[tang-soo]

I know by the 80s Bell/ATT redesigned their network operating system to stop the phone hackers. I really am not sure how successful they were but I suspect pretty darn successful❗🤷

I remember seeing a documentary several years ago about that whole culture. They had interviews and news features from the 1970s. That was the first time I heard about Captain Crunch.

I also remember a 60 Minutes episode from the 1970s. They spent a few minutes demonstrating a device that could remotely turn any phone into a microphone - even with the device hung up. If I remember correctly, it used a signal picked up through induction. Anyone involved in a conversation within the range of the phone could be heard from a thousand miles away. Never heard anything in the news about that. I suspect it was a topic TPTB did not want to be made known.

[Bob Ireland]

***demonstrating a device that could remotely turn any phone into a microphone - even with the device hung up***

It vaguely strikes a bell. Of course all phones back then contained a cheap carbon microphone - called IIRC the 'mouth piece'. It would always be a working 'microphone', only cut off by the hang up switch.

My memory ain't good enough to remember how to work around the hang up switch - but agencies like the See Eye Aye long had ways of working that sort of thing out - maybe even the NYPD techs❗