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The Telecom Digest for January 25, 2014
Volume 33 : Issue 19 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Re: Google Glass-wearing movie patron questioned by Homeland Security agents as potential pirate (Neal McLain)
Re: Why T-Mobile wants Verizon's discarded 4G airwaves (Scott Dorsey)
Re: Google Glass-wearing movie patron questioned by Homeland Security agents as potential pirate (Rob Warnock)
Person Cell Phone Wipe by Employers (Andrew Kaser)
Re: Person Cell Phone Wipe by Employers (Pete Cresswell)
Re: Google Glass-wearing movie patron questioned by Homeland Security agents as potential pirate (Barry Margolin)
More con artists using telemarketing for fraud (HAncock4)

====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

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Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 20:22:57 -0800 (PST) From: Neal McLain <nmclain.remove-this@and-this-too.annsgarden.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Google Glass-wearing movie patron questioned by Homeland Security agents as potential pirate Message-ID: <eaae34e8-ed67-4871-8782-c99546ed9e11@googlegroups.com> My encounter with ICE: I volunteer with a non-profit group named Friends of Brazoria Wildlife Refuges based in Brazoria, Texas. We support three National Wildlife Refuges located along the Gulf Coast in Brazoria and Matagorda Counties. We raise funds and do hands-on stuff like building boardwalks and maintaining trails. I serve on the board and run the website. http://refugefriends.org/ The three refuges are part of the Fish & Wildlife Service's Southwest Region, based in Albuquerque. A few years ago, the southwest region headquarters staff sponsored a two-day "Getting to Know You" meeting in South Padre Island, Texas, a three-hour drive south of Brazoria near the Mexican Border. FWS employees and Friends-group volunteers were invited. Another Board Member, a guy named Phil, and I attended the meeting. We drove down to South Padre in Phil's pickup truck. On our way back -- driving north on US77 -- we were stopped at an ICE control station. We were told to get out of the truck and sit on a bench. Two or three ICE employees, with sniffing dogs, went around the truck, inspected the interior of the vehicle and the truck bed. Finally they told us that they had found some marijuana. Phil -- wisely, I think -- just said ok, didn't deny it and didn't confirm it. They didn't show us whatever-it-was that they thought was marijuana. At that point most of the employees went inside their little office building, leaving one guy outside to guard us. Several minutes later they came out and told us we were clear to leave. We got back in the truck and continued home. Phil claimed to me that he had never used marijuana, and I believe him. To this day, we've never been able to figure out what was going on. I can't imagine that Phil and I -- two elderly fat guys in Cabela's shorts and Fish-and-Wildlife volunteer hats -- looked much like drug runners. I guess they must have been running background checks on us while we were sitting on that bench while the guy with the gun kept a close eye on us. Anyway, we got home safely. Your tax dollars at work. Neal McLain ***** Moderator's Note ***** This is telecom related for two reasons: 1. The ICE personnel were able to check the truck and its occupants out even though they were probably out-of-range of any public WiFi or other "Internet" connectivity. "Two-way" radios help, but they're nowhere near to having a portable data terminal that can tell an officer in the field the VIN, the mileage at the last inspection, or the last time the owner bought tires. 2. There's only so much that on-the-spot electronics can do: when they said "we found marijuana", they were hoping that one of the "suspects" would glance toward the truck. There is, as yet, no machine that can check for that reaction at that moment. Bill Horne Moderator
Date: 23 Jan 2014 20:27:52 -0500 From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Why T-Mobile wants Verizon's discarded 4G airwaves Message-ID: <lbsfio$5es$1@panix2.panix.com> T <kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net> wrote: >kd1s.nospam@cox.nospam.net says... >> >> T-Mobile already has an LTE network - they bought MetroPCS. I'm a Metro >> customer - 4G phone and all. >> >> So I doubt they'll be able to use the spectrum either. >> >> ***** Moderator's Note ***** >> >> So, why did they buy it? > Probably just corporate stupidity at it's finest. Look at it this > way, once you get past say 150 people in corporation it becomes more > and more difficult for one unit to know what another is doing. Not at all. Every chunk of bandwidth that you buy is a chunk of bandwidth that your competitors are unable to buy. It's a limited resource and it's in every telecom company's best interest to tie up as much of it as possible whether or not they have any use for it. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Date: 23 Jan 2014 10:24:09 GMT From: rpw3@rpw3.org (Rob Warnock) To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Google Glass-wearing movie patron questioned by Homeland Security agents as potential pirate Message-ID: <52e0edc9$0$52822$742ec2ed@news.sonic.net> +--------------- | ***** Moderator's Note ***** | What is ICE doing questioning people who aren't crossing a border? +--------------- As I understand it [mainly from reading the firestorm resulting from this case]: 1. Federal law allows ICE, CBP, a few others additional powers "near" a border, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Border_search_exception ... The border search exception is a doctrine of United States criminal law that allows searches and seizures at international borders and their functional equivalent without a warrant or probable cause. ... Despite federal law allowing certain federal agents to conduct suspicionless search and seizures within 100 miles of the border, the Supreme Court has clearly and repeatedly confirmed that the border search exception applies only at international borders and their functional equivalent (such as international airports). 2. One report claimed that Columbus, Ohio, is (just barely) within that distance of the Canadian border. [But Google Maps says it's ~120 mi to the border (in the middle of Lake Erie).] 3. ICE shares responsibility for copyright investigations and enforcement, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcement#Cyber_Crimes and: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcement#Cyber_Crimes_Section Obviously it's a stretch, and legally on shakey grounds, but I suspect that's the story they would be sticking to. -Rob +--------------------------------------------------------------+ Rob Warnock <rpw3@rpw3.org> 627 26th Avenue http://rpw3.org/ San Mateo, CA 94403
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 15:12:49 -0800 From: Andrew Kaser <ak@europa.com> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Person Cell Phone Wipe by Employers Message-ID: <09270A4F-6874-4C9A-A3B1-54DFBCB3F289@europa.com> BYOD? Leaving a Job Can Mean Losing Pictures of Grandma Some Companies Wipe Workers' Personal Cellphones Clean After They Leave By Lauren Weber Jan. 21, 2014 7:21 p.m. ET As more companies allow, and even encourage, employees to use their own devices for work activities, a troubling consequence has arisen for some workers who have seen their entire device wiped clean. WSJ's Lauren Weber joins digits. Photo: Andrew St. Clair for The Wall Street Journal. In early October, Michael Irvin stood up to leave a New York City restaurant when he glanced at his iPhone and noticed it was powering off. When he turned it back on again, all of his information--email programs, contacts, family photos, apps and music he had downloaded - had vanished. The phone looked "like it came straight from the factory," said Mr. Irvin, an independent health-care consultant. Rest at: http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304027204579335033824665964?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_careerjournal&mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304027204579335033824665964.html%3Fmod%3DWSJ_hpp_sections_careerjournal -or- http://goo.gl/aB9xc1
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 13:47:08 -0500 From: Pete Cresswell <PeteCress@invalid.telecom-digest.org> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Person Cell Phone Wipe by Employers Message-ID: <k7d5e9ps3jqi6jor1n8v6t0v0843lt7pan@4ax.com> Per Andrew Kaser: >Some Companies Wipe Workers' Personal Cellphones Clean After They Leave Can anybody describe how they do that? Seems like there would have to be some sort of authentication/permission involved on the user's phone. -- Pete Cresswell
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 16:28:52 -0500 From: Barry Margolin <barmar@alum.mit.edu> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: Re: Google Glass-wearing movie patron questioned by Homeland Security agents as potential pirate Message-ID: <barmar-C93C64.16285223012014@news.eternal-september.org> In article <lbq8ko$gff$1@reader1.panix.com>, danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com> wrote: > ***** Moderator's Note ***** > > I know that ICE is doing it: I just don't understand why. All their > training is about catching lawbreakers at choke points: they're not > equipped, in either equipment or attitude, to apprehend criminals whom > are able to move their operations on a moment's notice. The agents who are doing this are probably not the ones who were trained in apprehending illegal immigrants. My guess is that this came about as part of the consolidations that occurred when Homeland Security was created after 9/11. When this responsibility was transferred to ICE, I'll bet they also transferred agents or trainers from the FBI. -- Barry Margolin, barmar@alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me ***
Date: Fri, 24 Jan 2014 08:02:53 -0800 (PST) From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org. Subject: More con artists using telemarketing for fraud Message-ID: <238ac303-bd43-4e7b-842b-2b57e529cfad@googlegroups.com> >From CBS News: A growing number of con artists are going old school by trying to rip off consumers over the phone, according to the National Consumers League. The group, which tracks the nation's most common frauds, says in a new report more than 36 percent of consumer complaints registered in 2013 involved telemarketing fraud. Overall, the nation's most prevalent scam remains a fake check con, which involves "overpaying" for a product or service and asking the recipient to refund the difference. By the time the victim realizes that the check used for payment was bogus, the con artist has walked away with the consumer's money. full article at: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-6-us-scams/ P.S. I still get calls from Heather at "Credit Card Services".
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