--- title: Fake Cell Phone Towers Could Be Tapping Into Your Phone | TIME description: According to a report from Popular Science, fake cell phone towers across the U.S. are intercepting the communications of any cell phone in signal range — including calls and text messages. canonical: https://time.com/video/Qiz2DbKT/ og:title: Fake Cell Phone Towers Could Be Tapping Into Your Phone og:description: According to a report from Popular Science, fake cell phone towers across the U.S. are intercepting the communications of any cell phone in signal range — including calls and text messages. og:url: https://time.com/video/Qiz2DbKT/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Qiz2DbKT/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Fake Cell Phone Towers Could Be Tapping Into Your Phone twitter:description: According to a report from Popular Science, fake cell phone towers across the U.S. are intercepting the communications of any cell phone in signal range — including calls and text messages. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Qiz2DbKT/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Fake Cell Phone Towers Could Be Tapping Into Your Phone > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Fake Cell Phone Towers Could Be Tapping Into Your Phone [Watch (HLS stream): Fake Cell Phone Towers Could Be Tapping Into Your Phone](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Qiz2DbKT.m3u8) (1:51)  _Published 2014-09-04. According to a report from Popular Science, fake cell phone towers across the U.S. are intercepting the communications of any cell phone in signal range — including calls and text messages._ --- Jul 27, 2023 5:12 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Cell Phone Radiation May Be Dangerous, California Health Officials Warn](/video/n1CGAbs7/) ### Cell Phone Radiation May Be Dangerous, California Health Officials Warn [Can a Cell Phone Give You Brain Cancer?](/video/Dbu6v6hT/) ### Can a Cell Phone Give You Brain Cancer? [The Cell Phone Turns 40](/video/MxhokURv/) ### The Cell Phone Turns 40 --- ## Transcript So here's a new and potentially creepy reason to worry about privacy and security on your phone. Are mysterious fake cell phone towers tapping your phone? A new report says 17 of these fake towers have been found across the United States. According to that reports by Popular Science no one knows where these imposter towers came from or who owns them. But they're apparently scattered throughout the US, intercepting the communications of any cellphone in signal range, including calls and text messages. The Atlas spoke to Les Goldsmith, the CEO of Technology Security Company ESD America, who says, he discovered at least 17 fake towers in July, by using the Cryptophone 500. A secure Android mobile device created by his company and he claims there could be more. So, who owns these mysterious towers. What are they trying to intercept and why? Several of the towers were apparently located here in the US military bases which could mean they belong to law enforcement agencies or the military. Rate itself. But Cloud Security Firm, Silver Sky's Chief Technology Officer tells Venture Beat, it's not one of the usual suspects, the NSA. The NSA doesn't need a fake tower. They can just go to the carrier to tap your line. V Live Security says, we shouldn't assume these towers are the big static structures we're used to seeing. Instead the outlet says it's more likely they're mobile installations of the kind used not only by law enforcement and government agencies, but also by scammers and other criminals. Dockers Black Bag adds a bit of caution to the report, noting some skeptics believe the whole thing is nothing more than a marketing ploy for ESD and its $ 3, 500 cryptophone. Goldsmith didn't say what types of devices he detected, but [ MUSIC ] Regardless ComputerWorld says you might be able to tell if your phone is being intercepted if it suddenly crashes from 4G to 2G. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Fake Cell Phone Towers Could Be Tapping Into Your Phone","description":"According to a report from Popular Science, fake cell phone towers across the U.S. are intercepting the communications of any cell phone in signal range — including calls and text messages.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Qiz2DbKT/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-09-04T16:49:11.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Qiz2DbKT.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/Qiz2DbKT/","duration":"PT1M51S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/Qiz2DbKT/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```