Four operators in action
A Person-to-Person call was a way to make a long distance phone call without being charged for the call if someone else answered then the person you wanted to call. But if the person did answer then you would be charged extra. The way it worked was the you told the operator what phone number you wanted to call and the person you wanted to talk to. The operator would ask for that name when someone answered, if that person was not home she would hang up and you wouldn't be charged. Some people found a way to us this system for their advantage, one of the very first ways of phreaking. Let's say that the husband was traveling on a business trip and wanted to let his wife know that he had arrived safely, all he had to do was call his wife with a "person-to-person" call and ask for a name that he and his wife had prechosen. She would tell the operator that this person is not home, knowing that her husband had arrived safely, and the husband was not charged.