Thursday, February 02, 2012

Something interesting happened yesterday night...

Imagine this...

You are spending time with your family or loved ones at your home, doing something or chatting up with them. Lets assume your mobile phone is in a bag just within your arms reach.

Now, I get a call from your mobile phone. But you are not talking to me... you are going about talking with your family/friend/love-interest/underworld Irish mob/whatever. I can hear every single word you say. Remember the mobile phone wasn’t too far away.

I being the nice person I am, don’t cut the call I received in my mobile phone, instead, I reach out for my land line and call over to your land line and ask you, ‘Dude, why do you call me if you don’t want to talk? And nothing i hear on my phone is worth eavesdropping. :P . Go check your mobile phone!’

You give me the usual expected response...blah blah blah... you reach out for your phone and what do you see?



There is no live call from your phone!!!



You are pissed. You think I am playing a prank... I, to make my point, tell you I am going to cut the call I made from my land line to your land line and then you have to say something specific into the mobile phone... like read out of a book of your choice, and then I will call you back on your land line. And you grumble and mumble, “You and your weird ideas... if this turns out to be a prank and a waste of my time... you are in trouble, lady”.

You obey and say something only you could have chosen to say at that time and place. I on the other end have already started recording the whole conversation on my mobile phone. I call back on the land line and tell you to cut the call on the mobile phone. And you say, “Stupid, I already told you I have not made a call to you and therefore there is no live call that i can CUT!!!”.

Nita: “Oops forgive my occasional stupidity! I am now cutting the call on my mobile phone and will send you the recorded file.”

You: “Yeah right... you better.”

In minutes you get a audio file emailed to you, that, indeed turns out to be... what I told you.... a record of whatever you said and the whole conversation that ensued.

QUESTION 1: How would you feel about this?





Though, this example was fiction. This, really, truly, happened yesterday night to my friend (S) and I bore witness to this. It happened twice to her yesterday – two different calls to different people. Her phone was transmitting whatever she was saying in the form of an invisible call to another friend (R) who happened to be with us at that time, luckily. We all took it lightly... till I wondered if this technology (or technological flaw) could be used to eavesdrop? Here are the known facts:  
1)      all the people involved in both the calls had subscribed to the same provider.
2)      The phone (S’s mobile) that made these ghost calls to people was an sony ericsson and an android
3)      The call was not recorded in the outgoing calls register of S’s mobile phone
4)      The call was recorded in the incoming calls of the register of R’s mobile phone (this holds true for the other call that i did not witness)
5)      R’s number was not the last number dialled


QUESTION 2: Has this ever happened to you or someone you know?

QUESTION 3: Does anyone know why or how this happens?


Waiting with abated breath to see if my friend will get billed for this ghost call.