Gold box...fun! The gold box is an electronic device that links two phone lines together. When the first line is called, it picks up the line, and gives you the dial tone for the second line, which you dial another number from. when the call is traced, it's traced to the second line your goldbox was on.
Tools: A Decent amount of brain cells Solering Iron Silver Rosin Core Electronics Grade Solder Parts List: 2 Transistors (2N3904) 4 Alligator Clips 3 Feet of bell wire 2 HIGH INTENSITY LEDs 2 Photo Cells 2 10K Ohm Resistors 3 1.4K Ohm Resistors
You really need to find a telco box that has many lines in it, in order to use this. Try to make sure that the "first" line, is not a main line that is used for any incoming calls. What you're looking for is a telephone line that only carries outgoing phone calls, like the line used for credit card verification. Chances are, you will want to make sure your goldbox fits inside the telco box nicely. With a goldbox, you can call from home, and not have to be worried about a trace. The only drawback is that most gold-boxes I've seen will stay off-hook for a set amount of time, like 45 minutes. So if your call lasts 45 minutes it will hang up on you, but if your call lasts less than that, it will stay off-hook till the 45 minutes are up, and you can't use it till it hangs up again.
Hooking up a goldbox is a lot like hooking up a beigebox, except that you have to wire two lines up, instead of one. This works best for business phone lines, because most small residential boxes only have 1 line, and even if they have 2 lines, calling one of them might wake someone up, because even though the goldbox picks up the line very quickly, the phone still rings for a short amount of time. Businesses, there will be less likely that the ringing is heard, and if it is, it will probably be by a janitor, who will dismiss it easily. (I did mention that you only gold-box at NIGHT when people are home and asleep didn't I???)
This is a better model I found on the internet though. This one's cool because it hangs up shortly after you hang up (Actually when the line voltage drops on line 1...Have you ever gotten hung up on, then waited for 30 seconds, and heard that static noise drop out, hear some clicks, and then hear the fast busy signal? The dead part is what resets the goldbox)
Here's the SCHEM for this beast!
I usually put this whole chunk of equipment into one of the small or medium radio shack project cases. You'll want to make sure that your LED's are REALLY bright, and you may want to use some tape to make them touch the photo- cell. Drill 2 holes in the case, one in either side, and when assembling your goldbox, run both of the Line1 wires out one hole, and label that hole "Line1" and the line2 wires through the other hole, labeling it "Line2". You can not get the greens or reds confused here. I usually use green and red wire when creating my goldbox, so that i won't get confused, I'd advise that you did the same! Once you have the wires poking out of the holes (make sure there's at least 5 inches of wire on each so you have something to work with), put some electrical tape over the inside of the holes. If any light gets into this box, the victim's fone lines will go batty. The only light in this box that we are wanting is the light being produced by the LEDs! Solder the 'gators onto each wire, and off you go!
This is kinda how a finished GoldBox shall look:
This design will not hang up after a given amount of time. Instead it hangs up when YOU hang up. That's good news for you. You may want to build 3 or 4 of these little guys if ya got the cash to do so. Chances are once ma bell is onto ya (that is traces it to the boxed number), you may never see this thing again. Also, if they DO see this box, they might see what phone numbers have called the other line it was hooked up to at or around the time the traced calls were made. that would point to you. that's not good. Goldboxes can be used in conjunction with payphones and an acoustic coupler. This is a safer method, because ma bell probably won't physically search the site where the gold box is for maybe 2 weeks, then they'll see what phones were calling that number at that time and date, and it's a payphone. could be ANYONE!
Seriousely, and sadly enough, I must say that you should count each gold box you install as money spent to achieve a hacking directive. It's not wise to go back to the site and retrieve it, unless you have a lot of balls. I know of at least one person who went back to get the box, only to find out that pacific bell employees had found it when activating another line for the victim establishment, and called in the authorities, who were roughing it in van across the street. Luckily, only the trespassing charges held up in court but not everyone may be that lucky. Retrieving a goldbox should take as much (if not more) planning and effort as it took to plant it. Keep an eye on the area for a few days, in broad daylight, and at night. Take note of vehicle positions, people, everything, especially everything you can see from near the boxes location.
How do you know what number to call to activate your gold box? Well, that's where the phone and beigecord come in. Hook up the biegecord to the phone line you are using for line1. This is the line you will be calling from your modem or phone. When you get a dialtone through your handset, dial an ANI. (All the ANI's I have are now deactivated...growl! Keep an eye on 2600 magazine, in the letters section, there's almost always some ANI numbers in there). The ANI will spout off a 10 digit number (area code and 7 digit phone number. Use your pencil and note pad now...WRITE DOWN THAT NUMBER! Go call it from another phone somewhere. You should get a dial tone VERY quickly, usually it doesn't even get through a full ring for me. Dial a local number just to see if it works, a BBS, see if you get a carrier tone, or if your best friend would be awake at this hour, call and brag...erk... no. don't brag. Bragging is the bane of hacking, to a degree.
Text Modified from HiR4-4.TXT
Back to: Links & Files Page