The key to cracking “the system” was to be at a remote payphone location. And actually connect in as a collect caller amazingly enough! An AT&T, MCI, or Sprint, any of them, long-distance credit card service passcode was all you needed. Enter in the 16-digit account number and verify with the three numbered code on the back. All that listed generically on a line itemized “the bill,” part of usually a monthly 40 to 50,000 pages of computer paper printed sent to the customer corporation later and tossed on the loading dock, and would only show that you had accessed the remote long distance collect number. No record was kept as to who you called, or duration, or the time of day. The big long-distance carriers at the time felt it wasn’t needed to keep track who customers had called collect. “S
