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using an iphone as a stalking tool?

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Dee Ann

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 28, 2009
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HELP!!

My best friend's son is a nut. A certified nutcase, a very dangerous person.
He was just released from prison and has a history of violence against people and against his own mother. She is terrified of him.

He just purchased a brand new iPhone 3GS and has been telling his mother, sister, and pretty much everyone else that he is using the GPS in the phone to locate everyone he talks to and now everyone is terrified of him, myself included because my friend is staying with me, she's left her abusive husband and insane, abusive son. I don't think he can find her via his iphone but I'm still scared of the guy, he was in prison for murder.

But honestly, I believe that the guy is talking trash. Please tell me he is!

He was in prison when the iPhone was released and the closest he's ever been to one before Oct 1 was watching Apple commercials in the prison day room.

He's only been out of prison 10 days now so there's no way he could even know how to use the thing properly yet, much less hack it..

But really, can he use his iPhone to pinpoint people he talks to on the phone?
I would think at best he might be able to know what city someone is in but to get their exact GPS location?

Please tell us this guy is full of BS, he's got a lot of people terrified and it would be great if y'all could verify if what the guy is saying is trash or truth..

Thank you very much!
 
He's full of crap.

BTW, since he's out of prison, have you contacted the police about any of this? Even though his threats are baseless, he's obviously got problems that prison didn't solve.
 
Dee Ann said:
HELP!!

My best friend's son is a nut. A certified nutcase, a very dangerous person.
He was just released from prison and has a history of violence against people and against his own mother. She is terrified of him.

He just purchased a brand new iPhone 3GS and has been telling his mother, sister, and pretty much everyone else that he is using the GPS in the phone to locate everyone he talks to and now everyone is terrified of him, myself included because my friend is staying with me, she's left her abusive husband and insane, abusive son. I don't think he can find her via his iphone but I'm still scared of the guy, he was in prison for murder.

But honestly, I believe that the guy is talking trash. Please tell me he is!

He was in prison when the iPhone was released and the closest he's ever been to one before Oct 1 was watching Apple commercials in the prison day room.

He's only been out of prison 10 days now so there's no way he could even know how to use the thing properly yet, much less hack it..

But really, can he use his iPhone to pinpoint people he talks to on the phone?
I would think at best he might be able to know what city someone is in but to get their exact GPS location?

Please tell us this guy is full of BS, he's got a lot of people terrified and it would be great if y'all could verify if what the guy is saying is trash or truth..

Thank you very much!
Click to expand...

The GPS in the iPhone is a receiver only, not a transmitter.

The only way someone's phone can give another person their location is if the phone owner chooses to.

There are some applications that will enable this, but her son would have to get hold of her phone to install one of these, which I'm sure she is not going to permit.

And he is talking smack, that's all.
 
iphone.aggie said:
He's full of crap.

BTW, since he's out of prison, have you contacted the police about any of this? Even though his threats are baseless, he's obviously got problems that prison didn't solve.
Click to expand...

Not that I don't think he has issues, but this has got to be one of the funniest/ironic statements I have ever heard.
 
iphone.aggie said:
He's full of crap.

BTW, since he's out of prison, have you contacted the police about any of this? Even though his threats are baseless, he's obviously got problems that prison didn't solve.
Click to expand...

If he is on parole, his parole officer should know about these claims as ridiculous as they are, but they show a pattern of harassment.
 
polobreaka said:
why not put him on a restraining order?
Click to expand...


She's now in a different county than where the last assault against her (by her son) happened. She can't get a restraining order against him in THIS county because he hasn't assaulted or harmed her in this county. YET.

The police said that she CAN file against AFTER and only after he's assaulted her in this county. :mad:

The police are NOT very helpful. They prefer to wait until it's all over with so they can write a report and hit the doughnut shop faster.
 
Dee Ann said:
But honestly, I believe that the guy is talking trash. Please tell me he is!
Click to expand...

Yes, he is. The only thing that comes even close to tracking other people's locations with the iPhone is google latitude, which you need to allow to use your location, and be running for it to update in real time.

So in short, no, he can't go out, get an iPhone and then track everyone he calls or he talks to.
 
Oh, one thing I forgot, he claims that all incoming calls to his phone give him the GPS location of the caller. I know better (I hope) but everyone else is believing his BS claims.

Oh and one last question. He sent sexually harassing text messages to me from another man's cell phone before he got that iphone. Isn't that a federal crime?
Sending harassing messages over a telephone (cell phone or home phone)??

I got a Skype phone for my friend (his mom) who resides with me for now and got her Skype in and out so she can talk to people on cell/home/biz phones and they can call her back as well from cell/home/biz phones.

He doesn't know that's a Skype phone but can he track her down through that somehow using an iphone? I doubt that he can but we are scared of him and it would be nice to know for sure he can not.

I googled her Skype phone number and it showed her location as somewhere on a ship dock in a refinery in another city.

Thank you guys!
 
Dee Ann said:
Oh, one thing I forgot, he claims that all incoming calls to his phone give him the GPS location of the caller. I know better (I hope) but everyone else is believing his BS claims.

Oh and one last question. He sent sexually harassing text messages to me from another man's cell phone before he got that iphone. Isn't that a federal crime?
Sending harassing messages over a telephone (cell phone or home phone)??

I got a Skype phone for my friend (his mom) who resides with me for now and got her Skype in and out so she can talk to people on cell/home/biz phones and they can call her back as well from cell/home/biz phones.

He doesn't know that's a Skype phone but can he track her down through that somehow using an iphone? I doubt that he can but we are scared of him and it would be nice to know for sure he can not.

I googled her Skype phone number and it showed her location as somewhere on a ship dock in a refinery in another city.

Thank you guys!
Click to expand...

No, he can't do anything he claims.

You need to be talking to the police about all this, not us.
 
Personally, I think the boy should be arrested and charged with terrorism because he IS causing fear and terror in the people he talks to. I'm sure there is some sort of law against what he is doing. Everyone KNOWS he's dangerous. He doesn't have to make a direct threat such as "I'm going to kill you", he's IMPLYING that he is going to come do harm to people when he says "I know exactly where you are, I tracked your GPS location with my iphone."

My friend has called the police. They won't do anything until AFTER he's done violence against her. That's the way it works for us women. :mad:
 
Dee Ann said:
Personally, I think the boy should be arrested and charged with terrorism because he IS causing fear and terror in the people he talks to. I'm sure there is some sort of law against what he is doing. Everyone KNOWS he's dangerous. He doesn't have to make a direct threat such as "I'm going to kill you", he's IMPLYING that he is going to come do harm to people when he says "I know exactly where you are, I tracked your GPS location with my iphone."

My friend has called the police. They won't do anything until AFTER he's done violence against her. That's the way it works for us women. :mad:
Click to expand...

Does the city/county where you live have a domestic violence unit. If this is her son, then they could probably assume jurisdiction. Terrorism isn't an option, he hasn't even begun to violate the terrorism statues.

Of course, all the states, cities and counties have differently worded ordinances but the prosecutor's office might have a liaison person whom your friend could speak with. If she is truly afraid and believes he would/could cause her bodily harm based on his threats, there might be a statute which is applicable.

The sexually harassing stuff sent via telecommunications device could possibly constitute a violation depending upon the specific nature of what was sent. You would have to follow up with you local law enforcenment.

Your friend needs to start keeping a written log of all the events which cause her genuine concern or fear for her safety. The log needs to be legit and should not contain stuff which is ambiguous or is not specific to her feelings of fear or harassment.
 
bytethese said:
Seriously, this post is legit? If so, I'll be very shocked...
Click to expand...

Oh yes, let me assure you, this is all very, very real. We wish it wasn't but it is.

You want her son's phone number so you can call and ask him about his terroristic BS and sexual harassment BS?
I'll be glad to give it to you can you can call the devil himself and you'll find out.
 
Why did his mother give him her phone number in the first place? Seems like if everyone's already afraid of him, they certanly wouldn't want him calling them up.
 
Dee Ann said:
Oh yes, let me assure you, this is all very, very real. We wish it wasn't but it is.

You want her son's phone number so you can call and ask him about his terroristic BS and sexual harassment BS?
I'll be glad to give it to you can you can call the devil himself and you'll find out.
Click to expand...

Yes, please. Post the number so we can all verify. Thanks!
 
japanime said:
Why did his mother give him her phone number in the first place? Seems like if everyone's already afraid of him, they certanly wouldn't want him calling them up.
Click to expand...

He's her son. He was just released from prison. She HOPED he would have learned to behave himself. She was wrong. And she was living with her husband at the time of her son's release, he was paroled to their house. She had to flee the house because of her abusive husband who became even more abusive upon the arrival of her son. The two of them teamed up against her and terrorized her.

She called me, I came and got her and am providing shelter for her.

They police are useless, they don't help women until it's TOO LATE.

bytethese said:
Yes, please. Post the number so we can all verify. Thanks!
Click to expand...

someone has told me I could be in legal trouble for posting his phone number.
I do not need legal trouble.

But. If somehow his phone number ended up on 4chan.......... :cool:
 
A number that shows on the recent call list that is not already in your contacts usually shows some kind of origin. Most will at least show the state and usually the city it originated from. So if you called him, it is possible that at least he would know the city you were calling from but not a gps location.
 
Wnp32d said:
A number that shows on the recent call list that is not already in your contacts usually shows some kind of origin. Most will at least show the state and usually the city it originated from. So if you called him, it is possible that at least he would know the city you were calling from but not a gps location.
Click to expand...

Well, being that he was in prison, he knows how to play head games.

For instance, he called his sister and told that BS to her, then (I suspect) he GUESSED at her location and when she gave a panicked reaction, he knew he hit paydirt and thus had won that round of head games with her. He then had the upper hand on her as she was now in fear, she believed he had the power to track and locate her as he claimed.

She then called her mom and told her about this, putting her into a state of fear.
Most of the people he has messed with in this manner are women that are not too savvy as to the way an iPhone works or what one can do.

I have an iPhone and I smelled BS as soon as she told me. I wasn't 100% sure but I was at least 99% sure he was full of it.

To ease the mind of my friend I knew that THIS was the very best place to ask, people that KNOW the capabilities of the iPhone.
 
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