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Domestic Violence - Techniques for Unmasking a Stalker

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UnallocatedClusters
(@unallocatedclusters)
Posts: 577
Honorable Member
Topic starter
 

Colleagues,

This is a new case I just received in my civil Pro Bono practice

Attorney "We have a current client who has been receiving dozens of calls on her cell phone from random places and random numbers, all within minutes of each other. She believes that these calls are part of a pattern of harassment by her ex-boyfriend. Two of my pro bono attorneys looked at the client’s phone and have confirmed that the calls all appear to be incoming and not outgoing. They would like to know if there is a way, using client’s phone, to figure out who/how someone is making all of these random calls to her number."

Please take a look at my analysis steps below and advise if I am missing steps I or the attorneys should take

1) Image the victim's phone to preserve evidence and extract out the specific "harassing" phone numbers from the call logs.

2) Use Whitepages.com Pro service to see if any information can be recovered from the "harassing" phone numbers such as Phone Carrier or subscriber name.

3) Issue a subpoena to any Whitepages.com identified Phone Carriers to attempt to recover personal identification information such as the credit card used to purchase the phone(s) used to make the harassing calls, the times dates and physical locations from which the harassing calls were made. Perhaps we could identify the fact that one of the phones used to make the harassing calls was purchased at Walmart; we could then issue a subpoena to Walmart to hopefully recover personally identifiable information.

4) If the "harassing" phone numbers turn out to be Google Voice numbers, then my skill set to recover information is incomplete; perhaps a subpoena to Google to hopefully recover the email address associated with the Google Voice number as well as other relevant information (IP addresses, etc.)??

My goal is to unmask the identity of the harasser, so that a plenary order of protection could be obtained. Once a plenary order of protection is achieved, then violations of that plenary order of protection are felonies and thus LE can make an arrest.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 
Posted : 12/04/2018 7:15 pm
hectic_forensics
(@hectic_forensics)
Posts: 40
Eminent Member
 

Forgive the ignorance with the nuances of US law against UK law.

However, in the UK the complainant could go to the Police and complain that they are receiving harassing phone calls.

The Police could then request incoming call data from the CSP (communication service provider) who would then be able to provide details of the phone numbers used to make the calls. The Police would then have to try to resolve those numbers to a suspect by checking on the subscriber details with the CSP and following up any intelligence held on the numbers, or establishing how the numbers are paid for etc.

In short, shouldn't the complainant in your scenario just go to the Police and make a complaint about the alleged harassment. It shouldn't matter that she can't confirm exactly who it is that is doing it, the Police should still investigate it.

 
Posted : 13/04/2018 8:08 am
RolfGutmann
(@rolfgutmann)
Posts: 1185
Noble Member
 

As much as I am trying to understand the case I wanna ask why this client did not go to the Police? What is the reason of this? I first want to understand 'the behind'.

 
Posted : 13/04/2018 4:10 pm
(@fearknot)
Posts: 9
Active Member
 

This forum is not a crime drama show. We do not need to know the why. Technical questions about forensics were asked, if you can help then please answer his questions.

 
Posted : 13/04/2018 5:02 pm
(@fearknot)
Posts: 9
Active Member
 

I think your on the right track by isolating out the numbers. The only thing I can add is Fonefinder.com is a fairly accurate resource for finding the service/carrier for a phone number.

 
Posted : 13/04/2018 5:06 pm
UnallocatedClusters
(@unallocatedclusters)
Posts: 577
Honorable Member
Topic starter
 

I am happy to provide my perspective on working with Domestic Violence cases (at least in Cook County, Illinois population 5.2 million and the county the city of Chicago is in).

Typically, in addition to filing a police report, one may file for a "Stalking No Contact Order" at the Cook County Courthouse. If a judge issues a "Stalking No Contact Order", then "The first violation of a Stalking No Contact Order is a Class A misdemeanor. A subsequent violation is a Class 4 felony".

So basically, simply filing a police report will not result in anything much more substantive than a police record being created; my experience is that LE will not pursue warrants simply based upon a police report.

However, if a Stalking No Contact Order has been issued, then LE can more easily act on violations of that Order, as the Respondent has now committed a felony.

Before I became involved in Domestic Violence Pro Bono cases, the problem judges and possibly LE faced was a "he said, she said" situation. However, the attorneys I am working for can now take my Cellebrite report and show the judge an independent 3rd party expert's report as concrete evidence of stalking.

If I am understanding correctly, in the U.K. at least, LE can and will acquire phone records based upon a credible police report? For better or for worse that definitely does not happen in Cook County Illinois.

 
Posted : 13/04/2018 6:22 pm
jaclaz
(@jaclaz)
Posts: 5133
Illustrious Member
 

If I am understanding correctly, in the U.K. at least, LE can and will acquire phone records based upon a credible police report? For better or for worse that definitely does not happen in Cook County Illinois.

Not only.
In Italy, and I believe in the EU (not necessarily UK) it is extremely difficult (for a non-LE) to pin a phone number to a given person or viceversa to know if a given person has available a given phone number, particularly if a cellular line.

For "home" or "office" (landline) there are of course public records, but all the "cellular world" is (again to the non-LE) almost entirely anonymous, so the lookup would need to be performed by a LEO anyway.

We have a dedicated (national) branch of Police, the Postal Police, that will receive such stalking cases, see as an example

https://www.commissariatodips.it/approfondimenti/cyberstalking/consigli.html

not too bad via google translate

https://https://www.commissariatodips.it/approfondimenti/cyberstalking/consigli.htm l">translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&rurl=translate.google.it&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u= https://www.commissariatodips.it/approfondimenti/cyberstalking/consigli.html

jaclaz

 
Posted : 13/04/2018 7:24 pm
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