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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

A horror movie come to life

From The News Tribune -

Three Fircrest, WA families are being terrorized by mysterious mobile phone stalkers who track their every move and occasionally lurk by their homes late at night, screaming and banging on walls.

What makes it frightening is that the police seem unable to help them. In fact, the families say investigators have a hard time believing the stalkers can control their phones without touching them and suspect an elaborate hoax. Complaints to their phone companies do no good, too – the families say they’ve been told what the stalkers are doing is impossible.

It doesn’t feel impossible to the families, who’ve saved and recorded scores of threatening voice mails, uttered in throaty, juvenile rasps stolen from bad horror films. Despite having caller ID on both land lines and mobile phones, "Restricted" always appears on the screen.

The stalkers seem to know every move the families make. They know what they are eating, when the leave the house, even when they go to baseball gams. They know the color of their clothes, they know when the lock on the door was changed. They even threatened shootings at the schools the children attend.

Somehow, they have gained control of the families' mobile phones. Messages received include snatches of conversation overheard on mobile phone mikes, replayed and transmitted via voice mail. Phone records show many of the messages coming from their own phone, even when it is turned off. The stalkers even knew when they visited the police and sent a voice-mail message that included a portion of their conversation with a detective.

The families have blocked the cameras on their phones with tape. They have taken out the batteries to stop the calls. They have returned all their corrupted phones to their telcos and replaced them with new ones. Yet the stalking continues.

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. 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 one of the families' mobile phone, which is believed to have been electronically hijacked.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, mobile phone technology allows remote monitoring of calls. Known as a “roving bug,” it works whether a phone is on or off. FBI agents tracking organized crime have used it to monitor meetings among mobsters. In addition, GPS, available on many phones, also make it possible to pinpoint a phone’s location within a few feet.

According to a Massachusetts-based counterintelligence agent who has advised the U.S. Congress on security issues, it’s not that difficult to take remote control of a mobile phone. “You do not have to have a strong technical background for someone to do this. They probably have a technically gifted kid who probably is in their neighborhood.”