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Yes, I wrote a very expensive bug. In my defense I was only seven years old at the time
(www.theregister.com)
this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2025
223 points (98.7% liked)
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Based on the description, my guess is that the script solved the problem of having the line interrupted by only doing a single 56k transaction per phone call.
Lots of times, phone calls were billed $$$ for the first minute and $ for every minute after that. If her script only did one transaction per call and not even using the full minute, that could add up fast.
And, given that it took a month for the bill to come, she could have been doing something wrong even during the day. Nobody would have noticed until the bill, and the 1am calls stood out the most when the bill finally came. Maybe there was a local exchange that didn't require long distance?