demon dialer

n. A program which repeatedly calls the same telephone number. Demon dialing
may be benign (as when a number of communications programs contend for
legitimate access to a BBS line) or malign (that is, used as a prank or
denial-of-service attack). This term dates from the blue box days of the
1970s and early 1980s and is now semi-obsolescent among phreaker s; see war
dialer for its contemporary progeny.

