Getting Investigated

Ok, i'm basically a freelance hacker. I love to code and that's pretty much my hobby. I usually only perform a righteous hack whenever i need something or i want to get somewhere. Well, about 3 weeks ago, Comcast disabled its service with me because of what they called "computer suspicions". They said that i was using their service for more than just a glance of the net.

Anyways, i was wanting to connect one night about a week ago but i couldn't. So, i used a device that i personally made to catch wireless signals and direct them where i please. I have 2 neighbors that run broadband and 1 was using high-speed so i chose his. Jim is his name. He is an older man and doesn't really know pc's from his ass. So, i bootlegged his signal and used it as my own. I connected, did some things..and got off immediately afterwards.

The next day, i arrive home from college and my dad says that the TBI (Tennessee Bureau of Investigation) has been to my house and asks me why. I didn't realize why at first but i did shortly after. They came back later that night, took my to their headquarters i guess somewhere down in downtown chattanooga. They questioned me and shit but i didn't confess to anything. They told me that someone had stolen service from my neighbor and that was fraud. I was scared shitless. After they left me in a room alone for an hour and a half and then finally released me to go home.

Since then, my shit doesn't look the same anymore. I have an Alienware Area-51 ALX CFX. I think i'm being watched and my connection right now is secure so i know they can't see this. They said they were starting an investigation and it could last for up to a year. Also, I have seen 2 different cars like circling my neighborhood all the fucking time now.

My questions are: 1.) What rights do they(TBI) really have? 2.) Can they invade my house and grab my software, disks, pc, etc? 3.) Can they tap my phone lines?

I'm really worried about this bullshit and my days might be numbered on here. I know that if they get their hands on my shit, i'm almost confident they'll charge me with some other shit. Sorry for this thread's length and thanks for those of you who take the time to read.

COD3 wrote:

My questions are: 1.) What rights do they(TBI) really have? 2.) Can they invade my house and grab my software, disks, pc, etc? 3.) Can they tap my phone lines?

If they can convince a judge to give them a search warrant, they can search your premises, seize your hardware, and or tap your phone line.

http://www.criminal-law-lawyer-source.com/terms/search-warrant.html

COD3 wrote: I think i'm being watched and my connection right now is secure so i know they can't see this. Come on, if they know you're a member of a site called 'Hellbound Hackers' they'll probably check your posts even if you're using a secure conenction when posting…

1.) What rights do they(TBI) really have? They can do everything you mentioned and even more stuff.

2.) Can they invade my house and grab my software, disks, pc, etc? Yes.

3.) Can they tap my phone lines? Yes.

Damn, I really hope everything will go well for you :| Good luck!

yeah man, they can basically do anything they want(especially if they have reasonable grounds for doing it) with some limitations of course

Hope this goes well for you, Good Luck man and be careful what you do on your computer.

They'll probably make you clean up stuff if they get you.

How old are you again?

spyware wrote: They'll probably make you clean up stuff if they get you.

How old are you again?

Community service if you're a minor is a good bet. If you've reached the age of majority, you may be looking at something a bit more serious.

Hard Drive + Bin?

well i mean…assume another identity..piggy back his connection again steal some data makes some cheap charges from some crappy company..get them looking somewhere else :p okay yea that was a joke but that really blows…i have my suspicions of being watched i dont know if its real or just paranoia BUT my friend here in town just got caught so im laying low for a while…i mean i dont really hack..jjuusst…yea anyway i really hope everything works out…i wouldn't say they could invade your house if they do they need a search warrant i mean…not unless you did something REALLY bad haha…but if you found out that they did with out your knowledge i would clean up your HDDs and press charges.

It should be fine, just don't make yourself look suspicious.

WoW people are actually taking this guy seriousley…my first thought was when this guy said "righteouse hack" that he just saw the movie Hackers and is lookin for mondo attention and respect on here. So just my personal opinion…but u sound just like an idiot. braggin like u did this u did that and now your investigated. I've already been arrested myself for cyber crimes and the TBI would not be the people involved in cyber crime…even local. And yeah…Underage which is wat i was…u only get fines and community service generally. I had 2 months community service…blacklisted…and 1500 dollars in fines…:(. Anywho if ur tellin the truth good luck.but in all honesty i don't believe any of dat shit. Oh…btw u don't need a special device to route the wireless signal…just use ur own router to cross refrence theres with your signal and crack there wpa keys. Aight…well i guess im done giving my input. -peace

dude, if they call you a terrorist, they can do anything they want to you.

And just to get things straight, a terrorist isn't some middle-eastern bomber trying to kill "innocent" Americans. Terrorism is the act of causing terror, so they very well could say that you are causing people to be terrified for their financial safety. That law really doesn't make sense though, considering the U.S. Government uses terrorism too… >.>

^^^^lol…well put skunk ;)

id just buy an external hdd, just to be safe, then id put a new hdd in my comp, give the one that was in my comp to a friend for safe keeping, then put the new one in my computer, format, and that takes care of one problem, for the others, have a friend hang onto anything you seem leery about…

vicioushaxor wrote: id just buy an external hdd, just to be safe, then id put a new hdd in my comp, give the one that was in my comp to a friend for safe keeping, then put the new one in my computer, format, and that takes care of one problem, for the others, have a friend hang onto anything you seem leery about…

http://sourceforge.net/projects/eraser/

http://www.truecrypt.org/

Use these. Encrypt any data you need to keep, then securely erase the entire HDD. Good luck.

man that sucks. Hope everything goes well for you.

COD3 wrote: My questions are: 1.) What rights do they(TBI) really have? 2.) Can they invade my house and grab my software, disks, pc, etc? 3.) Can they tap my phone lines?

1. in the US right? Anything. plain and simple.

2. nothing is going to happen. You have a record. that's it.

If you are worried, talk to a cyber crimes lawer. (hint: yellow pages)

3. everyone is tapped. wiki echelon.

Thanks for your input guys, and sorry this has taken so long. I am being legit about this and why in the hell would i try to claim attention to myself. I've never even seen the movie "Hackers". I didn't even know there was such. All I know is that these people are fucking serious and I will take your advice and switch hardrives. I know how and it shouldn't cost that much. They haven't invaded my house yet..for all i know. I guess I'll just have to wait this thing out and watch my ass. Once again..thanks for your help and support.

COD3 ,buy external HDD 4 yor safety

Sucks to be american I guess, land of the 'free' xD

Glad I'm in Germany, if anyone asks me something here I'm like 'ich spreche kein deutsch', or talk really fast english and just walk away.

Anyway, you shouldn't be posting about this stuff on a public forum. And you did use some sort of hdd encryption like pgp, right? Try not to get caught next time :ninja:

no but i should've. I have never heard of it. Pretty Good Privacy? heh..

heres what i would do.

Burning a computer is pointless, data is still easily recoverable. If you want to destroy your computer, or anything for that matter, take a look at this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=thermite&btnG=Google+Search

not if you do this first.[img]http://www.wikco.com/images/avp1.jpg[/url]

"dur dur durrr, I'mma gonna burn my computer and huff the burning plastic…"

If something has not happened yet, it probably will never happen so long as you do not go to a forum and post your life's story. Usually the authority has one shot to try you for something so they will wait and see if you do anything stupid. This isn't too serious, but when it is, why do people never say something like "I have feds looking at me, don't talk to me."

And also, I think that just knowing how to do something gets treated like a terrorist.

Here is an article about the USA and terror. Please read it, we honestly need more people to know we're scum. http://hnn.us/articles/32497.html

EDIT: you might want to check out the PGP digital safe. Make your own compression/ encryption algorithm and get privacy as good as or better than PGP (RSA/PGP have been around for a while).

I think this whole thread is bullshit. There is too much shit going on.

They haven't invaded my house yet..for all i know.

Since then, my shit doesn't look the same anymore.

Contradicting a bit.

Also, I have seen 2 different cars like circling my neighborhood all the fucking time now.

Yeah , their looking in the window to see what your doing. FUCK.

And they also knew somehow your neighbors connection got jacked and pointed it to you. HMMM.

And now your posting in a public viewed forum on hbh this whole story. If I was being checked out by the police (I not stupid so I won't be) I wouldn't post my story online. (At least you could have put in offtopic for members only)

Just my point of view by I've seen this before. Someone trying to be cool.

Thank FUCKING GOD! Som1 who understand wtf i mean! Thank you Korg! Exactly wat i meant!! :P

Too much for me I don't believe one word.

lol, yeah…i've personally been arrested for that kinda shit…and they definately don't just let your HDD go if they suspect you, it just dont work like that.,…plus he mentioned that whole shit bout his neighbor not knowing anything…yet his neibor was able to 1.detect. 2.track and 3. report to proper authorities…….like wtf? especially on a Wireless connection if u didn't know much you'd be fucked as far as telling if it was hijacked, i hijack signals around here all the time xD, lol.

What's even funnier is he was on a secure line so the"feds" didn't know he was on here. WTF.

LOL i know..its a public site so wtf was he thinking….oh…im on a secure line…i can go post on Youtube or Myspace a confession to murder and no one can see it lol

Sounds to me like someone should lay off the drugs for a while - lol 2 different cars!!!!!

Here's a good one, maybe you've been like sucked intop the matrix only you are neo and ur neighbour is morpheus???????

Dude, if they wanted u they would have got u by now, they don't take u in for hacking and then just let u and ur pc go - that only happens in movies!

If they had any evidence they would have stormed the house early one morning and just taken the lot!

And who the fuck are the TBI? are they renowned for dealing with cyber crime?

And since when has hijacking a signal been fraud? Isn't it classed as interfering with telecommunications or something?

Right, take a deep breath cos heres your choices……………

a) Get a life, a connection of your own and learn how and who to hack without being caught or having to make up shit

b) Decide they are after you, grow up and pack your pc away. Then go and live in a cave system somewhere where they'll never find u!

Lol…i love this guy above LMAO…^^^^^^. anywho…also the first thing you thought when you had 2 new cars commin round outside your house was investigated? idk…my first thought was maybe…new neighbors? lol..man get real….seriously…and yea. ive nver heard of TBI either but i don't live there so i'll lay off…but i doubt such a local sounding authority would do anything more than just take you in to FBI cyber crime unit…and probably not even that. What the guys said above about it being interfering with telecommunications is about right…thats basically wat i was caught for…except i expanding it to hijacking a network entirely of a school system…so it was like government damage and interference or something like dat…anywho. Grow up…get a life…and lay off the movies. lol.

if legal action is a possibility upon initial investigation the folowing steps are taken;

• Take custody of the entire computer, including keyboard and other peripherals, floppy diskettes and other removable media so you can show that what you took was a working computer.

• Note unique identifiers, label items taken, seal smaller items in plastic bags and place in a secure area.

• Document who did what throughout the chain of custody for each item collected. Maintain logs of where you are keeping records.

• If the computer is to be recirculated, take the hard drive from the machine and secure it. An original makes the best evidence.

• Then make a forensically sound image of the hard drive, using hardware-based drive imaging tools as opposed to a write-blocking software tool. (Tools can be found at www.forennc.com and www.foren sics-intl.com.) At this time, also note the system date/time before resecuring the hard drive.

• Other data sources, such as network file shares and e-mail located in server-based e-mail systems, must be considered and preserved. Data throughout the network is the most difficult to gather and analyze, so EED has created a discovery tool for this widespread data

Did this happen to you?

no

So go back to school and quit being paranoid

mambo

This sounds like bullshit. Sorry the cops dont care about a kid pirating wireless.

Grow up.

IF this is true then you should hire a lawyer

Did they ever have any alone time with your PC? I donno…I'm not sure how they could have known you were using your neighbors wireless signal without some sort of surveillance..I've had this done to me once sorta I was put in the back of a cruiser (not cuffed, but wanted for questioning) and I pulled out my cell phone and they were like 'woah woah woah..lemme see that' and then pretended to forget about it when taking me back (I opted for a lawyer, something you should always do in the U.S.). Later that night I took my battery out and there was a chip on the back. Donno if it was a GPS or tap (though I'm leaning towards GPS, my theory is that when they had the evidence needed they wouldn't need to worry about retracking me down again as the GPS would do the work for them). Needless to say I removed it, but if they ever had any alone time with anything of yours do a sweep for anything that wasn't there physically beforehand.

sqldumpftw wrote: This sounds like bullshit. Sorry the cops dont care about a kid pirating wireless.

Grow up.

IF this is true then you should hire a lawyer

Though this sounds more like what's actually oging on. It would be hard for them to discover you were stealing wireless in the first place since your neighbor 'knows nothing about pcs etc' and the fact that of all the things they could have brought up, (You're some 3lit3 h4x0r, whose playground is the internet etc), and they bring up stealing wireless? Lol I have a friend only surfs the net through stolen wireless. Well 90% of the time :p

i hate charging people up but your more stupid than that blunt dude.

slpctrl wrote: Did they ever have any alone time with your PC? I donno…I'm not sure how they could have known you were using your neighbors wireless signal without some sort of surveillance..I've had this done to me once sorta I was put in the back of a cruiser (not cuffed, but wanted for questioning) and I pulled out my cell phone and they were like 'woah woah woah..lemme see that' and then pretended to forget about it when taking me back (I opted for a lawyer, something you should always do in the U.S.). Later that night I took my battery out and there was a chip on the back. Donno if it was a GPS or tap (though I'm leaning towards GPS, my theory is that when they had the evidence needed they wouldn't need to worry about retracking me down again as the GPS would do the work for them). Needless to say I removed it, but if they ever had any alone time with anything of yours do a sweep for anything that wasn't there physically beforehand.

[quote]sqldumpftw wrote: This sounds like bullshit. Sorry the cops dont care about a kid pirating wireless.

Grow up.

IF this is true then you should hire a lawyer

Though this sounds more like what's actually oging on. It would be hard for them to discover you were stealing wireless in the first place since your neighbor 'knows nothing about pcs etc' and the fact that of all the things they could have brought up, (You're some 3lit3 h4x0r, whose playground is the internet etc), and they bring up stealing wireless? Lol I have a friend only surfs the net through stolen wireless. Well 90% of the time :p[/quote]

Lol…speaking of cruising the net through stolen wireless….thats pretty much what i did when i was living where i could only get dial up or sattellite, lol. I'd just hijack a wireless signal for free and have like 20x faster speed and shit. Now im in a place i get Broadband with DSL so glad to say i don't have to do that anymore.:p

I kinda think of feds like that farside cartoon. There is a guy on a soap box shouting "the vampires are coming! they are among us!! blah blah blah!!!" and then there's a couple guys moving a huge mirror behind him and non of the people in the street have a reflection except for the guy on the soap box.

moral is, don't talk about hacking or crap to anyone. no one needs to know, and you don't owe anyone anything!

and don't be an idiot like the op. Anything like that is an easy arrest. They have stupid fucking laws against cracking wep and whatnot so they can arrest stupid people.

sounds like a bullshit story to me, You connected to someone's wireless for a few hours and your getting investigated, > "They said they were starting an investigation and it could last for up to a year." erm… WTF!!!! and if they where investigating you, there not going to fucking tell you about it! :angry: