Privacy - here's one for you: "High Tech Mystery Theatre..."

Guy at work asked me about this tonight, and
there wasn't much I could personally tell him...
His girlfriend uses her cell phone, & then later
someone calls her and repeats parts of her discussions
she'd had earlier on her cell phone. The guy I work
with wondered if this could somehow be done using a PC and I assume he asked that, perhaps because his girlfriend has a PC at home, or maybe he wondered if a PC hacker bad guy type could use a PC & somehow "capture" the lady's conversation.

Well, so... without using a PC:

a) one can have a mike that can record from some distance away, I think (or at least in the movies, it looks cool).
b) if someone knows enough about phone line equip., I guess you could pretty well do what you want in that
department, so to speak.
c) someone actually bugged the lady's place
d) someone close enough by, can actually hear her cell
phone conversations and then calls her to repeat them
back to her
e) IF she has a PC, and perhaps with webcam setup, I think I read that the cam and or mike can be used against you by crafty type/s.
f) I think there's cameras/mikes, advertised as being for "security" that one can watch over the web - like a camera at your business or home, when you're away and so forth. I am sure that IF those units are small enough, or really well concealed and depending on how it is hooked up, it could be used against one.
   
I'd read in a 'puter mag about people in same apt. bldg. using varied wireless devices, and picking up info from others - having to do with wireless signals or however that works.
I had also read that, for instance, in order to "break into" cell phone transmissions and steal data it takes fairly sophisticated equip. that most folks
don't have lying about.
   Soooooooooo - what do I tell this guy at work? Does his girlfriend have to worry about a possible in home PC "run amok" like a FOX reality show, or... what would you say may be involved here?
I'm guessing it has nothing to do with PCs, but
if someone is calling her back, repeating her cell phone
conversations... that is creepy/slimy, at the very least.

Thanks, for your thoughts on this. SG1 (Pat)

 

The easiest thing to do might be to type "Cell-phone snooping" (without the quotes, of course) into your Google search field. Lots of stuff there. Pete

*Good article about cell-phone vulnerabilites here: http://www.simson.net/ref/security_cellphones.htm and probably more than you wanted to know about everything here: http://info.aanekoski.fi/~mpe/suojaus/intercept.html

 

I even knew someone in high school who happened to have a cordless phone that was the same frequency (by coincidence) as the neighbors and he could easily listen to them when they were using theirs; but they could also hear him if he said anything. Iknow that's cordless and not cell; but strange stuff like that can happen.

 

Regarding LWM's mention of radio scanners....

There are some older scanner radio models that can monitor cell-phone frequencies.
At some point in time this became a problem and laws were passed banning the scanning of cell phone frequencies in the U.S.
Scanners manufactured after a certain date will not scan cell phone frequencies because of a "block" in the scanners themselves.
But the older models are still around(although somewhat rare) if an individual looks for them and is willing to invade someone's privacy.
It's possible someone living nearby has that type of scanner and recognised the voice?

 

LWM.

I agree.
I think it depends on the individual too.
How much advanced knowledge they have.
What they do with that ability.

Sure makes a guy think!

I'd be a little "freaked out" if I got a call like the one in the first post!

 

So freedom of speech is different from freedom to listen
Dolf