Phone Losers of America

The Phone Losers of America (PLA) was an American prank group founded in the 1990s, active on the hacking scene. In the past, it has ranked at the top of Alexa's "Prank Call" category. It now, however, only hosts a regular podcast called The Snow Plow Show that does prank calls, and occasional phone mobs.

History

The Phone Losers of America were founded in 1994. The PLA text files continued until mid-1997, when founder Brad Carter put an end to them. Though the text files ended, the PLA never slowed down. Their website continued to flourish, PLA TV was born, and several prank call CDs were released. The PLA community continued to grow on IRC and on the various PLA Forums. In 2002, RBCP began an internet radio station which he called PLA Radio which still exists today as Cactiradio, along with an IRC channel.

The e-zine

The PLA e-zine was originally distributed electronically via a dial-up BBS, with an option to buy the magazine and have it shipped by mail. The editor of the e-zine was Brad Carter. Most of the material in the e-zine was written by Brad, especially in the early issues where he was the only person contributing. Eventually, he began accepting submissions from readers and the e-zine grew into a multi-article format, much like Phrack and other e-zines of that era.

Each issue of the e-zine usually centered around a single topic, such as BBS hacking, using a red box, revenge tactics, call forwarding hacking, etc.

PLA Radio

In early 2006, RBCP started releasing almost-monthly audio comedy shows called PLA Radio. The shows features comedy skits, commercials, parodies and lots of pranks. The show is released as a podcast and has been featured several times on iTunes and is regularly listed in the Top 10 on Podcast Alley.

PLA TV

Since canceling the PLA zine, RBCP has been regularly releasing short videos, usually revolving around various pranks that he and friends have pulled. Most of the earlier episodes feature RBCP and EvilCal, which includes the legendary Adventures of Elephant and Bird. RBCP still releases videos today, the most recent episodes revolving around modifying a toaster to broadcast on drive-thru frequencies and getting back at the religious people who constantly show up at his door. You can watch most of the PLA TV episodes on YouTube, which are linked from the PLA TV website.

PLA Voice Bridge

The PLA hosts a voice bridge. This bridge was previously hosted on the same extension but the provider changed phone numbers. There are daily conferences from 8pm to 12am EST. The voice bridge is very active during this time, with many people talking and background noise such as soundboards (which many users frown on). The bridge is also a popular place for Telephone Relay Service operators to gather.

A very small number of international enthusiasts have expressed support for an alternative meeting time to allow them to join the fun. (Currently the 8pm to 12am EST schedule occurs in the middle of the night for Europe, the Middle East, and Asia). There has been no official or unofficial secondary meeting time chosen as of March 2007. Most international participants make do with listening in for a short time very late at night or very early in the morning.

Occasionally, a user will create a "secret 800 number" which, when called, forwards to the voice bridge. This is usually accomplished by some method of theft of the toll-free 800 service, and is never officially sanctioned by PLA.^[1]

Brad Carter of the Phone Losers currently maintains a telephone network interface for the PLA. This number presents several options, including attempting to hack some answering machines that Brad has, calling the PLA conference line, calling PLA member TheN's home phone, or playing a choose-your-own-adventure story over the phone line.

PLA Community Forums

The Phone Losers web site has always had some kind of forums on their website. In 1997 they used WebForums which were continually attacked by backers of the rival Boulder News Forums. In 1998 and 1999, RBCP used his own forum software in Perl, called FruitWare. These were closed in February 1999 due to abuse.

The site remained without forums for the next couple of years, but communicated with each other on the PLA Email List. In 2002, EvilCal took over by creating Cal's Forums which lasted until he shut them down in April 2006, setting up Cal's Content Kingdom in its place.

Today, the PLA community forums are administrated by RBCP, and were established on 03-21-2006. There are currently over 1,600 registered users, with over 50,000 posts on topics mostly related to the PLA. PLA Forums

Additionally, there is a dedicated PLA Subreddit with active users PLA Subreddit

PLA: The Books

In 2010, the Phone Losers of America book was released. PLA Book The book contains many of the best stories that were found in the original PLA e-zine, such as the Fred Meyer remote intercom pranks, the story of Dino's cordless phone, and the call forwarding experiments. Also included are more recent PLA events, such as RBCP's eBay feedback pranks and the changing of a McDonald's sign. Everything was re-written for the book and some stories are brand new, but based on content originally found in the PLA e-zine.

In 2011, a second Phone Losers of America book was released, called Phone Losers of America: The Complete 'Zine Collection. PLA: The Complete 'Zine Collection This book was simply an archive of all of the original issues of the PLA e-zine, in a mostly unedited format. This book was released "at cost" as a paperback book and for free as an e-book.

Tenth Anniversary

The PLA celebrated their 10th anniversary in 2004. While some of the textfiles show dates as early as 1991, RBCP claims the PLA as its current incarnation didn't fully exist until 1994. Several members of Cal's Forums put their heads together to find a way to celebrate the anniversary in a unique way. Rob Vincent aka Rob T Firefly, Judas Iscariot, Big-E, Liife, I-BaLL, and Murd0c headed up a panel at The Fifth H.O.P.E. conference.

The PLA giving their panel at the 2004 Hackers on Planet Earth convention.

The panel occurred July 9, 2004, at 11pm and was seen by over 800 people in the audience and countless more via streaming media from 2600. Widely regarded as a success, the group played prank videos, held impromptu question and answer sessions, played recordings of prank calls, and nearly caused a riot when giving away free PLA Media CDs. All of the attention caused mentions in USA Today, Wired and The New York Post.

There were also problems when RBCP suggested that Cal (the webmaster of the PLA forums) was planning a hostile takeover of the PLA. Many agreed with this RBCP theory, and many expressed their support when he led a crusade against Cal. But some said RBCP had gone "off his rocker", and was making unfounded threats. The Phone Losers were divided until April 2006, when it was announced that they would lay their differences aside and concentrate instead on pranking people and trying to find "the original spark that united the PLA". (PLA Website Update, 2004)

A second PLA panel was scheduled for July 19, 2008 at 11pm at The Last H.O.P.E.. The presentation included a full multimedia work up of the new pranks the PLA has pulled in the four years since the previous panel, question and answers and live pranks at the hotel. Returning speakers included Murd0c, Rob T. Firefly, I-BaLL and Sidepocket.

Cactus

A "Cactus" has become the PLA's mascot, as well as catch-phrase. The origin of the word dates back to an old prank call by RBCP, where he would say nothing but the word "cactus," over and over. In common usage, It can be stated with a question mark "Cactus?" or as an exclamation "Cactus!" Similar "Cactus" themed prank calls are often made by PLA members. Themed prank calls were often made under the pseudonym, Mildred Monday, a reference to a woman Brad often prank called. (PLA issue #35, 1995)

Press

The PLA has regularly received a fair amount of attention from the media, beginning with a front page article in the Sunday issue of the Belleville News Democrat on September 3, 1995. (PLA Issue #35, 1995) An editorial was written several days later, followed by another front page article on the PLA a week later. (PLA Issue #38, 1995)

The website and zine received regular writeups in computer magazines such as The Net, The Web and Internet Underground throughout the 1990s. (PLA's press page, 2008) PLA received national attention in 2002, through a segment on Tech TV (YouTube, 2008) and then once again in 2005 when RBCP was interviewed live via satellite on CNBC's On The Money. (YouTube, 2008) PLA was also interviewed in 2005 for an article about Wal-Mart in the Boston Herald. (PLA's press page, 2008)

In August 2015, the Columbia Daily Tribune in Columbia, Missouri featured the PLA in an article about a series of "strange calls" received by local residents who had signed a petition against a crosswalk construction project.^[2] The article quoted an FBI representative who allegedly told the Tribune that the calls to Columbia residents "would likely be prosecuted on the local level."^[2] However, no prosecution of the calls ever occurred.

References

External links

• Official Phone Losers of America Web Site