The Official "How I stuck it to the Corporate System" Topic

[Assertn]

Hrm......apparently I got neg repped too......
Although I didn't actually condone stealing in this thread, just taking advantage of legitimate loopholes in the system.

[samsonlonghair]

At the risk of a negative rep myself, I'll tell this little tale. I didn't actually steal anything, but I definitely stuck it to the man.

I know, it's a long post, but trust me. It's a good read.

About two or three years ago I worked for Echostar (the parent corporation to Dish Network). I worked in a call center in a piece of shit town called Bluewell. It was a short drive from where I live. Echostar is the only big employer in that dead town, so they figure that they can treat their employees anyway they want. This was a miserable place to work.

My job was to talk to current customers who had already called us and sign them up with HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, etcetera. After about three weeks working there they change my job description. They now wanted everyone to call new people and get them to sign up. I never agreed to be a telemarketer, but now I was stuck. I couldn't just quit; I have bills to pay afterall.

My employer wronged me; this could not stand.

Within the call center everyone has a cheap Dell computer (Windows 2000) connected to a phone line with an auto-dialer. All these computers are controlled by a big central computer in the back to which I had no access. My goal was to take down this system, but it wasn't as easy as it at first seemed. All those cheap dells had no floppy drives, no CD/DVD drives, no Internet connection, and no USB port. This made it virtually impossible to bring in any outside programs or scripts. Furthermore, the compuers were all set up to prevent anyone from clicking on the start button or "My Computer". This meant I couldn't browse any files within any of these Dells. They were write-protected anyway (remember I couldn't use a boot disk).

It was clear that my attack would have to target the central computer, but security cameras kept me (and anyone but engineers) out of any of the back rooms. From my shitty Dell I only had four programs available to me: Calc (standard windows calculator), Another program that was basically an encyclopedia for Dish Network customers, A third program for accounts and billing, and a fourth program for the auto-dialer.

My options were limited. Only the last two programs had any connection to the central computer. The account/billing program was too closely watched because it dealt with money. I concentrated on the auto-dialer program and spent three weeks trying to find a flaw to which I had access. Ironically, I was rewarded for this. payroll records indicated that I was the only employee who was always on time to work and never missed a day. When they gave me a pay bonus and took me out to lunch I neglected to mention that I was only working so hard so I could find an exploit in their system.

After weeks of trial-and-error I finally found the flaw I was searching for. When I was done talking to a potential customer, I would hit "reschedule" and then not enter a reshedule time. Instead, I'd hit "hang up" meaning that the customer hung up on me. Then I'd hit "reshedule" again before hitting "next call". This confused my Dell; the screen blipped and a few minutes later the program restarted itself.

This had little effect on my crappy Dell and even less on the central computer. I decided to find out what would happen if I multiplied the process. After the next caller I hit "reschedule", "hang up", "reschedule", and "next call" five times between the computer blipping and the program restarting. It took longer to restart this time. After the next call I hit the button sequence twelve times and my computer shot down. I restarted the computer and got back to work. Next time I hit that button sequence twnety-seven times and I found limited sucess. The central computer started experiencing problems and every fucking crapy Dell in that place shut down. The engineers went scrambling for the backroom, and everyone got an hour and a half off work with pay. Once the system was back online I sat down at another computer and repeated the process. No one had to work for the rest of the day, but we all got paid.

The engineers had no idea what happened, so they told the managers some mumbo-jumbo about "network feedback" and "system protocal errors". The managers are all coke-addicted idiots, so they believed the engineers.

The next day at work I did the same thing, and we got another day of standing around with pay. After three days of this, the managers called Charlie Ergen. He's the crazy, ultra-religious, spin-doctor, human propaganda macine who runs Dish Network. He told the managers to put everyone back on upsale (back to signing callers up with HBO or whatever extra stuff they ask for).

Next week they tried to switch back to telemarketing, and I had shut down the system in about two minutes. We went back to upsale and stayed there. Here's the fun part. Dish Network heads spent a lot of money on computer security to prevent exactly what I did. They refused to open an investigation of sabotage, because if they did, they would be admitting that they misspent all that security money. In the corporate world, the main rule is to never admit that you've made a mistake. It was better to let whoever's behind this (me) go free. That's corporate logic for you.

I've since found a much cooler job and quit that lousy place. To this day, they still don't do telemarketing.

[rockmanj]

wow...way to stick it to the man...i guess dillegence pays off.

[Kraco]

When they gave me a pay bonus and took me out to lunch I neglected to mention that I was only working so hard so I could find an exploit in their system.

This was the best part of the whole story! Just like from a movie or a novel. I'm just glad that among your coworkers there weren't any hero wannabes who would have sold you out, after finding out your evil deeds by accident.

[samsonlonghair]

wow...way to stick it to the man...i guess dillegence pays off.

Thanks. It's all really based on two very simple principles I believe in: 1. No company has the right to abuse its employees or its customers. 2. No system is perfect. There's a flaw somewhere to be found.

This was the best part of the whole story! Just like from a movie or a novel. I'm just glad that among your coworkers there weren't any hero wannabes who would have sold you out, after finding out your evil deeds by accident.

I managed to not get caught by not bragging. Most people shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to this. The easiest way to get caught after pulling off a scam is to tell other people you did it. The company wouldn't pursue me, so I just had to avoid handing myself over to them. Untill I posted this here I had only ever told one person about what I did.

Thanks for enjoying my story. Don't ever let a company own you.

[IFHTT]

Hah, just read it Samsonlonghair... I have dish network. I can't believe they called charlie himself hahaha. I just hope they don't catch on to the stop in occurance of the problem from the time you left, but if they are as stupid as you make them out to be, I doubt they would catch on. Nice dude. That's pure sabotage for the best interest of the employee. Great job!!!

[XanBcoo]

That was great Samsonlonghair. It's interesting to think that a network like that can be so affected by an error in one program. They seemed like they deserved it, though.