Hollywood's Call Tracing - TechnoSuperFluff

by Jourles 9 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Jourles

  Have you ever wondered where Hollywood gets their magical 15-30 second timeframe to capture a call trace from? For years upon years, this Hollywood rule has been in effect. Go ahead, watch any movie or TV show and you will see the same situation. Picture a room full of techno cops with sophisticated equipment and computers waiting for a call from a criminal. The criminal calls in. They pick up the line and try to stall the perp for 30 seconds making you think that they can only trace where he is as long as they keep him on the phone. In the real world, there is no such timeframe. Did you know that if you call someone using *67(universal caller-id blocking feature in the U.S.) and they do not answer, you can still be traced? Oh yes.

  Thanks to 911 implementation, your personal phone records are stored in easily accessible databases across the nation. Easily accessible to phone techs, not the public. A few tidbits of information shown in these databases are, 1. The name which is shown on your phone bill, and 2. The address where the line is terminated at. When you dial 911, the central office which handles your call sends you to the Public Safety Answering Point or PSAP which covers your area. The PSAP office shows your personally identifying info popping up on their screen when they take your call, info which is pulled from these databases. If it is that easy for a 911 operator to get your information, how easy do you think it is for a federal entity such as the FBI or whoever to get your info? Surely it does not take them 30 seconds to get what a 911 operator can get immediately, does it? Of course not.

  "So if I get my new boyfriend to call my ex and leave an anonymous message on his machine telling him that he is gonna die, he can get busted? Even if he uses *67 and the number does not show up on his caller-id?" YES. It takes a whole two minutes or so to get all of the information needed to come bust down his door and drag him to jail for threatening murder. Here is how it works: You make a call using *67. The call information is passed along to all of the phone offices until it reaches its destination. In the call record, there is a section designated for the Calling Party Number(you) and whether or not its originating digits are to be displayed to the end person(your ex). Even if the calling party is blocking their number, the call record STILL SHOWS their number. Law enforcement guys love this feature. Want to see an example? Ignore most of the Greek wording. This call record is for a cellular call. I will highlight what I am talking about:

  STRUCTURE CODE: 42331 CALL TYPE:Mobile Termination
  REC:2 TO DN: CIDGT: HOF:0
  SID:4647 SIGNALING TYPE: ISUP DCS:3 NIPTG:730 NIPTM:788
  ITECH:CDMA Only ICS: 384 ICCC: 1 ICCU:1 IPAF:ALPHA SCM:160
  LTECH:CDMA Only LCS: 384 LCCC: 1 LCCU:1 LPAF:ALPHA
  RCFI:No Failure Occurred
  VC: D 01-15-2003 T 16:12:49.3 E 00000:22.8
  LAND: D 01-15-2003 T 16:12:51.9 E 00000:20.3
  BNUM: NUMTYPE: 0 DIGCNT: 10 DGTS: 5175551212 (number calling to, changed)RSIND:0 ANSSTAT:Answered MSN:ha0b8a56c
  SRDCS:0 SRTG:0 SRTM:0
  :
  TERM IND:Not Used
  TIMIND:
  SERVICE FEATURE CODE INDICATOR: No Service Feature Indicated
  SERVICE FEATURE: No Features Used
  MRSTAT:
  **Message Recording Service Not Used**
  VOICE PRIVACY USAGE :Voice Privacy Not Used, No Data Encryption
  TECH TYPE: PCS CDMA
  CPC: 10 CPC SIGNALING: ISUP
  APPENDED MODULE CODE:331
  CPN DISPLAY INDICATOR-INCOMING: Restricted (This is the line which determines caller-id blocking)
  CPN DIGITS SENT TO MU FOR DISPLAY-INCOMING: Yes
  CPN INFORMATION CONVEYED TO ANOTHER DCS-INCOMING: No
  CPN DIGITS: 5175551010 (number calling from, changed)
  APPENDED MODULE CODE:623
  TRUNK INFORMATION:
  SIGNALING TYPE: ISUP DCS:3 TG:730 TM:788
  SEIZURE DATE:01-15-2003 SEIZURE TIME:16:12:52.0
  ELAPSED TIME:00000:20.2
  DIRECTION: Incoming TYPE: Termination Leg
  RELEASE CAUSE: Normal Mobile Disconnect

  This information can be retrieved very quickly -- in a matter of seconds, even days after the call was made. All of your phone calls carry a similar call record whether it is cellular or landline based. Once the calling party number(CPN) is found, then a quick query to a 911 database reveals the owner and address of that number. No special time requirements. AS SOON AS YOU COMPLETE YOUR DIALING, the above record is created, whether or not if it is answered by the end party. Cellular tracing is a bit more tricky, but we can still get your location down to within 100-300 feet in an urban area. And it does take a little more time, maybe 4-5 minutes. You had better be using a stolen phone if you plan on making threats to someone. And don't stay in one place, keep driving around. You didn't hear that from me.

  Bottom line is, don't let Hollywood trick you into thinking that you can get away with phone scamming and not get caught if you stay on the phone for less than 15-30 seconds. It's pure BS. I have always thought that they portray that in the movies to make stupid criminals believe they can get away with it. I still want to see a movie which shows how this all really works. It probably would scare the piss out of some people if they realized how simple it was to do.
• 

  Crazy151drinker

  Thats why you call from a payphone or those cash only analog cell phones.

  Just my $2. In no way am i supporting any criminal activiy, but if you do, at least be smart about it.
• 

  Jourles

  Yep, pay phones are good too. Just hightail it away from that phone right away. And don't look at anyone. Disposable cell phones are another way to elude. There are so many ways to hide your tracks - online, phone, etc. that the police would never find you if you were careful and knew what to do.

  Now if I could just figure out that money laundering side....hmmmm
• 

  Francois

  Well, as you say, look at how long it takes for the calling number to come up on your caller I.D.: TWO ringy-dingies. And that's it. And the records of your calls, cell or wire, are available for a loooooooong time. That's how come such records regularly show up in contested divorces. These records not only show who you called, but when, where, how long you talked; they show all that information for incoming calls, too. And, as I said, these records are available, so far as I know, throughout all future eternity. Well, at least until Armageddon.

  So, if you're going to be naughty, don't use a) cell phones, b) land lines, c) credit cards, or d) anything else processed by computer. Whisper in her ear and use cash, that's what I always say...starting right now.

  francois
• 

  Jourles

  :And the records of your calls, cell or wire, are available for a loooooooong time.

  You're right. Most companies are required to keep these records for quite some time. But in the side of the house I work in, I can only pull these records for the past few days. Once those records are purged locally, I would then have to go back and insert our backup tapes to retrieve data. We keep 30 DAT backup tapes in a daily rotation just in case our Automatic Message Accounting(AMA) system gets screwy and decides not to download call records for a particular day. If our corporate office calls and tells us that they did not get call data from two weeks ago Sunday, we ship out a copy of a backup DAT tape from that particular day. Once our DAT tapes go out of rotation, I cannot personally look at this data anymore. It is a nice feature to have when you've got friends that use your network and they need help with hangups, prank calls, etc.

  About a year ago, we had a customer's kid call one of our switch phones and started swearing up a storm and ragging us. The kid was smart to use *67, but we pulled the call data and called back. The mom answered and we played like we were lawyers and that we would sue her if she didn't control her kid. She was telling us that the phone had been with her the whole time and that her kid would never do that. Uh huh, suuuure.

  Edited by - Jourles on 15 January 2003 17:47:33
• 

  Francois

  Star 67 isn't ringing any bells for me (pardon). I'm familiar with *69, which gets me the number of the last incoming call.

  ft
• 

  Jourles

  *67 is a one time shot when you want to call someone and have your number blocked. Unless you subscribe to permanent CNI blocking, this is how you can do it on a call-by-call basis: *67 + number. Works the same with most cell phone companies too.
• 

  xjw_b12

  Jourles. Obviously you work for a Telephone Company. In a C.O.perhaps? That's Central Office, not Circuit Overseer, in non jw jargon for you non telecom types!

  You are so right. That tracing routine just cracks me up everytime I see it. Maybe back in the fifties with the old mechanical exchanges, but not any more.

  Here is a couple of other really stupid telecom scenes I've seen on movies or TV.

  1. Actor wants to call in to a goverment installation, but knows his call will be traced, so he goes to a telephone service pedastal in a residental neighbourhood, takes a telephone repairman's test set, plugs onto one of the thousands of connections inside and calls the "agency".

  They answer, identify him, and quickly the assistant watching the computer screen hollers out "He's at 123 Bayview Drive. The actor then unplugs the test set leads and quickly connects to another circuit, all the while continuing the conversation. The agency assistant then says..." no wait...He's at 1475 Cooper St. The actor does this a few more times, until he is finished the conversation, all the while the address he is supposedly calling from is constantly changing.

  Puleeeese!

  I mean, come on, any one with a telecom background knows the moment you disconnect, the call is terminated, just like umplugging the phone, or hanging up.

  2. This is my favourite. I think it may have been on McGiver. The "agency" is trying to locate the bad guy. They intercept a computer transmission between the bad guys by tapping onto the telephone line used for the modem, again with a telephone repairman's test set Now get this. The Secret Agent guy, while listening to the modem translates out loud what the bad guys are typing on their computers. LOL!

  Any body out there have any other favourites?
• 

  Trauma_Hound

  Awww, this reminds me of the good old, blue boxing days.
• 

  Jourles

  xjw_b12,

  Yep, how could you tell I work for a phone co? It is funny to watch TV or movies when they pretend to know what is going on in the telecommunications world. Dorks. Why is it when they make movies based on, oh, war or medicine, they bring in consultants to verify if they are doing things right? But when it comes to telecommunications, they just go with their imagination? I would love to consult for a movie sometime that features anything in telecommunications. The general public would flip if they only knew how unsecure their conversations are. Sure, your digital cellular call cannot be picked up by a scanner or another cell phone that is put into test mode, but in the back end on the transport side, all conversations can be easily monitored at a dsx jack with a test set. Let's not forget the governments implementation of CALEA. Wiretapping remotely at its finest.

  Butt sets are one of the worlds best innovations. Just put on a hardhat with your local babybell's logo on it and whammo, you can get into just about any phone closet or distribution hut that you want to. Who needs a blue box? Look the part, and well, do what you want to do...