Counter Intelligence
by: Lee Lapin

"When the cops / narcs / feds /or your ex-wife's lover, the KGB colonel, rents an apartment at the second B box of your loop and sets up anything from a simple extension phone to a slave, you just ain't gonna know it. Until now.

An engineer has recently patented a device, which will indicate the presence of any of these taps up to, and including, those placed at the Central Office.

It does this by, well, "listening" to the capacitance of the line in question every time you hang up after a call. If there is any sort of bridge or slave on the line, it too will "hang up", say 30 seconds later. This action creates a change in the line conditions that the COMSEC C3I TM will indicate.

The unit protects one line and should remain on-line at all times. Coupled with regularly scheduled sweeps or a good anti-tap unit the COMSEC C3I  will protect your phone, FAX or computer lines to a degree never before possible. Intelligence Incorporated Inc., and other dealers."

"This book is chock full of secrets. The public doesn't need to know this stuff and it should be suppressed!"

- William Askins, Ex- CIA Clandestine, Service Senior Operations Officer.

"The '90s is the information decade and Lapin is probably the best hands-on / how-to writer around. This book has got something for everyone, from private detectives to intelligence agents, to curious citizens."

- Hal Lipset, one of the world's most famous private detectives.
Past President, World Association of Detectives, Law School Professor (Investigative Techniques), and subject of the biography The Good Detective (Pocket Books).

"I wish I'd known Mr. Lapin a few years ago. I'd have made him a major or had him shot."

- Vladimir Meshkov, Colonel, KGB

"This handy catalogue is just what the citizen and espionage buff need to untangle the jargons and players in the 'great game' of intelligence."

- William Colby, Ex Director, CIA

Reprinted with permission, copyright 1995

Extraordinary Surveillance & Investigative Aids

Intelligence Incorporated's books and videos have, unfortunately, never won any white-bread "Best Books" awards. The nice Oscar folks have never phoned us to confirm our nomination.

On the other hand, 10,000 intelligence professionals swear by our materials. We've been featured on several, national, "reality-based" TV shows-including "Cops"-as a bad influence, and shown off in a Congressional hearing (" ...And Sir, how did you find these unlisted phone numbers and inside information?" As an answer, the subject simply held up a copy of Book ll.)

We've been banned in several countries, used by top investigative reporters, entire police departments, and virtually every major intelligence agency from the KGB to the CIA.

Welcome to Our World

Slaves & Loop Extenders

One of the most popular telephone taps employed by all levels of the law enforcement community was developed in the last few years. This device is known as a slave unit and consists of a capacitively isolated demand-bridging tap. Physically, the slave unit is a combination of an infinity transmitter and a parallel or bridging wiretap. It is usually housed in a small, modular plastic box but can take on other configurations.

Slaves are installed across two telephone lines that are located (physically) near each other. One line is owned (or borrowed) by the operator, the other is the target's phone line. When the operator dials the number of the first line the slave will silently bridge itself across the target's line allowing the operator to hear and/or record both sides of any conversation taking place.

Slaves are used by law enforcement folks because they can easily order up a new phone line and have it appear in the same vicinity as the target's line BUT slaves can also be used by civilians who have an apartment or office in the same building as the target (because the lines will appear in the same junction box or splice board), by those clever enough to employ spare lines or place an order for a buried phone or off-premise extension close to the line to be monitored or by the folks who, for one reason or another, want to spy on someone who lives or works in the place that hosts the target line.

This latter application requires them to simply order up a new phone line that terminates in the same junction box or even runs down the spare pair of the target line.

If the two lines (the target line and the access line) don't appear in close proximity in a multiple box or in a cable, it is possible to access a spare pair by hooking an audio tone generator up to the unused wires and then follow the tone to see if the new pair appears at a terminal box or multiple box that is near the line that is to used as the access line. Another trick for civilians employing slave devices is to bury a telephone in a friendly apartment or office in the same complex as the target line, thus assuring at least one common point between the two lines respectively.

Up until now it has been damn close to impossible to identify when a slave or bridge is in use. Common wiretap detectors / defeators will not indicate such units. Even a TDR ($10,000+) will not show this type of unit if it is placed some distance from the target phone.

We have located and tested a new countermeasures unit (patented) that does show the presence of these taps, even if they are located as far away as the Central Office.

The COMSEC C3I TM is the first and only telephone line security device which can detect remote extension drawn loops - the most sophisticated, threatening, and common type of electronic surveillance that other security devices can't detect.

The COMSEC C3I TM is the only security device that can detect legal as well as illegal wiretapping anywhere on the local telephone line - including the Telephone Company's Central Exchange.

Detect Computer Hackers and others using the Telephone Company's Central Exchange switching equipment to intercept your private communications. Installs in seconds with standard modular connections. Protects your Telephones, Computer, and Fax telecommunications continuously.

Some of you may have heard of devices called REMOBS which stands for Remote Observation System. These devices allow supposedly authorized telephone employees to dial into them from anywhere, and then using an ordinary touch tone phone, tap into a customer's line in a special receive only mode. [The mouthpiece circuit is deactivated, allowing totally silent observation from any phone in the world (wiretapping without a court order is against the law).

Dial the number of a REMOBS unit. Bell is rumored to put them in the 555 information exchanges or on special access trunks (Unreachable except via blue box). A tone will then be heard for approximately 2 seconds and then silence. You must key in (in DTMF) a 2 to 5 digit access code while holding each digit down at least 1 second. If the code is not entered within 5 or 6 seconds, the REMOBS will release and must be dialed again. If the code is accepted supposedly another tone will be heard. A 7 digit subscriber phone number can then be entered (the REMOBS can only handle certain 'exchanges' which are prewired, so usually one machine cannot monitor an entire NPA). The REMOBS will then connect to the subscribers line. The listener will hear the low level idle tone as long as the monitored party is on hook.

As the monitored party dials (rotary or DTMF), the listener would hear (and record) the number being dialed. Then the ENTIRE conversation, datalink, or whatever is taking place can be monitored all without detection. (There is no current box which can detect REMOBS observation, since it is being done with the telephone equipment that makes the connection.)* When the listener is finished monitoring that particular customer, he keys the last digit of the access code to disconnects him from the monitored line and return to the tone so that he can key in another 7 digit phone number. When the listener is totally finished with the REMOBS, he keys a single "disconnect digit", which disconnects him from the REMOBS so that the device can reset and be ready for another caller.

Bell has kept the existence of REMOBS very low key. Only in 1974, Bell acknowledged that REMOBS existed. The device was first made public during hearings on "Telephone Monitoring Practices by Federal Agencies" before a subcommittee on government operations. House of Representatives, Ninety-Third Congress, June 1974.

It has since been stated by Bell that the REMOBS devices are used exclusively for monitoring Bell employees such as operators, information operators, etc., to keep tabs on their performance. (Suuureee, we're stupid).

The possible uses of REMOBS are almost as endless as the uses of the self created phone line. Imagine the ability to monitor bank lines etc, just off the top of my head I can think of these applications:

Data Monitoring of: TRW, National Credit Bureau, AT&T Cosmos, Bank Institutions, CompuServe and other Networks.

Voice Monitoring of: Bank Institutions, Mail Order businesses, Bell Telephone themselves, Any place handling sensitive or important information.

Anyone that you may not like.

With just one REMOBS, someone could get hundreds of credit cards, find out who was on vacation, get CompuServe passwords by the dozens, disconnect peoples phones, do credit checks, find out about anything that they may want to find out about. I'm sure you can see the value of a telephone hobbyist and a telecommunications enthusiast getting his hands on a few choice REMOBS.

Caution if any reader should discover a REMOBS during his (or her) scanning excursions, please keep in mind the very strict federal laws regarding wiretapping and unauthorized use of private Bell property.

Jolly Roger the creator of this page hereby takes no responsibility or liability for anything that happens as a result of reading anything on this page. Users read at their own risk. Thank you.

* NOTE: This article was written before the COMSEC C3I TM products were Patented.