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

A True Crime

By: Glen Meek, Dennis N. Griffin

Narrated by: Jeffrey A. Hering

Length: 5 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

"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)

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.

"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)

©2019 Glen Meek (P)2019 WildBlue Press

True crime from "Sun City"

If you enjoy true crime stories, “Wrong Numbers” is packed with intriguing mob tales. The book opens with the history of prostitution in “Sin City.” As outlined by the authors, the number of brothel controllers dwindled as organized crime entered the fray. The focus of this work is on the calling diversion scheme that devastated many competing escort services.


The authors examine an unprecedented undercover operation, using a federal agent as a manager of an escort service. The escort business, was in many cases, a front for illegal activities such as money laundering and sales of narcotics. It appeared a hacker was tapping into the Las Vegas hotel’s switchboards to divert callers.


A group of criminals broke into a Sprint location and stole sensitive equipment. Several businesses would file suit again the phone company for not protecting their phone lines, and causing many to go out of business. The authors reveal the conspirators, and divulge the sentences each received.

Disappointing

A somewhat compelling story told very poorly with even worse narration. I got through about 75% of it.

Fascinating story!

I found this story to be fascinating. It explored and documented the mob activity where it intersected the sex industry in Las Vegas, how the federal authorities intervened and the subsequent fallout of it all.
The book is written in a journalistic style.
I found it interesting to learn how the mob sought to corner this market, how they tried to find the hacker/s to assist them, and the impact it had on local businesses.
If you want to learn about the mob in Las Vegas, 'adult entertainers', and their hidden attempts to make money then this is the book to get.

Wasted Time

Disorganised, rambling, and repetitive- this account of a calling scam crime is frustrating to listen to. It took 26 minutes for the author to get around to even beginning to tell a story. There was a lot of confusion in the sequence of events, the similar sounding names of the in and out characters, and the tedious details that made me laugh that this “book” got a publisher. It just was not interesting in the least. Poorly written.