Clark and Dagger

January 12, 2006 11:14 AM

For only $89.95 it seems anyone can buy the phone records of a retired four-star general and Presidential candidate. Who needs the NSA when you have the internets?
posted by thirdparty (21 comments total)

Previously, also.
posted by Gator at 11:17 AM on January 12, 2006

An effective tactic would be to buy the phone records for the entire house and to send them each a letter with a copy of the numbers.
posted by geoff. at 11:27 AM on January 12, 2006

"Hi, this is Wes Clark, leave a message [unintelligible]."

What is the unintelligible word in Wes Clark's voicemail? Ragamuffins, Blackguards, Scurrilous dogs? I need to know.
posted by eatitlive at 11:36 AM on January 12, 2006

Odd that it's only cell phone records... what about land lines? Maybe because these comapnies are gathering this info over the air on cellular frequencies? Is that possible?
posted by StarForce5 at 11:39 AM on January 12, 2006

What is the unintelligible word in Wes Clark's voicemail?

"Watermelon, watermelon." Or possibly, "Murmur murmur."
posted by Gator at 11:44 AM on January 12, 2006

What is the unintelligible word in Wes Clark's voicemail?

motherfucker, as in "leave a message, motherfucker."

DUH!
posted by mrgrimm at 12:01 PM on January 12, 2006

I heard it as "melon farmer."
posted by Eideteker at 12:07 PM on January 12, 2006

it really is unbelievable, and that the phone companies are still denying selling and/or giving the info away.
posted by amberglow at 12:11 PM on January 12, 2006

and i wonder if Clark was spied on by the NSA? He called foreign countries and ran as a Democrat.
posted by amberglow at 12:11 PM on January 12, 2006

The police do not need a court order to listen to cell phone calls. It is public airwaves. I have listened to calls unbenownst to parties chatting on cell phones. Easy.

The comment before mine : that agency referred to grabs every electronic message going out or coming into the country. They do, though, sort out for what they are looking for. The problem now raised is that electronic stuff not leaving the country and made within the country is also being monitored and this was not to be. But when allowed it was with FISA approval. That approval seems now no longer necessary.
posted by Postroad at 12:22 PM on January 12, 2006

I can't find the link but the general idea is that they're calling the Telco and allowing them to believe that they are the owner of the cellular account. Supposedly, its not illegal but may be made so in the future.
posted by jeffmik at 12:25 PM on January 12, 2006

Anyone have Karl Rove's cell phone number?
posted by revgeorge at 12:30 PM on January 12, 2006

Those websites are atrocious. Looking up the domains is a deadend...they're registered with Network Solutions. What would the mechanism be to look up cell phone records?
posted by rzklkng at 12:30 PM on January 12, 2006

The police do not need a court order to listen to cell phone calls. It is public airwaves. I have listened to calls unbenownst to parties chatting on cell phones. Easy.

No, it's not public airwaves. It's illegal to sell a scanner that listens to cellphone frequencies.

Also, modern cell phones use digitally encoded information. In the case of CDMA, spread spectrum radio is used, and in the case of TDMA multiple calls are multiplexed in time, so you'd need to extract the call information manually. In the case of GSM (which can be based on TDMA or CDMA), the signals are physically encrypted with 56 bit DES, which while somewhat easy to break, definitely can't be done in real time. You'd need like a couple days to decrypt a few seconds of audio.
posted by delmoi at 12:50 PM on January 12, 2006

probably pretty easy for anyone to log right into your own internet user page, most of the cell companies offer them. most cell systems have you set a 4-digit pin for voicemail. most users undoubtedly use the same number for thier login on the internet site (not to mention their bank/atm card). usually month/year of birthday or something very close.
posted by quonsar at 1:22 PM on January 12, 2006

what about land lines?

You can also buy details of somebody's long distance calls from a landline, but I've not seen local call records for sale.
posted by PeterMcDermott at 2:04 PM on January 12, 2006

Its also been theorized that these records are being sold by employees looking to make a quick buck.
posted by WetherMan at 4:44 PM on January 12, 2006

CBS Evening News on the subject. They go with the "impersonate the person" theory, though I am dubious of their contention that SSN's are so easy to find, given only a name and a cell number.
posted by smackfu at 4:50 PM on January 12, 2006

most cell systems have you set a 4-digit pin for voicemail

Most answering machines have 4-digit pins to access messages from remote, too.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:09 PM on January 12, 2006

This seems like a potential boon, as a way to do some low-level corporate espionage. Heard a rumor about an interesting merger? Buy the cell-phone records of some highly placed employees, and see what's up.
posted by I Love Tacos at 7:59 PM on January 12, 2006

Please don't mistake my M&A research tactic for approval of this behavior. It's absurd that this stuff is for sale.
posted by I Love Tacos at 8:01 PM on January 12, 2006