[WANTED] How to Build A Red Box VHS
I was looking though old issues of Blacklisted! 411 and found an advertisement in a 1995 issue for a 60 minute VHS tape about how to build a red box using a Radio Shack pocket tone dialer. For those who don’t know, red boxes were popular in the ’90s and used by phreakers, scammers, and those who just wanted free payphone calls. By modifying pocket dialers (or even just recording sounds that coins made as they were dropped into a phone), anyone could make a red box which would mimic the tones produced when coins were inserted into a payphone. This means that anywhere you take your red box, you can play back the tones and get free phone calls.
Anyway, this video was made and sold in 1995 by East America Company in Englewood, New Jersey. It retailed for $39 (Plus $5 shipping) and I would love a copy. See the image below for a review of the tape and the original advertisement.