Guilty Plea: Phone Phreaks Use Caller-ID Spoofing to Get Foes Raided By SWAT

By Kevin Poulsen EmailNovember 15, 2007 | 5:00:23 PM

An Ohio man has pleaded guilty to a federal conspiracy charge for being part of a gang of "swatters" -- one of them blind -- who used Caller ID spoofing to phone the police with fake hostage crises, sending armed cops bursting into the homes of innocent people.

Stuart Rosoff of Cleveland, Ohio (right, in a 2004 mugshot) pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy last Friday in federal court in the Northern District of Texas.



The case seems to confirm that swatters are using simple Caller ID spoofing to pull these unfunny hoaxes -- and not "hacking into 911" after all. But the court documents indicate that Rosoff was part of a remarkably sophisticated gang of old-school phone phreaks with serious access to at least one phone company's computers, which they used to get information on their targets.

The alleged brain behind of much of the phone hacking was a minor in Boston, identified in three separate guilty pleas from group members as "M.W." M.W. comes across as a master of social engineering, who had enough access to phone company systems to listen in on calls. He is also blind.

More:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/11/guilty-plea-pho.html



See also:

Couple swarmed by SWAT team after 911 'hack'
Teenager 'pranks' family two states away, with near-disastrous results

October 17, 2007 (IDG News Service) -- A Washington state teenager is facing 18 years in prison on charges that he used his PC to access the Orange County, Calif., 911 emergency response system and convinced the sheriff's department into storming an area couple's home with a heavily armed SWAT team.

Randall Ellis, 19, of Mukilteo, Wash., is not only facing charges of unauthorized computer access, but he's also facing assault charges by proxy, meaning that authorities want Ellis to be convicted as if he, and not the SWAT team, pointed weapons at the victims.

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"They surrounded the home; inside were a husband and wife and their two toddlers," said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the Orange County district attorney's office. "The husband heard rustling outside of his home and believed it to be a prowler. He took a knife and went into the backyard. Instead of finding a prowler, he found a SWAT team pointing assault rifles at him.

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The technique that Ellis used "doesn't require any special skills," said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. "The way he did it -- I am not computer-savvy, but I can do it."

More:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9043098