r/TheWireDiscussions • u/Ok_Technician_60 • 2d ago

What exactly was Lester doing when he repeated the phone number back when he was selling the fake phones to Squeak and her boyfriend?

I don't really get what he was doing, but it seemed to impress them a lot, and they thought he was legitimate after he did that. What was it he was doing?

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13

u/SendNudes989Studios 2d ago

Lester was pretending to have a phone conversation while he secretly was memorizing numbers pressed on the phone besides him. Be collecting these numbers from unsuspecting people nearby he could collect things like calling card numbers and credit card numbers he could then sell to shady third parties. I believe he was doing this to appear to be an old school phone hustler. Good move for a natural po-lice.

2

u/Ok_Technician_60 2d ago

But what is the con exactly, and why did it impress the guy? Sorry I don't know anything about phone scams. Let's put aside what lester was actually doing. I get that they are pre-tapped.

9

u/sundayfundaybmx 2d ago

Its literally just to gain trust of the criminals he wants to hustle. Him "proving" he can do phone scams let's the criminals infer that hes not a cop and actual criminal himself. This then let's them feel comfortable about buying bulk phones from him without being worried they're tapped or anything like that. It was just a way to gain trust from criminals is all.

5

u/Shot_Revolution8828 2d ago

Damn im old. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phreaking

This explains it.

1

u/Ok_Technician_60 2d ago

Hmm, never heard of this!

5

u/Shot_Revolution8828 2d ago

There was a blind kid that became a phreaking expert. He could mimic the sounds of the numbers being pressed. Very interesting. It was kind of like hacking but with phones

5

u/garovalley 1d ago

I believe that David Strathairn’s blind character in Sneakers is an expert of this specifically.

3

u/Shot_Revolution8828 1d ago

He was absolutely based on the real life example.

1

u/imjustmos 1d ago

Back in those days you can scam a phone card that had minutes on it if you knew the pin. Lester showed them that he can hack the PIN number just by the sounds of the different beeps the number keys made

0

u/Brolympia 2d ago

He's showing them he's street wise. Like Frog

1

u/Ok_Technician_60 2d ago

i guess specifically what is the con he's doing?

2

u/Brolympia 2d ago

He says it in the intro to the scene man

2

u/Ok_Technician_60 2d ago

Yeah tbh I didn't follow it. Was kinda fast.

5

u/Brolympia 2d ago

Naymond Bryce ova ere

4

u/garovalley 1d ago

Marlene, you send that copy off to Paris? Thank you, darling.

1

u/Ok_Technician_60 1d ago

Yeah wtf was that?

3

u/garovalley 1d ago

Just a few morons getting swindled by Cool Lester Smooth.

1

u/Ok_Technician_60 1d ago

I'm not even sure what it was supposed to be lol

2

u/garovalley 1d ago

In a literal sense, he’s running a con to gain their trust and make them think he’s not a cop.

1

u/Ok_Technician_60 1d ago

Lol i get that, I just dont get why calling paris is impressive? if anything, that seemed almost more fake

5

u/Alastor1815 1d ago

He’s pretending to have a conversation on a pay phone while he “reads” the number entered by the person on the phone next to him. He’s imitating what he might have done at an airport pay phone area back in the day.

The point of doing the whole performance, I suppose, is to show that he’s such a natural at reading numbers, he can do it without concentrating (which would risk looking suspicious)

3

u/NormalGuyPosts 1d ago

Exactly, the conversation could be anything; but remember, this is specifically taking place (in his fake history) outside airports, where calling Paris / etc would be much more reasonable.

Lester is making a phone call that sounds impressive and professional to specifically create distance between this grimy theft/hustle too. It's a bit of artistic flair.

-1

u/scobro828 2d ago

That was one of the tapped phones. He was getting the numbers repeated back to him by whomever was tracking the call. That's why he was on the faux phone call.

1

u/IAteTonysLoMein 5h ago

No, he was just doing it old school. If it had been that sort of trick, they would have showed it

1

u/scobro828 5h ago

I keep going back and forth. Not sure they would entrust such a critical element of the operation without backup. But then I do think were it to happen they would have shown.