a list of long distance telephone numbers the reporter had made” and “determine the amount of electricity used at Meyer’s home at peak and off-peak times and whether he had paid his bills on time”.

Armed with the details of long distance calls Eric had recently made, the hacker known as Master then “used the telephone numbers to obtain information from Meyer’s relatives, colleagues and acquaintances.” Eric Meyer recounts in the article that the hacker posed as “Dr. Richard Teller. vice president of the American Broadcasting Co. in Washington, D.C., and elicited) from those answering his calls background information for a prestigous national award in journalism that I was supposedly being considered for”.

‘Part-time workers gave hackers credit data’, UPI, The Telegraph-Herald, 1st May, 1985

The 6 teenagers in Waukesha were caught and Eric K. Meyer got an interesting follow up article from the calls from hackers he received in the aftermath. Describing the calls in our email exchanges Eric wrote “some of the calls were conferences; some were individuals. They were vaguely threatening and wanting to portray themselves as far more powerful and ingenious than they were. Honestly, it struck me as typical teenage machismo.”

Eric told me that while the hackers “claimed they used computers to [retrieve his private details]”, some “further investigation revealed that the only computer usage involved looking up the customer service phone numbers of the utilities.” The hackers had in fact used “what they called “social engineering” — basically, the skills of a con artist — they were able to get details about my accounts over the phone”.

This is still how a lot of initial access to sensitive information is obtained by hackers to this day.

Many thanks to Eric for being willing to reply to my emails and help me research this blog.

https://realhackhistory.org/2024/03/19/dox-creating-carders-build-a-dossier-on-a-journalist-in-1985-hackers-reporters/

#1980s #1985 #80s #BlackTriangle #CablePair #carded #carders #carding #careditCard #creditCard #doxing #doxxing #EricKMeyer #EricMeyer #fraud #hacker #hackers #hacking #history #Iceman #JohnMaxfield #Master #MilwaukeeJournal #newspaper #SecretService #Waukesha #Wisconsin

If you haven’t read part 1 of this two parter, you can find it here, I’d recommend reading it first.

In part 1 we talked about the Nihilist Order, who they were in a general sense and what they were up to. In this part I’ll be talking about the advent of the “sting BBS”, how they operated and why they were an obvious tactic for computer savvy US authorities and vigilante “hacker trackers”.

What is a BBS?

With no cheap or easily accessible equivalent to the internet as we know it today a lot of social interaction for early home computer users was conducted via BBSes. A bulletin board system or BBS is a single computer running software that allows users to connect to the system using a dial up terminal program and a modem. BBS users could then perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging messages with other users through message boards or sometimes via direct chats.

BBSes were where a lot of hackers of this era exchanged information, learned new hacking techniques, made friends, impressed their competition, started feuds and of course relentlessly chased clout. Hacker BBSes often had rules governing who could join, and had their own hierarchies, from the sysop who owned and ran the system the BBS resided on to password protected areas.

These BBSes frequently had separate boards to discuss phreaking and hacking with “anarchy” (bomb making and practical jokes, mostly), viruses and carding also hot topics.

Police officers who were interested in technology in the early 80s were exposed to BBS culture, sometimes as part of their job, sometimes as part of investigations and sometimes in their private lives and some of these officers made some logical connections in their minds. Why not start their own hacking BBS to lure in local kids who would then post incriminating information that would lead to slam dunk cases?

“Sting”, The Tribune, March 6th, 1986

Thus Sgt. Dan Pasquale of the Fremont Police in California decided to take on the identity of aspiring teenage hacker “Speedy Da Mouse” and joined every hacking related BBS he could find in 1985. Once Dan felt comfortable that he understood what made a hacker BBS function and seem real he created a new identity, “the Revenger” and in September of 1985 he opened the BBS “Phreaker’s Phortress”, with sections for hacking, carding and phreaking. This is one point that I find a little confusing though, as media reports at the time have the name of this sting BBS as “Phoenix Fortress”, though maybe this was a misunderstanding between reporters and Sgt Dan?

As Dan notes in an Oakland Tribune article from March 6th, 1986

“We started getting calls almost immediately, I made my first case three days after the board went up. We had taken the unlisted phone number under the name “Al Davis”, in six days these kids had the name on the bulletin board. I would have needed a search warrant to get that information.”

Sgt Dan Pasquale, “Sting”, The Tribune, March 6th, 1986

Regardless of the name of the BBS, this sting operation was what put the authorities on to the Nihilist Order, although as I covered in part 1 members of the Order were also having deliveries of carded merchandise made to their actual home addresses

“They would post credit card numbers they had taken from carbons and knew to be good and they would use these numbers to make a phone order for Ninja suits or battle stars”

Sgt Dan Pasquale, “Sting”, The Tribune, March 6th, 1986

The most 80s of crimes

In another article it is noted that Sgt Dan was fearful of retribution for his successful sting BBS operation, “the word is out that the hacker underworld may seek revenge. The technique could be anything from sending 100 toilet seats to the Fremont police station to trying to ruin Pasquale’s credit.”

“Gang uses computers for crime”, Miami Herald, April 4th, 1986

The article “Gang uses computers for crime” from April 4th 1986 goes on to discuss the phenomenon of “teletrials”, a sort of hacker court case held on a BBS to judge people who have been seen to wrong the hacking community. It’s at this point in the article that perennial 80s hacking scene boogey man and self appointed “hacker tracker” vigilante John Maxfield is quoted in the article. John Maxfield made a career, and a Detroit based company “Boardscan”, out of setting up his own sting BBSes and monitoring BBSes across the US for information on hackers and phreaks that he could collect, collate and monetise.

Maxfield said Pasquale has been tried in a kangaroo court (a “teletrial”) by the hackers. He was declared to be “dog meat,” said Maxfield, who added that a “a man deep in the hacker underground, a convicted hacker who would know about it,” told him of the trial.

Even a death threat was mentioned.

“Gang uses computers for crime”, Miami Herald, April 4th, 1986

I plan on making a video and writing more about Maxfield, his meteoric rise as a commentator on the computer underground in the US media, his often fabulist and alarmist takes on the 80s hacking scene and his company at some future date.

You can find screenshots of the various articles from 1986 I used to put this blog together here on archive.org.

https://realhackhistory.org/2023/02/02/the-nihilist-order-part-2/

#1980s #BBS #California #carding #computer #fraud #hacker #hackers #hacking #history #JohnMaxfield #NihilistOrder #teletrial