Phone phreaks

[Kim & Rima McKinzey]

>  > "phreaking" dates back at least to the 1970's, although I
>>  have no written
>>  citation.  A man I knew from about 1974 to 1978 boasted to me
>>  of being a "phone
>  > phreak".

I can't think of his name just now, but a guy who went by Captain
Crunch developed an electronic phone beeper with which someone could
make free phone calls by fooling the telephone lines into connecting
to a long distance signal.  They were called blue boxes.  The folks
who used these gadgets were called phone phreaks.  This was at least
in the early 70s.

Rima