Havana_-_Moon@cup.portal.com (11/21/89)
This article originally appeared in the 11/89 Edition of the
Umbra et Lux Newsletter. It appears here with the permission
of the author, Harry Helms.
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$500 REWARD FOR A WORKING REMOB -- THIS IS NO JOKE!!
REMOB is an acronym for 'remote observation.' Supposedly this
is a facility of certain telephone networks which allows instant
eavesdropping on any telephone in the system. To use a REMOB,
one reportedly calls the REMOB number, enters certain access
codes, and the number of the telephone one wishes to listen to.
One is then supposed to be able to listen to both sides of all
calls to and from the telephone being targeted.
Numerous qualifiers were used in the preceding paragraph because
there is no hard evidence that there is such a thing as REMOB.
With the advent of electronic switch signaling (ESS) in the US,
a REMOB is certainly within the realm of possibility. (Another
feature of ESS is the ability to track every digit dialed from
a phone - even calls to discontinued numbers or a single digit
dialed!) There are plenty of stories going around about 'some-
one' who knows 'someone' who 'knows' about a working REMOB or
two, but I've yet to see any firm evidence that any REMOBs are
in use now or even that REMOBs exist at all.
That's why I've decided to offer a $500 reward to anyone who
can furnish me with the number of a working REMOB and the
correct access codes. The conditions for this reward are that
I must be able to use the REMOB number and access codes to
listen in on my home telephone from a remote telephone. The
REMOB will be verified in a test where all parties making the
calls involved will be aware that they may be eavesdropped
upon and consent to the monitoring.
So if you know of anyone who claims they know someone who knows
something about REMOBs, tell them it's put up or shut up time.
$500 in nice cold cash awaits a real REMOB. And even if you
don't have a working REMOB handy, I'd appreciate hearing from
anyone who knows anything more about any purported REMOB.
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Copyright 11/89, Umbra et Lux. All rights reserved.
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[Moderator's Note: I've had some difficulty with return mail to the
sender of this item. If the address shown above does not work, try
addressing to 'havana-moon-conference@cup.portal.com'.
The arrangements discussed in Mr. Helms' presentation are not all that
uncommon in private organizations, particularly in telemarketing firms
or places where large ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) systems are in
service to hand out thousands of calls per day to agents. It is quite
common for supervisors to have the ability to punch in some code
followed by the desired extension and silently monitor the call. I
believe the law requires that persons subject to monitoring *for other
than technical reasons relating to line quality, etc* be notified of
this capability.
Telcos can of course do this monitoring *legally* for the purpose of
network maintainence and employee training. In any case, there is a
legal prohibition against divulging what was overheard, as with radio
scanners. I doubt there is any way to gateway into this equipment from
outside the premises of the subscriber who uses it or the central
office where it is used for testing of lines, etc. PT]C488869@umcvmb.bitnet (Randy King) (11/22/89)
Well, this is a topic that has come up again and again throughout the life of my interest in telecommunications. Actually, the system is called REMOBS, which does stand for REMote OBservation System and it is manufactured by Teltone corporation. They do exist. I personally have never run across one but I've received this company's literature on the unit. The topic has been covered in a couple of places that I've seen in the "underground" newsletters, including issue 14 of Phrack Inc. Newsletter as well as the most recent edition of 2600 Magazine (Volume Six, Number Three, Autumn, 1989) which has a brief summary of how to operate the things. Also, if memory serves, TAP Magazine also ran an article on the topic way-back-when which (I think) also summarized how to use them. Randy C488869@UMCVMB (Bitnet) C488869@UMCVMB.MISSOURI.EDU