I don’t know if I necessarily want to spill out all the details, but very early on for me AOL access came about when I discovered a way to “spoof” payments (not using A-O-Hell) via a checking account and routing number that AOL didn’t bother validating.

That lasted for about a year, until one day my family got a visit from the local police and some government spooks who wanted to know “how did you get these account details?”

Dad was furious. Wouldn’t let me around a computer until high school came along.