RE: Anonymous phone calls.

[David Scheidt <scheida@earlham.edu>]

>    I asked this a while ago, but my mail system has some problems and
>I don't know what the responses were, if any....
>
>    Is there any way to make a phone call anonymously?  Caller ID can be
>blocked somewhat with one of those *## numbers dialed before the call
>is made.  Is there a way to route a call through a series of phone-type
>remailer systems?  This would allow one to make a call that would be as
>hard to trace as anonymous mail.
>
>    Any ideas?
>
I know that the PBX my school is behind shows up in the outside world as one
of a limited set of trunk numbers.  This means that calls to the real 
world will show up as a number other than the one you are calling from, 
and also that it is not likely to be the same number on any given pair of 
calls.  A friend discovered this when dealing with an AT&T long-distance 
relay operator.  They have an 800 number you call, and then they will bill 
the number that their ANI pulls off. I should think that AT&T of all people
 would have a good enough system that if it were possible to get the number
 they would manage it.  The Operator, whom my friend knew, 
commented that the number was odd, and this led to some expirmentation 
which confirmed the number was not his, and a couple of other similiar things.
I would suspect that there are many other PBX's which operate in a 
similiar manner.
david
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Scheidt
scheida@yang.earlham.edu

"If we don't remember what we do, how will we know who we are?"
					-Ronald Reagan