(mobile-ip) Cellular Phone Fraud Operator Arrested

[[e-mail]]

>From: Paul Robinson <[e-mail]>
Organization: Tansin A. Darcos & Company, Silver Spring, MD USA
-----
{Washington (DC) Times} 19 Oct 1994 Front Page
High-Tech sleuthing busts cellular phone fraud ring
By Doug Abrahms, The Washington Times

   A Jesse James of the cellular telephone industry was nabbed this week 
in California in the latest episode of the high-tech war between cops and 
robbers being fought with electronics.
   Secret Service officials in San Jose arrested Clinton Watson and two 
other persons on Monday, charging them with a scheme in which they built 
counterfeit cellular phones and sent the bills to unsuspecting owners.
   In a raid on Mr. Watson's house, authorities seized 30 bogus phones, 
16 altered memory chips and about 600 mobile phone identification numbers 
used to fool the phone companies' billing systems, according to the 
indictment filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose.
   The phone bandits employed integrated circuits, scanners that pick up 
cellular information and sophisticated software to build counterfeit 
phones that never received bills.  These "lifetime" phones sold for 
$1,200 to $1,500 apiece and have been discovered all over the continent, 
said Ron Nessen, vice president of the Cellular Telecommunications 
Industry Association (CTIA).
   Police and cellular companies have fought back with vans and 
helicopters with customized electronics to track illegal cellular 
signals.  They also are testing a voiceprinting system that will match 
people's unique voice prints with their calling numbers.
   "This is the high tech crime of the 1990s," Mr. Nessen said, who 
estimates that phone fraud costs the nation about $1 million a day.  
"Every solution we come up with in our labs get attacked by the hackers."
   In many cases, cellular pirates stand outside parking lots, tunnels, 
and airports with scanning equipment that picks up the ID numbers of 
cellular users, Mr. Nessen said.  Those ID numbers then can be programmed 
into other phone handsets for calls that get charged to the original 
customers, he said.
   Mr. watson went one step further and installed up to a dozen ID 
numbers into one handset so the user wouldn't alert authorities that a 
barrage of calls was emanating from one phone number, said Michael 
Houghton, the CTIA's research director.  Mr. Watson's phones would allow 
users to program in new numbers periodically so the phones could be used 
indefinitely, he said.
   "If he spreads them around, he can make a phone that doesn't create a 
calling pattern," he said.  "This type of cloning is the next generation."
   The CTIA estimates Mr. Watson was responsible for hundreds of 
thousands of dollars in cellular fraud.  He fases a $50,000 fine and 15 
years in jail for each of the three counts against him, Mr. Nessen said.  
Mr. Watson was a computer programmer who created his own software and had 
ties to the criminal underground, he said.
   The cellular industry has been fighting phone bandits such as Mr.
Watson, especially after last month's report that New York Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani and Police Commissioner William Bratton each had their cellular 
phone numbers stolen six times this year.
   Nynex Mobile Communications in New York assigns personal 
identification numbers that must be entered before each call, said Kim 
Ancin, a spokeswoman.  Other cellular companies analyze calling patterns 
and investigate major changes in users' phone behavior.
   TRW Wireless Communications of Santa Clara developed a system that 
records and stores a customer's voice print, which is as unique as a 
fingerprint, said Lynn Fisher, a TRW spokeswoman.  On every call, the 
company's computer checks the ID number and caller's voice print against 
the customer's file and cuts off any call when they don't match, she said.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
IETF Mobile IP Working Group Mailing List - Archives:  playground.sun.com
Unsubscribe:	unsubscribe mobile-ip		(as message body, not subject)
Direct all administrative requests to [e-mail]