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What was hacking like in the '80s and '90s?
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this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2025
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Phone phreaking, the 80's were so fun. Stolen AT&T calling card numbers enabled you to call long distance for free at a time when calling the next city over could cost 30 cents a minute or more (equivalent to over a buck now). Hacking people's answering machines was pretty easy. For youngsters, this was a device hooked up to your land line phone to give you voicemail. You could listen to your messages remotely by calling it and entering a password which was very short and limited to numbers. Some had to the capability to change the message that answered the phone. That made for lots of fun
30 cents per minute in the 80's is like a dollar per minute today, maybe more.