"...it’s not that hard to take remote control of a wireless phone."

[helderheid]

(edited for copyright purposes-please limit your
snips of articles to 4 paragraphs-proud patriot)

This made me :scared:

A horror movie come to life

Three Fircrest families receive death threats via cell phone. Even when the phones are off. Even when they get new phones.

SEAN ROBINSON; The News Tribune
Published: June 20th, 2007 01:00 AM

Maybe it’s just a long-running prank, but the reign of terror endured by three Fircrest families buries the needle on the creepy meter.

For four months, the Kuykendalls, the Prices and the McKays say, they’ve been harassed and threatened by mysterious cell phone stalkers who track their every move and occasionally lurk by their homes late at night, screaming and banging on walls.

Police can’t seem to stop them. The late-night visitors vanish before officers arrive. The families say investigators have a hard time believing the stalkers can control cell phones without touching them and suspect an elaborate hoax. Complaints to their phone companies do no good – the families say they’ve been told what the stalkers are doing is impossible.

The stalkers know what the family is eating, when adults leave the house, when they go to baseball games. They know the color of shirt Courtney Kuykendall, 16, is wearing. When Heather Kuykendall recently installed a new lock on the door of the house, she got a voice mail. During an interview with The News Tribune on Tuesday, she played the recording.

The stalkers taunted her, telling her they knew the code. In another message, they threatened shootings at the schools Kuykendall’s children attend.

“I’m warning you,” one guttural message says. “Don’t send them to school. If you do, say goodbye.”

MORE >>>
:scared:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/91460.html

[helderheid]

1. You don't think your government is doing this? Think again!

[jasmeel]

2. Creepy! It doesn't say if the callers want anything. Maybe they just

want to scare these people?

[Warpy]

3. Funny how they don't think to dump the cell phones

for a year or two. People survived without them before and they can survive without them now.

They are easy to hack and there are sites out there to tell you just how to do it.

As for operating when they are off, that's really not probable. When there is no circuit, vibration from the microphone doesn't get translated into current.

Shoot, if somebody did this stuff to me, that phone would be sitting on the DA's desk within 24 hours.

[helderheid]

4. the whole thing is creepy beyond belief!

[Warpy]

7. Sometimes it pays to be a neo Luddite

:evilgrin:

[hootinholler]

5. It wouldn't be that hard to hook the power off to just make the unit appear to be off.

All controls are in software.

-Hoot

[Warpy]

6. I thougth of that as I hit "enter."

Removing the batteries might help, although if they have some sort of CMOS arrangement to keep the clock set during battery changes, that wouldn't help much.

Dumping the damned things would be the best solution. Let the little hacker punk pick on somebody else or develop a new hobby.

[Jim Warren]

8. Recently visiting in Las Vegas

a close friend who is in the middle of a pretty big financial deal mentioned to me he noticed the players who were investing discreetly and routinely removed the batteries from their cells.

For me, prepaid is the way to go.

[Warpy]

14. It figures gamblers would know it first.

[Javaman]

12. ...

"The Prices and Kuykendalls returned all their corrupted phones to their wireless company and replaced them with new ones. The threatening messages kept coming.

Fircrest Police Chief John Cheesman is familiar with the case and knows the families. His department is working the case with the Tacoma Police Department and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office, he said. The agencies filed a search warrant for the phone records, but they didn’t reveal much. Many of the calls and text messages trace back to Courtney’s phone, which the family believes has been electronically hijacked."

[Fleshdancer]

9. the amount of time and energy used to harrass this family is sick

I can understand why they haven't thrown away the cell phones. Even when your phones are used for the harrassment, it would be difficult to throw away your ability to call 911 when you know you're being stalked.

[Ezlivin]

10. That's the REAL reason they're releasing the iPhone

Well, that's what they're telling us...

:)

[proud2BlibKansan]

11. I don't get it

What's the reason for the threats?

[Carni]

13. Your cell can also be used as a RECORDING device

OK-- this is pretty *out there* sounding but about three years ago I had my pay as you go cell phone number stolen (not the phone just the number and I ended up with a number in another state)

Why anyone would want to steal my pay as you go cell phone number is a complete mystery and I have never been able to figure out what they gained from the experience, or why it was done--with that said, it was inconvenient as hell and I was pissed off because T-mobile wouldn't do anything about it.

Getting to the point...

I started googling at that time trying to figure out why the number had been stolen--I never did find anything referencing THAT but I did run across several sites that talked about cell phone stalkings and additionally there were many claims on those sites, that your cell could be turned into a recording device by stalkers or hackers or whatever you want to call them-- yeah, really, even when the phone isn't on!

I didn't believe it at the time I read it and thought it was conspiracy bullshit--in light of these recent news reports, maybe there's something to it!

Very creepy indeed! :(

[dkofos]

16. Indeed. The FBI uses cell phones for surveillance

The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations:
remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

The technique is called a "roving bug," and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials
for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance
techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.

ttp://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6140191.html

[loudsue]

19. That may be how the NSA is spying on members of congress

It would certainly give Karl Rove/Bush/Cheney some juicy info on blackmailing their jittery congresscritters and "loyal bushies".

:kick:

[dkofos]

21. I wouldn't put it past this bunch!!

[datasuspect]

15. sounds like the shit they talk about on whackjob "microwave harassment" survivor websites

http://fraktali.849pm.com/consp_mind.html

i remember stumbling onto some weird sites in the mid 90s where people claimed to have been surreptiously harassed by government agencies.

things like they'd come home from work and stuff would be moved around.

people who lived in apartment buildings would hear all kinds of activity like people moving in at 3 am.

complete strangers saying horrifying things and telling them personal details about their life in places like restaurants and train stations.

teevees and radios coming on and off by themselves or broadcasting messages intended for the harassment target.

weird.

don't know though, you can usually find grains of truth in the tin foil stuff, but this press story sounds very similar to the electronic harassment survivor stories.

[Carni]

17. I just read something about those groups in the WA Post

Probably like 5 months ago--there was a long article about this group of people that make claims like what you are talking about above, very weird...

I was not too sold on it being valid (like not at all) but I honestly believed that the people making the claims THINK all that stuff is happening to them.

[datasuspect]

18. i'm on the fence personally

it doesn't defy credibility given the long history of subterfuge perpetrated by intelligence agencies in this country.

[helderheid]

20. Strange!

[datasuspect]

22. did you read some of the links?

pretty much way out there . . .

[Canuckistanian]

23. I'm puzzled by this

Engineers who design cell phones have one big design goal to meet - battery life.

Seems to me that a cell phone that can turn itself on (from a low power shut-down mode) uses up FAR more energy than one that is drawing ZERO current while "OFF". What would be the benefit of defeating the on/off button if it meant shorter battery life and compromised security?

And, as for the rationalization that "any technically gifted kid could do this", I doubt that too.

Sure, they may have the *knowledge* of how to do it, but certainly not the *equipment* needed to accomplish the task.

Cell phones are extremely complex devices, with security locks that are not trivial to defeat without the hardware and specialized proprietary software.

No, this was an inside job, done by someone within a cell phone company.