Stalker remotely controls family cellphones, even when they're off
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted June 25th 2007 7:52AM
posted June 25th 2007 7:52AM
To use a TV news cliche, it's like a horror movie come true: three families from Fircrest in Washington State are being harassed by a unknown individual, who somehow has the power to turn cellphones on, send messages, and change ringtones. Over the last few months, the families have had calls that threaten death and violence against them, calls that tell the people what they're doing at that time, and calls that originate from the cellphones of other members of the family. In one case, the stalker changed the ringtone of a phone to say "answer your phone." According to one James M. Atkinson, an apparent expert in these matters who used to provide the CIA with advice in counterintelligence, the technical profficiency to pull off this level of stalking isn't that high: if the FBI can do it, why not some anti-social kid, right?
All your phone are belong to us!
it is all true but how is it done
@ jamar. Look I'm just stating facts bud. Srry I'm still a little groggy. I apologize for my sarcasm not being up to your standards. That's why I'm not writing for engadget, but this article has so many holes in it, and I simply wanted to clarify what and what was not probable and possible. Yes the goverment can listen in on calls. thats very ez to do. yes govt can use ur phone as a bug, but not without being easily identified by the user as doing so. At least if they are using a gsm phone. Yes they can get your location, your call records, your voicemails, your texts, your web history. Youy may remember At&t was being scrutinized by the public early last year for the wiretapping probe with bush. Yes the govt still does that on wired and wireless lines and with internet. But it is irrational to think even for a minute that the govt is actively tracking you or listening to u while your phone appears idle or off. They have the capability but it is almost completely for emergency uses only. Active gps tracking would also require contionous cell network usage once again causing interference with local radio equipment. Ussualy if the govt is intrested in you, they will moniter cell phone conversations, and get your location once abt every 40 min whent they get a cell phone - tower handshake.
Ummm... I'm not a US resident (I was, though). I see your point, though- being paranoid doesn't help anyone.
Seriously man, Ambien is bad for you.
shit just get a new phone and number, you already have all your contacts on the sim card.
did you even read the article dumbass?
They're on Sprint- not as easy as switching out cards. They definitely need to switch providers (and get really basic no-frills phones so there's nothing to hack, just in case).
I don't have to read all of the article, the only reason this person is doing all this is for kicks, watching the reaction of the victims, why give him the satisfaction and power.
It’s all about cutting off their power
you still will have the old phone and sim card, not to use it in the new phone, just to transfer over contacts to the new phone, it’s going to be a hassle to enter all the contacts, but at least you have them.
Treat it like a stolen credit card. cut off the old and one get a new one and make your service provider take care of the mess.
Sprint *doesn't* use SIM cards. These people have started fresh some 5-odd times (all on Sprint, though), and it never worked. I know who to avoid now- not even SERO will tempt me when I return to America; it's going to be T-Mo, AT&T or I'm roaming from my current Chinese carrier. Not worth even the slightest chance of this happening to me.
So, the issue is that this 'stalker' is using up their minutes / text message limit?
Seriously, the phone company should so be able to jump in and help but obviously they won't until they get pressure from law enforcement or the media.
I'm going to go with the media on this once it's picked up by more outlets. Or bloggers.
Hold up a second...
I'm SURE one of the crappy Australian current affair shows (today tonight / ACA etc.) reported this EXACT same story but with a Melbourne family... Not that this surprises me considering the state of Australia's Current affairs shows, but it was interesting seeing engadget pick this up AFTER they did... All we need now is for The Chaser to do a story on it for some comedic gold :)
Something almost exactly like this (only using landlines, not cell phones as it was 10 years ago) happened in 1997.
http://www.phonelosers.org/issue/046/#sommy
My bet is it's a friend/family member screwing around.
these type of stories are almost always too bizarre to be believed. haven't they considered talking to Sprint (I guess that's their provider based on other comments), and having Sprint review the raw CDRs to see where they are coming from, and then having the manufacturer review the phone to see what has been installed. i'm sure their developers are curious about hacking, because it hurts their reputations.
i have worked on CALEA applications (the fed wiretapping app) and wiretapping is not complicated, it's just a conference call. however, there is no way to muck around with the settings on someone's phone within our applications. that's done at the switch, and monitoring of such activity would be really difficult, and lack of accountabilty makes it problematic for Sarbanes Oxley compliance issues.
so honestly, i have to believe that some of this is being faked.
on an interesting side note. I served in an ECW Intell unit with a James Atkinson who specialized in this TYPE of stuff. That would make him an expert.....however the person I am speaking of also went to jail for, stalking and shooting up a car plant!!! Maybe the so called expert is in fact involved? I don't know just an interesting coincidence I guess.
What are you saying? That James Atkinson is going to shoot up a car plant while calling these people?
Wow... this brings back some memories. I remember a guy back in college (10+ years ago) who could hack a phone to essentially get root access to the 'tower'. The 'tower' being whatever server the call is first processed from. It was fascinating to watch the guy. He could look at all the traffic, listen in, change stuff on the tower or any phone that was connected. He could do this with impunity with any phone that was out at the time. He never got caught for that but then he was careful not to do anything too obvious. You would think all the years later that security would be a lot better. Maybe it is or maybe some punk kid figured that out too get past that and now is connected to a tower.
those of you who doubt all of this should go read the SMS specification.
"Short messages can also be used to send binary content such as ringtones or logos, as well as Over-the-air programming (OTA) or configuration data. " -wikipedia
anyhow, anyone who has ever looked into that has been amazed at the sheer exploit potential and how (in general) the industry has just assumed that they can secure their networks by making such access illegal.
As for turning on a phone, hell, just make it have a wake-up time.
I've a solution for these people. Just do what I did.
I wrapped up my cell phone in tin foil. After smashing it into small pieces. Very, very small pieces.
Yeah, gotta love how none of these poor innocent victims (who are probably doing this to themselves for attention) even thought to just toss the phone in the trash and not get a new one.
Last time I checked, a cellphone isn't required, it's an option......
If it's really soooo scary, just ditch the cell.
Maybe I'm overlooking something here, but instead of getting new phones, why don't they... CANCEL THEIR SUBSCRIPTIONS
Solution!
1) Get a new phone that doesn't have any of the extras.
2) Disable WiFi, Bluetooth, and any other form of wireless communication on the current phones.
This happens when you have morons using technology that they don't understand. I'm not excusing the stalker because that/those guy(s) should be caught and kicked the shit out of. But, if someone starts messing around with my cell like this story says then I would just go get a non techie cell. Problem solved.
@Matt E.
You find a way to remote turn on my cell phone, put your contact info into it, and call yourself with it, and i will ask you where you want me to ship it, because it's yours.
Personally, i won't need it in the underground bunker if all thats as easy to find, as you claim.
umm take the battery out and go to the cell phones service and ask for a new phone/ new number........ easy and pie
oh i see there dumb blondes
This is hilarious. I love it
I would start looking at people who work at their local cell phone stores.
Probably one of those fast talking hip hop style kids that always seem to work the cingular booths. PRobably an ex boyfriend or just a perv. Gotta work at the cell phone store to have access to all those things.
Find this bastdard and put them in jail. It is wrong.
Ahh, good point. And if the same person was working EVERY time they picked up a new cell they could program everything right away. I say this may very well be the case.
Actually, it just has to be someone who works at ANY store and can look up their name on the computer.
Thats why I am sherlock homez and you are just dee-tarded.
Its probably a sidekick. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA
I smell a movie deal out of this story.
If I was the phone I'd get turned on around Courtney too.
This thread has lowered the collective Engadget IQ by a good 30 points.
JFC!
To this day, cell phones do everything except make coffee.
With phones, the service provider can do anything. They can perform firmware updates overnight, and access the customer's music library/store (ringtones). As switching to Verizon, Alltel, T-Mobile, or AT&T/Cingular could result in the predator making threats and mailing (yes regular mail that bills come in through)(or just putting threats in there themselves with a blank envelope) could worsen the situation. If I were them, I would have a phone specialist come over and monitor phone statistics (which tower, what satellite, bluetooth connectivity) with high-tech devices (if the predator can do it, it's possible).
has nobody thought that the signal used on mobile phone to the towers has something to do with it you have two mobiles in one one to talk in microphone and one to listen to the caller one reciever one sender in one mobile phone the mobile company can send settings to your phone and updates eg weather lottery results etc i am sure a ring tone could be sent and a message what people dont realize is when you connect to the internet you are downloading a lot of information on your phone with very fast speeds and with the new 3g this is a lot faster i would be interested on there network and if they did web browsing or some one entered a competition in last few months or gave there number out over the phone in public and somebody went from there if its blue jacking or snarfing its gone to another level but all seems probable i mean we have vista but its cracked before its released we have heard of music and dvds pirated before release etc so why not personally i think its nearer at home eg ex boyfriend relations prank gone wrong or maybe a younger member of family 9 to 15 years old having a laugh has any family member have mental problems more than one personality etc or perhaps the ultimate answer most likely is cloned phones that is possible and been done etc or a program that runs on a certain date and pinches a number out of your phone and sends messages etc i would take the date back to when it first started to cover that option and as to cloning put my phone in a lead lined container and phone my number to see if it answers if so its cloned