A cellular phone containing a scanner, into which new numbers can be programmed using the phone keypad, was just one of the sophisticated cloning devices acquired by the U.S. Secret Service in a recent New York City arrest.
“This looks like a cellular phone, but it traps nearby numbers and stores them,” said William Whiteside, U.S. Secret Service spokesman.
Bernhard Bowitz of Hong Kong and Las Vegas, his estranged wife, Rachel Bowitz of Las Vegas, and Gregory Brooks of Oak Harbor, Wash., were arrested last month on complaints of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute illegal cellular telephone cloning equipment.
The three have been released on bail; their homes were searched and more devices were found, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York, which is handling the case.
The complaints are expected to go before a grand jury by the end of the month. If indictments are issued, charges can be filed. The maximum prison time for conspiracy to distribute cellular cloning equipment is 10 years, attorneys said.
Mr. Bowitz works for a cellular phone manufacturer in Hong Kong, has an electrical engineering degree from a German university and is believed to have created the cloning devices. Brooks allegedly was the overseas salesman, the government said. The investigation began in the spring of 1995 when an AT&T Wireless Services fraud prevention employee spotted an e-mail advertisement on CompuServe.
According to court documents, the ad offered three devices-a model clone phone capable of cloning any phone from the phone’s keyboard, without using a computer (lifetime phone); a device that can display all calls in a cell system, listen to audio and track down a specific mobile number (Celltracker); and an electronic serial number reader that can capture ESNs, mobile identification numbers (MINs) and the called number. The ad claimed there were numerous legitimate uses for the equipment, the government said.
Law enforcement received court approval to tap into Bowitz’s e-mail, in what authorities say is the first such court-approved monitoring in the United States.
AT&T arranged for one of its employees to meet surreptitiously with Bowitz in Hong Kong and Las Vegas. Two Celltrackers-which came with instruction manuals-allegedly were bought for a total of $2,100. While in monitor mode, the Celltracker intercepts communications occurring to and from a target cellular phone, and intercepts the digits dialed from a target cellular phone. In tracking mode, the Celltracker programs the MIN of the target cellular phone into the Celltracker, court documents said.
“AT&T was trying to do two things,” said Roseanna DeMaria, vice president of revenue security for AT&T Wireless Services. “Get our hands on elicit devices to test with our prevention equipment, and to bring the matter to law enforcement.”
AT&T tested equipment allegedly bought from Bowitz and found the lifetime phones did have eavesdropping capability. The company then notified U.S. law enforcement, which took over the investigation.
The ESN readers allegedly sold by Bowitz are 11 to 12 inches tall, about 5 inches wide, and flat like a folder, the government said. They come with a leather cover.
“It has a zipper and looks like a portfolio case. The antenna is hidden in it so you can walk down the street and trap numbers,” Whiteside said.
Previously, personal computers were used to program stolen MIN and ESN combinations into phones. “The significance of this case should not be minimized,” said the Secret Service. “The ease with which such programming can be accomplished and the enormous capacity to store different stolen combinations poses a substantial threat to law enforcement and the cellular telecommunications industry.”
Bowitz allegedly told an undercover officer that he had developed a way to counterfeit Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards for Global System for Mobile communications phones, by programming the computer chips using a laptop computer and other peripheral computer equipment.
