I'm sorry to post such a beginner question, but while i'm not new to the hobby, i'm new to cell phones.  i've read a few threads suggesting not to use them because the number shows up on your bill--not a problem for me-- but in terms of general safe practices (LE, etc), does it make more sense in setting up a hotel outcall to use a cell to call the provider or use the hotel room phone (with a calling card)?
   thanks!
Art

If LE wants to listen to conversations where one of the parties is useing a landline or analogue cell phone they can do so easily. All the stuff you can buy from Radio Shack, etc. won’t tell you the line is tapped if tap is at the switching office.  Plan on LE always being able to obtain the originating and receiving telephone numbers.  (There are times they don’t get this information, but for safety’s sake assume they will always be able to get it.)  Using something like an MCI pre-paid calling cards means LE knows the number from which a call originated, but not necessarily who placed the call.  For example, if you call from a pay phone they will have the number of the pay phone, but not the name of the person placing the call.  If, however, you call from your hotel room then the desk clerk will be able to provide LE with your name.  The current generation of cell phones allows 911 type services to find the location from which a call originated using triangulation.   (Triangulation is usually accurate enough to locate the hotel from which the call originated, but probably not the exact room.)   Cell phones use three types of signals:  analogue, GSM, and CDMA.  Analogue is still often used for roaming; scanners can pick up analogue calls.  GSM (the original digital standard that is the norm is Europe) offers some protection against eavesdroppers.   CDMA (the newer Qualcomm digital standard) does frequency shifting 10 times per second.  Thus only people with supercomputers like the NSA can listen to CDMA encoded calls between two CDMA cell phones.  (If one of the phones being used is a landline then LE can still tap the call from the landline side of the call.  However, local LE’s entire budget wouldn’t give them enough money to buy the equipment needed to track and splice together all the packets that comprise calls made between two CDMA cell phones.)   If you are really paranoid then do something like borrow a cell phone from a friend who will forget loaning you his/her cell phone.  Make your calls in a public place (like a mall) surrounded by lots of people.  Keep your calls short and then leave the area quickly.  You always have the problem that the cell phone company will provide LE with the information they received when you bought the phone. (Which does not necessarily mean they know what was discussed during the phone call.)  Notes to those with bad credit:  Sprint is one of the companies that uses CDMA technology and Sprint will give anybody who is willing to pay a $125.00 deposit a cell phone.  If you pass the credit check you don’t pay a deposit; however, if Sprint can’t find your credit file then you won’t pass the credit check but you will be able to walk out of the store with a cell phone after paying the $125.00 deposit.  If you have really bad credit you will probably need to pay cash.   Sprint’s web site permits you to check your usage and see your invoice online—which is nice if move often and your bill gets lost in the mail.  You can pay a Sprint bill in cash using an ATM like machine in their phone centers.   Also, companies that sell pre-paid cell phones aren’t known for checking credit.  (I assume by now everybody understands what I didn’t say—-even those who are paranoid because they have bad credit.  And, no I don’t work for Sprint.  I don’t even own Sprint stock.)  The thing about LE to remember is that they don’t spend a lot of time chasing down hobbyists.  They are like spiders:  they weave a web and see what it catches.  If you walk into a sting you have problems.  On the other hand, you probably don’t have to worry about what you did last week.   Use common sense, don't get overly paranoid and you'll find things will work out fine.

What I do is buy a calling card from a local sheetz store and use it to make my cell calls.  They only cost 9.99 for 100 minutes then your calls will all be to the toll free calling card number and they can not trace the call.

Just recently one of the providers I was using got busted and they went back and looked at the incoming calls to the service, not to mention the service kept records of the calls with caller ID.  Local LE contacted those people and even made arrests based on positive ID's by the ladies.  I never did get a call and the only reason why is above, they never knew my number.  To me it is scary to give out my number, I have to much to lose if I get caught.  I went to that provider about once a week and she knew me by my voice had they had my number I would most likely have been busted.  

I know they ladies out there may disagree with what I have said and some will not acept blocked calls, but as long as records are kept on their side we run a great risk.

Good Luck!!

thank you for such a thorough reply.  yet another reason to have good credit.  a couple questions, to you or anyone: 1) how do i know if i have cdma?  2) really, i'm not paranoid about this.  basically, i've never liked the idea of using the hotel room phone, since i assume it goes through the hotel operator, etc.  and, of course, without using a pre-paid phone card, the number sometimes shows up on the bill.  so i guess my question is a simple one: if you're in the room, do you use your cell or the room phone?
 and, hey, burt, thanks again for taking the time to resond.

Hi randomsample...hope this mess answers your follow-up questons.

Sprint and Verizon are CDMA with analogue roaming.  Erickson phones (since they are European) are GSM.  The easiest way to know if you have CDMA, GSM, etc. is ask the cell company.

Jimmiec’s suggestion of using a prepaid calling card is a good one, and you can get a very good price on MCI calling cards at COSTCO.  (Wish I thought of that when writing my first post—I do it all the time when I don’t want my work, home or friend’s cell phone number appearing on somebody’s caller ID.)  As to using your hotel phone or cell phone, the answer is it depends.  There are two ways of tracing a call:  by the circuit and by the billing information.  *69 and similar methods trace the circuit.  Which means that if there is a tap on the provider’s phone (or LE pushes *69, etc. after raiding the place) they can trace the call even if you used a calling card.  However, I think it is rather unlikely that vice would try tracing a circuit.  The other way of finding the caller through his billing information.  If the billing information for your cell phone contains your name then definitely don’t use it.  (For that matter, if the hotel room is in your name don’t use the hotel phone without at least using a calling card.  Even then, using a prepaid calling card at a pay phone in the lobby is safer than using the phone in your room.)  If you borrowed a friend’s cell phone then LE will trace the information to your friend.  If they can’t find your friend (or he forgets loaning you the cell phone) then you have no worries.  Still, adding the extra layer of a calling card on top of your friend’s cell phone won’t hurt.

Since many providers don’t answer calls from blocked numbers, then e-mail, of course, is another way of making appointments with providers.  Several basic safety measures should be followed when e-mailing providers if you want to preserve your secret.  First, uses a server based e-mail service (such as hotmail, yahoo, ziplip, hushmail, etc.) and never have e-mail delivered to an inbox on your computer.  (Use the hotmail or yahoo program to write your e-mails, not Outlook Express or anything on your hard drive.)  While LE can trace e-mails back to hotmail, yahoo, etc. they won’t be able to obtain your name and address if you are one of the millions of people that created a factious persona when established your account at hotmail, yahoo, etc.  

LE can, however, trace you through your IP address if they want to go to the necessary work.  (They probably won’t if you live in one jurisdiction and hobby in another jurisdiction.  LE is not known for inter-jurisdictional cooperation—which is why they usually create task forces when a major crime spans jurisdictional boundaries.)  LE can trace an IP address to the Internet Service Provider (ISP) who will give them your name and address.  While ISPs may fight the record industry they are generally only to happy to help LE, plus LE will probably show up with a subpoena anyway.  Of course those who paid cash using a factious name for annual dial-up service have nothing to worry about.  However, if you used a credit card or applied for credit when setting a DSL or cable service then LE will get your name, address, etc. from your ISP.  The worse thing you can do is contact a provider using your computer at work.  The ISP will send LE to your employer, and the network administrator will take LE straight to your desk.  Those who want to protect their IP address need to use some type of anonymizing software, which is supposed to hide your IP address.  Does it work—-usually.  In the race between bigger guns and bigger armor it is hard to know who is ahead on any given day, but usually anonymizing software provides considerable (not absolute) protection.   If you are interested in anonymizing software then look into the products of Artisoft—-they been in the business of protecting Internet users as long as anyone and have a good reputation.   Anonymizer Private Surfing has a good track record.  The web site for privacy software from articsoft.com is http://www.articsoft.com/fileassurity_anonymizer.htm?OVRAW=anonymizer&OVKEY=anonymizer&OVMTC=standard   While I don’t think any product can provide you with 100% security, I think LE would probably be unable to trace your IP if you were using articsoft.com products.  My bet is LE would quickly give up and go after somebody else.  Don’t forget the obvious and get yourself in trouble by leaving pictures, cookies, bookmarks, etc. on your hard drive.  Window Washer (from http://www.webroot.com) is a good product to use if you want to remove the traces of what you do while you are online.   Spybot is also a good program to install on your hard drive.  Of course, I strongly recommend installing anti-virus software and a personal firewall.  I’ve found Norton’s product from Symantec to be effective and easy to use.  Norton's firewall is also great (when correctly configured) at blocking pop-up ads. (For the record, I don’t work for, or own stock in, any of these companies.)  

While I don’t want to start a war, if privacy is a major concern of yours then you need to consider the following carefully.  If you want your secret to remain a secret then you need to be very careful what information you give a provider during the screening process.  Lately more than one hobbyist has found himself in trouble with LE because a provider has kept a record of his information. And, sadly, there are hobbyists who have been blackmailed with the information they gave a provider during the screening process.  Many hobbyists who have a track record with established, well-reviewed providers will these days only provide the names of providers able to vouch for them during the screening process.  (I’m following their lead.)  If references from a reliable provider aren't enough for another provider to decide to see me then I take my businesses elsewhere.  There are also various third party services that will act as an intermediary between the provider and hobbyist for hobbyist who are new to the sport and don’t want to release personal information to a provider.  (Such as Secret Keeper ID at http://www.thesecretkeeper.com/ ) Those new to the hobby may want or need to use such services.  These services are not failsafe as LE still can still obtain your information for the intermediary.  Fortunately LE hasn’t started using information from these services to bust hobbyists; nevertheless, I don’t want to be on file in case LE changes its tactics.  (OK, call me paranoid—-but I sleep better at night because I follow some basic safety procedures. I bet a lot of hobbyists and providers have similar feeling because they also follow some safety procedures.)  I am, however, the first to acknowledge that providers, like hobbyists, have very legitimate safety concerns and I feel we all need to search for win-win solutions in this area.  (I frankly think a provider referral should be preferable to personal information.  Personal information can, and is, easily faked by LE.  Also personal information doesn’t provide protection against a dangerous hobbyist whereas provider referrals provide all these safeguards.  OK, I’ll get off my soapbox.)

Hope something is all verbiage is of benefit.

If LE doesn’t catch you in the act then they have to find you before they can bust you.  One of the jobs I had when I was as starving student was serving process.  (Can we still be friends?)  Finding people can be easy or very difficult, depending on how hard a person works at concealing where he works and lives.  I am sure LE has more tools available to locate somebody than are available to process servers, but the truly paranoid may find what of learned to be of interest.  

One of the easiest things to use in tracing a person is the license plate on his car.  Usually this provides you both the person’s name and home address.  So be careful where you park you car and who rides in your car.   While tracing somebody through a credit card or rental car is possible, it is much harder than tracing a person though his license plate or drivers license number.  In California a person’s mailing address is what appears on your driver’s license, and in most states there are ways to put a mailing address, instead of a physical address, on a driver’s license.   Using a Mail Boxes, Etc. type address on a driver’s license and auto registration go along ways towards making a person hard to find.  Assuming, of course, that person “moved’ from the physical address given to the Department of Motor Vehicles and to Mail Boxes, Etc.  Of course, in the post 9/11 environment proof of residence is needed to obtain a Mail Box, etc. address or post office box.  My guess, however, is that many clever people have found ways of obtaining a mailing address while providing a physical address that leads to a dead end.  Using your initials, instead of your full name, makes you somewhat harder to locate.  You might want to register your car using your mailing address to RE Johnson instead of Robert E. Johnson.  (Of course, putting your car in the name of a small business is still safer, but usually the insurance costs are too high to make that attractive.)  

Woman, even more than men, are acting prudently by putting a mailing address on their drivers license.   When a purse is stolen the thief normally obtains both key to the house and the address of the victims residence.  Everyone should give thought to what they carry in their wallet/purse.  Avoid carrying your social security number and any reference to you employment if you plan on using a mailing address for safety reasons.  Don’t carry PIN numbers for your ATM cards either.  Those with a bad memory may want to use an encoding system such as:

BLACK HORSE
01234 56789

A PIN number of 8351 could safely be carried with a note such as Union Bank = SCHL and all the user needs remember is the encoding phrase.  Everyone would do well to keep an inventory of what they carry in their wallet/purse—and limit what is carried.  (Reverences to social security numbers, places of employment, etc are best left home or carried separately—say in a business card case that can be left in the trunk of the car.)  The truly paranoid when seeing providers will want to use a second wallet that only contains the bare minimum. For example, a hobbyist who is going to rent the room might only want to carry his drivers license, single a credit card and the donation.   Having a key ring with only your car key is always wise, especially for those who frequently use valet parking.

For the truly paranoid, there are other things to consider in addition to the address on your driver’s license and auto registration.  The title to your house, plus bills for things like your telephone, cable, gas and electric, newspaper, trash, subscriptions, waste removal, sewer, etc. are frequently used to find the physical address of an individual.  There are ways of hiding the ownership of real property, such as though a living trust.  (If your property is listed as belonging to the ABC Trust you will be harder to find than if your property tax bill is being sent to Robert E. Johnson.)   In most places a person can get a business license for REJ Enterprises or JER Enterprises without showing any ID.  (Enough said.)  You can also buy incorporation packages for Delaware or Nevada corporations that come complete with a tax ID number.  (Or at least you could before 9/11—I’m not up on all the changes 9/11 produced.)  If Robert E. Johnson were to tell the phone company, electric company, etc. as well as his wife/so that for tax purposes he wanted to put things in the name of El Supremo Enterprises he would probably find it an easy task—and at the same time make it very difficult for others to locate him.  Alternately, the paranoid may want to put things in the name of their spouse or child.  Finding somebody using their social security number usually is difficult—but it becomes extremely difficult if things are listed under a tax id number or the social security number of somebody else.  However, LE could probably get the name of your employer using your SSN without difficulty and they could get your SSN from anybody that provides you credit.  Therefore, the extremely paranoid will use a collateralized credit card as these can usually be obtained without the issuing company doing much (or anything) in the way of a credit check.  Clever and extremely paranoid people probably have ways of obtaining an ID that is adequate to use when checking into a hotel, especially if the name on their collateralized credit card is different form the name on their drivers license.  I’m not paranoid enough or clever enough to have any direct experience in this area and only speak from theoretical knowledge.  (Please, no PMs about such matters—I’m telling the truth when I say I haven’t a clue about to do things of this nature.  All my experience was in finding people—not in living a double life.  However, PMs from those knowledgeable in such matters would be of interest to me.)  The paranoid will also want to change their voting address and will remember to use their mailing address on tax returns.  Using your initials and MBE address for your checks, employment file and checks, bank statements, etc. all make you harder to locate and safer in case somebody steals your checkbook.  Using your initials—RE Johnson—adds another layer of difficulty to the task of finding you or impersonating you.  (Which is why you want your initials on your vehicle registration, why you don’t want the key to your safety deposit box to be on the key ring used for valet parking, and why you didn’t leave your check book in the glove box of your car.)  

Be very careful what you tell people about your work, hobbies, and personal life.   Finding Bob Johnson is hard, finding Robert E. Johnson the CPA is a piece of cake.   Finding Bob Johnson the avid golfer probably wouldn’t be too hard, especially if somebody has a rough idea of where he lives.  How many golf courses are there in his neighborhood?  If somebody only had to buy the subscription list for a few zip codes do you have any idea how inexpensive and easy it would be to find his address through his subscriptions to golf magazines.  Those who subscribe to trade journals are probably dead meat if somebody knows a little about their field of work.  Of course, if the subscription were in the name Supper Accountant or Bob’s Copy (instead of RE Johnson) things would get more complicated.  If somebody knew your boy played high school football or your daughter was in the school play do you think they could find you?   What if they know your wife is a PTA worker?  See what I mean about being careful about what you say about your work and personal life.  As I said in an earlier post, LE is like a spider:  they weave a web and see what they catch.  

Years ago I had a bad experience that resulted from what a provider did with information I gave her.  That is why I will never again give personal information in a screening process.  (References yes, personal information no.)   “I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” like all the kings’ horses and all the kings’ men, won’t put Humpty Dumpy back together again.   Do you want a provider calling your work and blowing the cover story you gave your boss to get the afternoon off because she is running late and lost your cell number?  How suspicious is the receptionist you just starting seeing when another woman calls asking questions or leaving messages?   And, as I mentioned in another post, hobbyists have been blackmailed—although I think it is a rare occurrence, just like I think having your watch and wallet disappear during a session only happens on the rarest of occasions.

Nevertheless, the information in little black books has a long history of causing problems, and computer hard drives have only increased the problems caused by information leaks.  That is why I advise caution about deluging personal and employment related information.  Everyone needs to decide for himself how much security he wants in his life, and act accordingly.  Explaining the use of mailing address to your wife/SO is fairly easy.  Tell her you are afraid of what would happen if some stole her purse.   In an ideal work you will find a MBE that is convenient for you and inconvenient for her to use so that you are the only one who picks up the mail.

Now we have talked about telephone security, e-mail and IP address security, having your license plate traced and problems that can result from verbal diarrhea by disclosing too much about your work and personal life—what’s left.  While I think it is easy to become paranoid about security, at the same time I feel taking some basic steps to protect yourself is probably a prudent thing to do.

Thanks for taking the time!  I once had an interesting email discussion with a hobbyist about setting up off shore bank accounts, which can be done, for big bucks (do a web search).  I think that some prepaid phones can be done with an alias, so if only I weren't so paranoid about someone with spyware......

Actually, the clandestine part of the hobby is kinda fun, kinda a rush.....