Man Charged With Phone Scheme

It was a report of a suspected drug deal in the 7-11 parking lot that 
brought Haverford police to the scene. What they found instead - two 
men pouring over a chapter in The Whole Spy Catalog called, "How to 
Locate and Tap Any Telephone" - was a lot more interesting. From that 
discovery last week, police and federal authorities have developed an
investigation into high-tech fraud.  One of the two men, Edward 
Elliott Cummings, 33, has been arrested and charged with two counts 
each of unlawful use of a computer and possession of devices for theft 
of telecommunications. In the Villanova room where Cummings had been 
staying, police said, they found evidence of a "large-scale operation" 
in which Cummings allegedly had been "cloning" cellular phone numbers 
and converting speed dialers into "red boxes" that can make free calls 
from pay phones. When the police encountered Cummings at the 7-11 on 
Eagle Road, he was preparing to sell one of those speed dialers and 
the crystals that are used to convert them, police alleged. The second 
man, who was not arrested, had traveled from Florida to buy the 
device, according to a police affidavit. Two days later, after 
speaking with a Secret Service agent about the legality of the 
devices, Haverford police arrested Cummings. They said they found him 
repairing a personal computer in a home on the 100 block of North 
Concord Road in Marple Township.  When they searched him, police said, 
they found a modified speed dialer in his wallet, which led to the 
second set of charges. The secret service is still working with 
Haverford officers on the investigation, but Cummings has not been 
charged on the federal level, agent-in-charge Ernie Kun said 
yesterday.  Cummings is being held in Delaware County Prison on 
$100,000 bail. While searching the room where Cummings stayed in a 
home on Panorama Road in Villanova Thursday, police said they seized 
several hundred speed dialers, computer software, cellular phones, and 
thousands of computer chips and crystals.  They also found books 
describing computer crimes and hacking, as well as literature related 
to bomb-making, said Haverford Police Sgt. John Walsh. Cummings 
apparently moved to Villanova after a falling-out with a landlord in 
Broomall. The former landlord, Charles Rappa of Broomall, said he 
found eight to 10 sticks of dynamite in the house after Cummings moved 
out in October.  He also found various "how-to" books. "I got a whole 
pile of them that he left here [such as] How to Kill Somebody With 
Poison, How to Get Around the Credit Card System,"  Rappa, who is a 
Realtor in Glenolden, said yesterday. "'Two Christmases ago, he was 
boasting that he could tap into TWA and get a free ticket.  I said, 
'What do you mean?'  So he went up to his computer and he was able to 
access TWA." With that, Cummings was off to pick up his ticket to 
Morocco from Philadelphia International Airport - and Rappa did not 
see him for the next two weeks, he said. "For a man who didn't work, 
he lived pretty good," Rappa said.  "When he came to live here five 
years ago, he worked for a computer company, and they let him go.  He 
said he was going to just freelance.  He was going to buy himself a 
computer." Rappa said Cummings often locked himself in his room for 
long periods.