Family Stalked Using Cellphone Snoopware

Image courtesy of

newVideoPlayer("stalker_phone_gawker.flv", 475, 376); Holy crap, this is scary! A family interviewed on the Today show is being stalked by "hackers" who have taken over their cell phones. The stalkers use the cell phones to record conversations and the play them back to scare the family. They also leave messages saying they are going to rape one of the family members.

Holy crap, this is scary! A family interviewed on the Today show is being stalked by “hackers” who have taken over their cell phones. The stalkers use the cell phones to record conversations and the play them back to scare the family. They also leave messages saying they are going to rape one of the family members.

Today says the stalkers are using “snoopware” to hijack the phones and take control of them. Sounds like a scary science-fiction movie, doesn’t it? Well, it’s real.

From CNN:

Almost always installed without the user’s knowledge, snoopware can be introduced in a variety of ways – most commonly through short message service (SMS) or multimedia messaging service (MMS) sent between mobile phones. Information taken is transmitted to the user at the other end who triggered the snoopware infiltration for download and perusal.

—MEGHANN MARCO
Beware of cellphone snoops [CNN]
Today [MSNBC]

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.