The Art of Deception_ Controlling the Human Element of Security - Kevin D. Mitnick [91]
“No, he’s not here,” the guy said after a couple of moments. “He’s at the correctional center in San Diego.”
Johnny pretended to be surprised. “San Diego! He was supposed to be transferred to Miami on the Marshal’s airlift last week! Are we talking about the same guy—what’s the guy’s DOB?”
“1⅔/60,” the man read from his screen.
“Yeah, that’s the same guy. What housing unit is he on?”
“He’s on Ten North,” the man said—blithely answering the question even though there isn’t any conceivable reason why a prison employee in New York would need to know this.
Johnny now had the phones turned on for incoming calls, and knew which housing unit Gondorff was on. Next, find out which phone number connected to unit Ten North.
This one was a bit difficult. Johnny called one of the numbers. He knew the ringer of the phone would be turned off; no one would know it was ringing. So he sat there reading Fodor’s Europe’s Great Cities travel guide, while listening to the constant ringing on speakerphone until finally somebody picked up. The inmate on the other end would, of course, be trying to reach his court-appointed lawyer. Johnny was prepared with the expected response. “Public Defender’s Office,” he announced.
When the man asked for his attorney, Johnny said, “I’ll see if he’s available, what housing unit are you calling from?” He jotted down the man’s answer, clicked onto hold, came back after half a minute and said, “He’s in court, you’ll have to call back later,” and hung up.
He had spent the better part of a morning, but it could have been worse; his fourth attempt turned out to be from Ten North. So Johnny now knew the phone number to the PDO phone on Gondorff’s housing unit.
Synchronize Your Watches
Now to get a message through to Gondorff on when to pick up the telephone line that connects inmates directly to the Public Defender’s Office. This was easier than it might sound.
Johnny called the detention center using his official-sounding voice, identified himself as an employee, and asked to be transferred to Ten North. The call was put right through. When the correctional officer there picked up, Johnny conned him by using the insider’s abbreviation for Receiving and Discharge, the unit that processes new inmates in, and departing ones out: “This is Tyson in R&D,” he said. “I need to speak to inmate Gondorff. We have some property of his we have to ship and we need an address where he wants it sent. Could you call him to the phone for me?”
Johnny could hear the guard shouting across the day room. After an impatient several minutes, a familiar voice came on the line.
Johnny told him, “Don’t say anything until I explain what this is.” He explained the pretext so Johnny could sound like he was discussing where his property should be shipped. Johnny then said, “If you can get to the Public Defender phone at one this afternoon, don’t respond. If you can‘t, then say a time that you can be there.” Gondorff didn’t reply. Johnny went on, “Good. Be there at one o’clock. I’ll call you then. Pick up the phone. If it starts to ring to the Public Defenders Office, flash the switch hook every twenty seconds. Keep trying till you hear me on the other end.”
At one o‘clock, Gondorff picked up the phone, and Johnny was there waiting for him. They had a chatty, enjoyable, unhurried conversation, leading to a series of similar calls to plan the scam that would raise the money to pay Gondorff’s legal fees—all free from government surveillance.
Analyzing the Con
This episode offers a prime example of how a social engineer can make the seemingly impossible happen by conning several people, each one doing something that, by itself, seems inconsequential. In reality, each action provides one small piece of the puzzle until the con is complete.
The first phone company