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Wrong Numbers: Call Girls, Hackers, and the Mob in Las Vegas Kindle Edition

3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 91 ratings

Cybercrime meets organized crime in this true crime story about a hacker attempting to control Sin City’s call-girl racket.
 
Was a hacker diverting phone calls meant for Las Vegas escort services? The FBI wanted to know, and so did associates of a New York Mafia family.
 
In one of the most unusual undercover operations ever, the FBI had an agent acting as a manager in a real Las Vegas escort service.
 
Federal agents expected to find prostitution and drugs in the Las Vegas escort industry. What their investigation uncovered was even more serious . . .
 
Praise for Wrong Numbers
 
“An intriguing and well-researched crime story detailing the intersection of big money and quick sex in the city that contains a lot of both.” —Jack Sheehan, author of Skin City
 
“Wiseguys and wannabes are on the hunt for a shadowy hacker who may hold the keys to control of Las Vegas’ multi-million dollar call girl racket, while FBI agents are hunting them. The result is a gripping true-life crime story that reads like a collaboration between Elmore Leonard and William Gibson told with the knowing savvy of two longtime chroniclers of Sin City’s hidden underbelly.” —Kevin Poulsen, author of Kingpin: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground
 
“In ’90s Vegas, call girls worked for “entertainment” services that were little more than phone numbers, dispatchers, and drop safes. When a mystery hacker started diverting customers’ calls to one service’s number, it launched a series of dangerous events that involved the Mob, feds, hackers, service owners, and the phone system itself. This slice of Sin City history is as little-known as it is thrilling, and it’s well-told by investigative journalist Glen Meek and crime writer Dennis Griffin.” —Deke Castleman, author of Whale Hunt in the Desert: Secrets of a Vegas Superhost

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Wrong Numbers is an intriguing and well-researched crime story detailing the intersection of big money and quick sex in the city that contains a lot of both." - Jack Sheehan, author of Skin City

"Wiseguys and wannabes are on the hunt for a shadowy hacker who may hold the keys to control of Las Vegas' multi-million dollar call girl racket, while FBI agents are hunting them. The result is a gripping true-life crime story that reads like a collaboration between Elmore Leonard and Williams Gibson told with the knowing savvy of two longtime chroniclers of Sin City's hidden underbelly." - Kevin Poulsen, author of KINGPIN: How One Hacker Took Over the Billion-Dollar Cybercrime Underground

"In '90s Vegas, call girls worked for "entertainment" services that were little more than phone numbers, dispatchers, and drop safes. When a mystery hacker started diverting customer's calls to one service's number, it launched a series of dangerous events that involved the Mob, feds, hackers, service owners, and the phone system itself. This slice of Sin City history is as little-known as it is thrilling, and it's well-told by investigative journalist Glen Meek and crime writer Dennis Griffin." - Deke Castleman, author of Whale Hunt in the Desert: Secrets of a Vegas Superhost

About the Author

Dennis N. Griffin was born in Rome, New York in 1945. He joined the U. S. Navy in 1962. After being honorably discharged in 1966, he returned to central New York. He is married and has four adult children. Mr. Griffin began his career in investigations and law enforcement in 1975, when Pinkerton, Inc. hired ...him as a private investigator. His duties included insurance fraud, missing persons, financial and background investigations, as well as undercover operations. In 1979 the Madison County, New York Department of Social Services hired him as a Senior Child Support Investigator. He was responsible for locating and conducting financial investigations of persons failing to provide legally mandated child support. In 1981 he joined the Madison County Sheriff's Department, and attained the rank of sergeant. He was a shift supervisor and public information officer. During the same time-period, he moonlighted as a part time patrolman for the Village of Chittenango Police Department. In 1987 Mr. Griffin was hired by the New York State Department of Health as Director of Investigations, Wadsworth Center. The primary mission of his unit was to investigate violations of the Public Health Law relating to clinical and environmental laboratories, and health care fraud. He was responsible for hiring and training investigators, case assignments and general supervision. In addition, he personally handled the more difficult and complex investigations. Many of these cases received both local and national media attention. He retired in 1995. In 1996, Dennis was supposed to be retired, but decided to tell the story of what he learned while investigating the operation of a medical examiner's office. It was an eye-opening experience and he felt compelled to share it with others. Dennis eventually authored a fictionalized account called, The Morgue. However, readers didn't believe anything in the book could actually happen, but they liked the story and his style; rough edges and all. Six more mystery/thriller fictions followed. The author is an active member of the Police Writers Association. He attended Onondaga County Community College, Mohawk Valley Community College and the Central New York Regional Academy for Police Training. He has three other novels published through 1stBooks. The first, The Morgue, was published 1999. Red Gold, followed in 2000. In January 2002, his writing career was at a crossroads. Would he continue the uphill struggle for recognition in a genre with a number of well-established authors? Or was it time to find another hobby? The question was answered at a writers' conference when a lady suggested Dennis try his hand at police-related non-fiction. That was the turning point. He began writing Policing Las Vegas, the history of law enforcement in Las Vegas and Clark County from 1905 thru 2004. Policing was released in April 2005. Writing that book opened his eyes to some interesting things about Las Vegas and the mob that he wanted to explore; leading to his second non-fiction book, The Battle for Las Vegas, the story of the Vegas reign of Chicago mob enforcer Tony Spilotro. In the movie Casino, actor Joe Pesci played a character based on Spilotro. The Battle for Las Vegas was released on July 1, 2006. In writing that book, Dennis relied heavily on resources such as retired FBI agents and police detectives from that era, and through his conversations with career criminal and former Spilotro lieutenant Frank Cullotta. Those conversations led to a third Vegas-based non-fiction, CULLOTTA - The Life of a Chicago Criminal, Las Vegas Mobster, and Government Witness, released nationally in July 2007. Since that time, Dennis has written several books on the true stories of the Las Vegas mob and the era in which they reigned. In 2007 Denny began hosting his own Internet radio show on Blog Talk Radio. You can hear his broadcasts live or listen to archived shows at http: //www.blogtalkradio.com/dennisngriffin.

Glen A. Meek is a former television investigative reporter who, over a three-decade career, was honored with ten Emmy awards. His work has also appeared in Desert Companion magazine and The Las Vegas Sun. Glen lives in Las Vegas and does private investigation work. Wrong Numbers is his first book.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B099JG3PV3
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ WildBlue Press (October 15, 2019)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 15, 2019
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3188 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 238 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.6 3.6 out of 5 stars 91 ratings

About the authors

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Customer reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars
3.6 out of 5
91 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2019
This book is a fascinating read on the mob, call girls and the FBI. The author provides historical background of call girls in Nevada, how the mob worked and the changes in each that led to this situation. The book is an interesting relatively fast read. Not all the answers you want are provided as this is a true story and true crimes are not always solved to the last detail. The author pulls no punches even when discussing his own news reports at the time. This proves the author's honesty to me as a reader. I learned a great deal of information by reading this book.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the mob, prostitution in Nevada, or how an FBI undercover investigation works. This is a little known case outside Vegas but makes me want to keep looking to get that final answer. I chose to give an honest review of this book after receiving a free copy from the publisher.
4 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2019
I found this to be a fascinating aspect to the crime being investigated in Las Vegas, and the outcall/escort industry part of it in particular. I just bought and read this book by Griffin who I’m familiar with, and Meek who is new to me. It certainly made for a really good read as I flew through the information that was dug up and put together by these authors. And I always enjoy reading anything that has mob involvement in it, so this was a win-win for me. Lots of quirky characters that seem to be pulled from a fiction book, but are completely real. I would recommend this for true crime fans, especially those who like Las Vegas and the mob angles.
3 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on October 17, 2019
I have to say when I first began reading this book, I was totally interested, it pulled me in, the information was informative and I'm sure invaluable to those who experienced it and wrote about it. Except perhaps Eddie Munoz, who never did get satisfaction regarding the Sprint/caller hijacking case. However, the information was almost an overload to the reader, at least in my experience. I kept waiting for the story to return to those first chapters that seemed to promise something just out of reach. And, while it did not return me to its initial gritty interest, it did proceed to supply information about Las Vegas, the mob, undercover FBI agents and informants, the trial and its aftermath.

Overall, I think this story is one that should be told and the writers did a good job telling its story, but for those who are looking for a story in the form of a novel, as in true crime beginning to end investigation, this isn't that kind of story. It didn't claim to be that kind of story, on the cover it reads "Call Girls, Hackers and the Mob in Las Vegas" and yes, it is true crime. It's only drawback if you can even call it that is ... there is a lot of information, a lot of individuals with names, nicknames, agents with undercover names and real names; a lot to keep track of. Be prepared to pay attention and if you can read in one sitting, you just might remember all of the players. As far as the interest level, it was mind blowing, there's no way anyone could have known what was going on there, except those few involved & those in the know. One that took the truth to his grave.
I was provided this book for an honest review from Wildblue Press.
9 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2021
The book ended much too soon because it was filled with sections of other books tacked on at the end. That's a deceptive practice. Also, the authors repeatedly mentioned the photos of the participants that would be included in the book, but there weren't any.
There were some interesting parts about the Mafia in Las Vegas, however. I'm glad I didn't pay for this one.
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2022
Very interesting to read how an FBI case comes together and how it develops. Lots of low life criminals and dangerous situations. Differing opinions of what the real truths really are.
Reviewed in the United States on October 2, 2020
I just finished the Kindle version of this book. One of the criteria I use when purchasing a non-fiction book is page length. I've found that the longer the book the more detailed it is. Unfortunately this was not the case with WRONG NUMBERS. Over half of the Kindle content were advertisements for other books. Worse, there was no reference section section or index. Instead there was a link one could follow. This seemed the lazy way to do things. Maybe some of the ads could have been taken out and the proper references included. The book itself was poorly written and repetitious with the same information being given over and over again. The main theme of calls to "Out Call centers" being diverted was not fully explored and the teaser of an FBI agent managing one of the Out Call centers was merely that, a teaser. Overall, the book was nothing more than a big tease, promising much, delivering little.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2019
Different type of crime. I'm shocked that they never found out who was behind this crime, with so many different characters involved. I enjoyed reading this book. The author did a great job covering it in detail.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2020
I like the Mob Museum that is located in Las Vegas and I have visited it a couple of time-I also follow the Mob Museum on Facebooks and Instagram. They had an article about this book and one of the authors. It is about a clever computer crime.

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