FBI Investigates Cell Phone Purchase ($60,000 worth of prepaid cell phones)

NBC.com - Dallas/Fort Worth ^ | October 31, 2005 | NBC5

[LurkedLongEnough]

DALLAS -- A Target store employee alerted Dallas police to a recent extraordinary cellular telephone equipment purchase. A man bought $60,000 worth of hard-to-trace prepaid cell phones.

The size of the purchase raised suspicions among police investigators, who turned over the case to the FBI.

"Those notifications are taken seriously," former FBI agent Danny Defenbaugh said. "Anytime a business or private citizen sees that type of activity, they need to go the extra step and notify law enforcement."

The large purchase caused investigators to look toward possible homeland security threats. On two occasions during October, a man of Middle Eastern descent bought $30,000 worth of prepaid cell phones. Security experts told NBC 5 that the FBI would work to identify the man and determine why he would buy the hard-to-trace phones.

Officials with the FBI and Target declined to comment on the case other than to say they were pleased that the clerk reported the purchase.

[Sender]

Cell phones are different however. 'Gray marketing' 1000 phones is not only illegal but it puts 1000 more addresses on the network somewhere, not a small thing.

A single Target store cannot possibly obtain 1000 cell phones. In a year.

[Husker24]

Im surprised that Target has $60,000 worth of Cell Phones in stock.

[Sir Gawain]

I've been saying for a while on these terror threads - these need to be made illegal. drug dealers use them, the terror possibility, no traceability, etc.

Why stop there? Drug dealers and terrorists use the internet too! Oh no! Let's just ban everything.

[Joe 6-pack]

"I was sent to the nearby supermarket to buy some strawberries on sale. I was buying something like a dozen baskets..."

"Ah, but the strawberries! That's, that's where I had them."

[oceanview]

when you use the internet, you have an IP address.

[cynwoody]

IMHO it's better to keep a minimum contract. That way you have 450 minutes for 10 bucks more than zero minutes with a prepaid phone.

Prepaid came in handy for me last summer on a visit to the UK. Much cheaper than roaming on my regular US account. £25 for a SIM card and good to go. Recharged once, on my AX. Service was excellent (I used Orange).

[Revolting cat!]

Note the store name: 'Target'. Hint, hint! (Get it?)

(If you don't get it, send me FReepmail, I'll patiently 'splain.)

[cynwoody]

when you use the internet, you have an IP address.

Quite so. Possibly yours, if you have an unsecured WiFi access point.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

A single Target store cannot possibly obtain 1000 cell phones. In a year.

I do not work at a Target, so I cannot accurately dispute this. However, I do know a little about wireless networks. Autoregistering 1000 phones on a network would take all of milliseconds. Take the average US airport. Do you have any idea how many tens of thousands of wireless devices register on networks every day?

[oceanview]

yes, I know. these pre-paid cellphones are totally untraceable - especially in a "use once and discard" manner.

[Sender]

Sure, thousands of phones and laptops log on to networks all the time, but activating 1000 new phones is something the cell phone companies would rather keep track of and do legitimately.

And law enforcement, for better or worse, would like to know who is activating them, in case there is a problem like the London bombings, when they traced a subject to an address in Italy by his phone.

I have no doubt that if the gub'mint is interested in a person, they can listen in (even when they're not using the phone), track them and download all the pictures and address books in the phone. And probably a lot more we don't know about.

If I ever have to disappear, I will throw my cell phone in the lake and the battery in another lake before I leave.

[cynwoody]

You may recall McVeigh and Nichols used prepaid calling cards. These are purchased for cash at convenience stores. Nevertheless, by linking together calls made on the same card(s), the FBI was able to put together a surprisingly good history of their communications.

Someone pointed out they should have used a new card for each call, being careful not to get prints or DNA on it, and to discard it in a public place, where it would be found and used to make completely unrelated calls.

[Revolting cat!]

It's gonna turn out, I betcha, that the buyer was an anonymous philantropist, Bill Gates, George Soros, or Tay-resa K, even, who's sending the entire purchase to starving children in Mozambique!

[demkicker]

But why this is in the media is beyond me.

No kidding.... It seems that the MSM media has literally become our enemy.

One would think that the FBI & Homeland Security would partner to make sure that all retail stores selling this type of equipment needs to educate their employees to be especially alert for multiple purchases like this.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

but activating 1000 new phones is something the cell phone companies would rather keep track of and do legitimately.

Pre-paid phones are not exactly "new" to the network. It has already been commissioned, and in some cases activated. Other cases you scratch off the concealer, and punch in the code. You pays your money and it is ready to go. Overseas you stick in the SIM, enter the PIN and PUK, and go. It is all about automating the process so that you DO NOT have to go through some government beaurocrat. Law enforcement (in the US anyway) has this little thing about requiring a warrant to monitor your phone. LID, in Euprope, is different. I propose that if you want total law enforcement access for all of your telecommunications, the EU is for you. Me, I take my rights a lot more seriously.

[pbear8]

I have a pre-paid phone. I rarely use it, I chat at home, but I do want it for emergencies. It costs me $80.00 per year.

[ErnBatavia]

Thanks. I should keep up on this stuff a bit more; wifey and I are on a "bare bones" Verizon monthly for 30 bucks which covers both phones, but only gives us 25 minutes each,and just parts of Southern California at that.

[publana]

The majority of cellular repair and resale centers are owned my Muslims. Many of these are in the DFW area. If they need cellphones, they already have them.

[Minutemen]

C'mon,you aren't gonna pay Radio Shacks' inflated retail price to re-sell on ebay!

[operation clinton cleanup]

A Target store employee alerted Dallas police to a recent extraordinary cellular telephone equipment purchase. A man bought $60,000 worth of hard-to-trace prepaid cell phones.

Were they on sale? Maybe it was a WalMart supplier.