Matthew Weigman

Last updated

Matthew Weigman
Born20 April 1990 (1990-04-20) (age 33)
Boston, Massachusetts
Nationality American
Other names"Little Hacker"
Criminal statusReleased
Criminal chargeConspiring in swatting pranks
Penalty135 months in prison

Matthew Weigman (born 20 April 1990) is a blind American man who has used his heightened hearing ability to help him deceive telephone operators and fake various in-band phone signals. Before his arrest at the age of 18, Weigman had used this ability to become a well known phone phreaker, memorizing phone numbers by tone and performing uncanny imitations of various phone line operators to perform pranks such as swatting on his rivals. [1]

Contents

Early life

Matthew Weigman was born and raised in East Boston. Legally blind due to optic nerve atrophy, [2] he was capable of rudimentary perception of contrast in bright light. [3]

At the age of 11, Weigman came across party lines. [2] [ clarification needed ] His friends said that after only a few years, he was absorbed in these party lines to the extent that he would spend days on the phone at a time. [2] Weigman learned tricks from other party line participants, recycled from telecommunication hacker groups known as Phone Phreaks of the 1980s, to gain free telephone service, frighten individuals whom he disliked and sexually harass women. [4]

First offense

At the age of 14, Weigman had already gained a considerable amount of skill and knowledge about phone hacking via party lines but had not yet used these skills to do anything illegal. [1] However, when a girl refused phone sex with him during a party line session, Weigman initiated a call to 911 with a forged Caller ID pretending to be a gunman holding her and her father at gunpoint. [5] Weigman was not indicted for his crime, marking the beginning of a "life long obsession" for Weigman who performed as many as 60 other forged SWAT calls prior to his indictment. [1]

Learning to hack telephones

Weigman had developed a keen sense of hearing and memory. He was able to impersonate any voice, and memorize phone numbers by listening to the phone tones, and he gained the skills to understand the inner working of a phone network system by listening to the different frequencies. [1] He had the ability to mimic characters he heard on television and play songs on the piano by ear. [1]

Weigman's first experience with phreaking was by accident. He was on a party line when he discovered that by pressing the star and pound keys, he could gain access to the numbers of all the callers on the party line. He realized that he could get the number of anyone that angered him and he could harass them at their home phone number. [1] At the age of 14, Weigman learned to gain access to Verizon and AT&T by imitating an employee of the company. Weigman was known for "conning telecom employees into believing he was a colleague to gain access to unlisted numbers, the ability to shut off a rival's service or listen in on others' calls". [6] He extensively employed the use of caller ID spoofing by purchasing commercial services such as spoof cards. [1] This allowed him to hide the identity of the phone number he was using, and also to choose any number he wished to display on the caller ID on the receiving end of the call. [1]

Incarceration

On 18 May 2008, Weigman and others drove to the residence of the Verizon investigator who was investigating Weigman's activity, and attempted to intimidate and frighten him. Weigman had admitted that he had already placed intimidating and harassing messages and calls to the investigator. [7] When Weigman's phone line was disconnected by Verizon because the phone line he was using was illegitimate, he infiltrated the Verizon phone system and used this information to harass the employee and to gain information about the status of the investigation that Verizon was conducting. [7]

On 26 June 2009, Weigman was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months by U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn for convictions related to his involvement in a swatting conspiracy. He was in federal custody since being arrested in May 2008 in Boston. [5] In addition to making threats to a Verizon Security Officer, he attempted to hack into a US attorney's voice-mail system in Dallas. [5] Weigman pleaded guilty to:

"…one count of conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, victim or an informant, and one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud and unauthorized access of a protected computer." [8]

Weigman admitted that he and his allies gained unauthorized access to telecommunication companies' sensitive information to gather personal information on certain people. He also pleaded guilty to using software to modify telecommunication devices to gain free telephone service and to cut lines of other telephone subscribers. [8]

Weigman was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution, Fort Dix in New Jersey. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, he was released on 20 October 2018. [9]

See also

Related Research Articles

In the computer hacking scene of the 1980s, demon dialing was a technique by which a computer was used to repeatedly dial a number in an attempt to gain access immediately after another user had hung up. The expansion of accessible internet service provider connectivity since that time has rendered the practice more or less obsolete.

Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a culture of people who study, experiment with, or explore telecommunication systems, such as equipment and systems connected to public telephone networks. The term phreak is a sensational spelling of the word freak with the ph- from phone, and may also refer to the use of various audio frequencies to manipulate a phone system. Phreak, phreaker, or phone phreak are names used for and by individuals who participate in phreaking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emergency telephone number</span> Telephone number that allows caller to contact local emergency services for assistance

An emergency telephone number is a number that allows a caller to contact local emergency services for assistance. The emergency number differs from country to country; it is typically a three-digit number so that it can be easily remembered and dialed quickly. Some countries have a different emergency number for each of the different emergency services; these often differ only by the last digit.

Caller identification is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call is being set up. The caller ID service may include the transmission of a name associated with the calling telephone number, in a service called Calling Name Presentation (CNAM). The service was first defined in 1993 in International Telecommunication Union – Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) Recommendation Q.731.3.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blue box</span> Device for hacking telephone networks

A blue box is an electronic device that produces tones used to generate the in-band signaling tones formerly used within the North American long-distance telephone network to send line status and called number information over voice circuits. This allowed an illicit user, referred to as a "phreaker", to place long-distance calls, without using the network's user facilities, that would be billed to another number or dismissed entirely as an incomplete call. A number of similar "color boxes" were also created to control other aspects of the phone network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Draper</span> American computer programmer and former phone phreak

John Thomas Draper, also known as Captain Crunch, Crunch, or Crunchman, is an American computer programmer and former phone phreak. He is a widely known figure within the computer programming world and the hacker and security community, and generally lives a nomadic lifestyle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telephone call</span> Connection between two or more people over a telephone network

A telephone call or telephone conversation, also known as a phone call or voice call, is a connection over a telephone network between the called party and the calling party. Telephone calls started in the late 19th century. As technology has improved, a majority of telephone calls are made over a cellular network through mobile phones or over the internet with Voice over IP. Telephone calls are typically used for real-time conversation between two or more parties, especially when the parties cannot meet in person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Telecommunications relay service</span>

A telecommunications relay service, also known as TRS, relay service, or IP-relay, or Web-based relay service, is an operator service that allows people who are deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, or have a speech disorder to place calls to standard telephone users via a keyboard or assistive device. Originally, relay services were designed to be connected through a TDD, teletypewriter (TTY) or other assistive telephone device. Services gradually have expanded to include almost any real-time text capable technology such as a personal computer, laptop, mobile phone, PDA, and many other devices. The first TTY was invented by deaf scientist Robert Weitbrecht in 1964. The first relay service was established in 1974 by Converse Communications of Connecticut.

Phone fraud, or more generally communications fraud, is the use of telecommunications products or services with the intention of illegally acquiring money from, or failing to pay, a telecommunication company or its customers.

Last-call return, automatic recall, or camp-on, is a telecommunication feature offered by telephony service providers to subscribers to provide the subscriber with the telephone number, and sometimes the time, of the last caller. The service may also offer the facility to place a call to the calling party.

Operation Sundevil was a 1990 nationwide United States Secret Service crackdown on "illegal computer hacking activities." It involved raids in approximately fifteen different cities and resulted in three arrests and the confiscation of computers, the contents of electronic bulletin board systems (BBSes), and floppy disks. It was revealed in a press release on May 9, 1990. The arrests and subsequent court cases resulted in the creation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The operation is now seen as largely a public-relations stunt. Operation Sundevil has also been viewed as one of the preliminary attacks on the Legion of Doom and similar hacking groups. The raid on Steve Jackson Games, which led to the court case Steve Jackson Games, Inc. v. United States Secret Service, is often attributed to Operation Sundevil, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation states that it is unrelated and cites this attribution as a media error.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Social engineering (security)</span> Psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information

In the context of information security, social engineering is the psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. A type of confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access, it differs from a traditional "con" in that it is often one of many steps in a more complex fraud scheme. It has also been defined as "any act that influences a person to take an action that may or may not be in their best interests."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caller ID spoofing</span> Phone caller faking the phone number sent to the recipient of a phone call

Caller ID spoofing is a spoofing attack which causes the telephone network's Caller ID to indicate to the receiver of a call that the originator of the call is a station other than the true originating station. This can lead to a display showing a phone number different from that of the telephone from which the call was placed.

A robocall is a phone call that uses a computerized autodialer to deliver a pre-recorded message, as if from a robot. Robocalls are often associated with political and telemarketing phone campaigns, but can also be used for public service or emergency announcements. Multiple businesses and telemarketing companies use auto-dialing software to deliver prerecorded messages to millions of users. Some robocalls use personalized audio messages to simulate an actual personal phone call. The service is also viewed as prone to association with scams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phone sex</span> Telephone conversation describing sex activities

Phone sex is a conversation between two or more people by means of the telephone which is sexually explicit and is intended to provoke sexual arousal in one or more participants. As a practice between individuals temporarily separated, it is as old as dial telephones, on which no operator could eavesdrop. In the later 20th century businesses emerged offering, for a fee, sexual conversations with a phone sex worker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swatting</span> Criminal harassment tactic

Swatting is a criminal harassment act of deceiving an emergency service into sending a police or emergency service response team to another person's address. This is triggered by false reporting of a serious law enforcement emergency, such as a bomb threat, murder, hostage situation, or a false report of a mental health emergency, such as reporting that a person is allegedly suicidal or homicidal and may be armed, among other things.

Phone hacking is the practice of exploring a mobile device, often using computer exploits to analyze everything from the lowest memory and cpu levels up to the highest file system and process levels. Modern open source tooling has become fairly sophisticated as to be able to "hook" into individual functions within any running app on an unlocked device and allow deep inspection and modification of its functions.

A call detail record (CDR) is a data record produced by a telephone exchange or other telecommunications equipment that documents the details of a telephone call or other telecommunications transactions that passes through that facility or device. The record contains various attributes of the call, such as time, duration, completion status, source number, and destination number. It is the automated equivalent of the paper toll tickets that were written and timed by operators for long-distance calls in a manual telephone exchange.

On December 28, 2017, a fatal swatting incident occurred in Wichita, Kansas, United States. During an online dispute between Casey Viner and Shane Gaskill regarding the video game Call of Duty: WWII, Viner threatened to have Gaskill swatted. Gaskill responded by giving him a false address for his residence, one that was occupied by an uninvolved person, Andrew Finch. Viner then asked Tyler Barriss to make the required fraudulent call to initiate the swatting. Wichita Police responded to the address, and as Finch was exiting his house, police officer Justin Rapp fatally shot him.

Michael B. Faulkner, known as by his pseudonym CygonX is an American business executive, author, and convicted cybercriminal. He is the founder of Crydon Capital.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "14-year-old blind kid, angry and alone, discovered that he possessed a superpower – one that put him in the cross hairs of the FBI". Thepeoplesvoice.org. 23 August 2009. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 Morrell, Dan (February 2009). "Disconnected". Boston Magazine. Archived from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  3. ↑ "Deceptology" . Retrieved 6 August 2013.
  4. ↑ "Notorious phone phreaker gets 11 years for swatting • The Register". The Register .
  5. 1 2 3 Poulsen, Kevin (29 June 2009). "Blind Hacker Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison". Wired.com. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  6. ↑ Trahan, Jason (31 August 2008). "FBI: Teen Matthew Weigman tried to hack into Dallas' U.S. attorney's phone system". The Dallas Morning New. Archived from the original on 29 September 2011. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  7. 1 2 Jacks, James T. (29 January 2009). "Individual Pleads Guilty in Swatting Conspiracy Case". The Dallas Observer. Archived from the original on 30 August 2010. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
  8. 1 2 Wilonsky, Robert (29 June 2009). "The 19-Year-Old Blind "Little Hacker" Gets 135 Months in Federal Prison For "Swatting"". The Dallas Observer. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
  9. ↑ "Inmate Locator: Matthew Weigman". Federal Bureau of Prisons . Retrieved 2 November 2018.
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