All Your Braille Are Belong To Us

January 30, 2004 6:11 AM

Three Blind Phreaks, See How They Scam ... The Badirs pulled off Mamet-worthy phone cons, employing cell phones, Braille-display computers, ace code-writing skills, and an uncanny ability to impersonate anyone from corporate suits to sex-starved females. On the phone, the brothers morph into verbal 007s, intimidating men, seducing women, and wheedling classified information from steely-voiced security personnel [...] An intense cat-and-mouse game developed: the Badirs on one side, with fraud investigator David Osmo and prosecutor Doron Porat on the other [...] his car's GPS system and email were repeatedly hacked. "There was a message waiting for him with his password in it," says Ramy, sounding quite pleased. "After that, he changed his password every hour before giving up on email altogether and using a typewriter."
posted by Blue Stone (7 comments total)

I read this strange but true tale in print last week and had trouble believing it. Yet another real-life chase scene where the good guys are the bad guys, or the bad guys are the good guys. (Or vice versa.)
posted by LeLiLo at 6:32 AM on January 30, 2004

And nowhere did the brothers mention being inspired by Sneakers.
posted by fidelity at 6:59 AM on January 30, 2004

They got off quite easy considering the range and scope of their offenses.
posted by a3matrix at 8:18 AM on January 30, 2004

Sneakers, phreakers, it all brought back lots of fond memories from a simpler time not so long ago.
posted by Fupped Duck at 8:51 AM on January 30, 2004

Great link! I really enjoyed that article. Wonder if they've sold the rights yet...
posted by widdershins at 10:43 AM on January 30, 2004

I particularly liked the quote about the chief prosecutor being so rattled that: "When Doron Porat stood next to me," adds Ramy, "he took the battery out of his cell phone."

'ph33r my l337 h4xx0r 5k1llz' or what?!
posted by Blue Stone at 12:03 PM on January 30, 2004

What a great story...thanks :)
posted by dejah420 at 7:51 PM on January 30, 2004