I think the Bell System was ignorant of Blue Box hacking, because the WATS customers weren't aware that it was even possible, and therefore paid "their" WATS bill without question.
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The Bell System was well aware of Blue Boxes because of loss of revenue. In fact, I know some telco engineers who built their own to study their operation to better combat it. And it was one factor for discontinuing In-Band signalling. SS-7 was the solution.
Wes Leatherock snipped-for-privacy@aol.com snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com
***** Moderator's Note *****I presume you're referring to the time after the Esquire article, when WATS users started hiring auditing firms to match their internal call records to the Bell billing statements. Prior to Esquire "outing" the hackers, I doubt that Bell executives saw the problem as anything but a nuisance.
Bill Horne Temporary Moderator
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