FBI Tracks Down Prankster, 100s of Calls

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has served a search warrant on the home of aWisconsin man, based on information he was making hundreds of harassing and threatening telephone calls to sheriff’s departments in two states. The search warrant makes it clear that hoax calls can be traced, although it takes time and some expertise to accomplish. In this case, the FBI traced the calls back through the switched telephone network to Skype, an VoIP-based telephone service, and to the account of Mason Seckar, a 20 year-old living in Oshkosh. The FBI searched Seckar’s home last month, but no one has been charged in the case. The investigation started last January when the St. Johns County (Fla.) sheriff called in the FBI after receiving a series of 180 hoax calls. A male reported crimes, asked questions, taunted police, or just remained silent. The calls were made to the sheriff’s toll-free number and could not be immediately traced. However, in a search warrant affidavit written by the FBI, an agent detailed how he tracked the calls to a Skype account and to Seckar through IP address and e-mamil records. During the investigation, the FBI also turned up a strange connection: during a hoax call to St. Johns SO, the suspect also called the Rice County (Minn.) Sheriff’s Office, and conferenced the two agencies together. Download (pdf) the FBI affidavit here.

The FBI traced the calls by linking up information, starting with the called number and ending with a person’s name and address. In between, they matched telephone numbers, e-mail accounts and IP addresses. Here’s the process:

• Obtained incoming call logs for the Sheriff’s comm center from the agency’s telephone provider
• Pinpointed the incoming hoax calls on the log by date and time, giving them the the originating telephone numbers
• Inquired of Neutral Tandem about the assigned carrier for the originating telephone numbers, giving them VoIP provider Skype
• Subpoenaed Skype for their outgoing call logs covering the time period of the hoax calls
• Pinpointed outgoing Skype calls on the log by date and time of the hoax calls, giving them the outgoing Skype account ID
• Subpoenaed Skype for the information about the account linked to the outgoing calls, giving them a Yahoo e-mail address and IP address
• Subpoenaed Yahoo for the e-mail account information, giving them a full name and sign-up IP address
• Subpoenaed the ISP for information on account with the IP address used when making the Skype calls and Yahoo sign-up, giving them a DSL account sign-up name, address and telephone number.
• Researched the name obtained from the Skype, Yahoo and ISP account information, using public and criminal justice sources, giving them…
• Name, address, telephone number, date of birth and other identifiers of James and Mason Seckar.

The FBI investigated the hoax and threatening calls as violations of three U.S. Code sections:

Title 47

223 (a)(1)(C) – (Whoever) makes a telephone call or utilizes a telecommunications device, whether or not conversation or communication ensues, without disclosing his identity and with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person at the called number or who receives the communications.

223 (a)(1)(E) – (Whoever) makes repeated telephone calls or repeatedly initiates communication with a telecommunications device, during which conversation or communication ensues, solely to harass any person at the called number or who receives the communication.

Title 18

875(c) – Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.