- Matthew Weigman
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Mathew Weigman 
Unlike most hackers, Weigman is famous for hacking telephones rather than computers. He is also noteworthy for having a heightened sense of hearing as a result of being born blind, a skill he has used to become one of the most notorious phone hackers of all time.Born Boston, Massachusetts Charge(s) Conspiring in Swatting Pranks Penalty 135 Months in Prison Status Currently serving time Matthew Weigman is a blind man who used his heightened hearing ability to help him hack phones. Before getting arrested at the age of eighteen Weigman had used this ability to become one of the most notorious phone hackers of all time, memorizing phone numbers by tone and performing uncanny imitations of various phone line operators to perform pranks such as swatting on his rivals.[1]
Contents
Early life
Matthew Weigman is a young man who was born and raised in East Boston. Matthew had an unfortunate disability, his optic nerve was atrophied and damaged,[2] so he was born blind. It was very difficult for him to make friends and have a social life. At a young age, Weigman was taught how to crawl and read Braille by a mentor he was assigned to.[2] For a little while, Weigman’s family had hoped his eyes might start working. At the age of 4, Matthew’s mother became aware of his amazing sense of hearing.[2] During that Christmas, his mother turned on the Christmas lights and Matthew told her he could see the lights.[2] She soon realized this was due to his amazing sense of hearing; he heard her turn on and off the switch.[2] He was able to develop a bit of an ability to perceive light,[2] but he remained blind . This caused Matthew to grow up as a very self conscious boy. He was embarrassed of his eyes because they would roll back and forth randomly, which was due to nystagmus; a condition that individuals usually have with optic nerve damage.[2] He never really left the house because he knew that this would cause others to become frightened and confused.
At the age of 11, Matthew came across party lines.[2] His friends said that after only a few years, he was so addicted to these party lines that he would spend days on the phone.[2] This gave Matthew a chance to make friends and to socialize with others without being embarrassed or shy. Weigman enjoyed being on the lines and became fascinated with the technology.[2] He wasn’t able to use computers due to his inability to see, but he was able to discover his interest in the technology of the phone system with the help of his amazing sense of hearing and his recently developed auditory memory.[2] This is where Matthew met individuals known as “phreakers”, who are people that search telephone networks in hopes to exploit the vulnerable.[2] The party lines are where Matthews telephone hacking began, and he was soon to be known as one of the best.
First offense
At the age of 14, Matthew had already gained a considerable amount of skill and knowledge about phone hacking via party lines but had not yet used these skills to do anything illegal.[1] However, when a girl named Danielle upset Weigman during a party line session, Weigman decided to get his revenge. The prank he pulled on Danielle is known in the telephone hacking community as swatting because the purpose of the prank is to get the swat team to storm into the house of the target.[1] By rigging the his caller ID to appear to be coming from Danielle's house and by slightly adjusting his voice, Weigman called Danielle's local police department pretending to be a crazed gunman holding Danielle and her father at gunpoint.[3] The prank went off without a hitch and began a life long obsession for Weigman who performed as many as 60 other swatting pranks over the years of his hacking career.[1]
Learning to hack telephones
Matthew was born blind, due to his damaged and atrophied optic nerve. In Matthew’s childhood years, he was partnered with a counselor who had taught him how to crawl and how to read braille.[1] Matthew had developed a keen sense of hearing and memory. He was able to impersonate any voice, memorize phone numbers by listening to the phone tones, and he gained the skills to understand the inner working of a phone network system by listening to the different frequencies.[1] He had ability to mimic characters he herd on television and play songs on the piano by ear.[1] Weigman’s first experience with hacking was by accident. Weigman was on the phone party line when he held the star button and voice on the other end replied “Moderator On” and as he pressed the pound key, he gained access to the numbers of all the callers in phone party line. He realized that he could get the number of anyone that anger him and he could harass them at their home phone number.[1] At the age of 14, Weigman learned to gain access into Verizon and AT&T, by imitating as an employee of the company, Weigman was known for
“conning telecom employees into believing he was a colleague to gain access to unlisted numbers, the ability to shut off a rival's service or listen in on others' calls”[4]
Weigman learned to phreak phones and phone networks very well. With his ability he was able to shut of one’s phone service, dig up unlisted numbers, listen in on conversations. 1 Another trick that Weigman learned was spoofing, using either techniques he learned at home, or purchasing commercial services such as spoof cards.[1] This allowed him to hide the identity of the phone number he was using, and also to choose any number he wished to display on the caller id on the receiving end of call.[1] This would make it very confusing for some people to identify the caller.
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Like a comic-book villain transformed by a tragic accident, Weigman discovered at an early age that his acute hearing :gave him superpowers on the telephone. He could impersonate any voice, memorize phone numbers by the sound of the buttons and :decipher the inner workings of a phone system by the frequencies and clicks on a call, which he refers to as “songs.” The :knowledge enabled him to hack into cellphones, order phone lines disconnected and even tap home phones. “Man, it felt pretty :powerful for a little kid,” he says. “Anyone said something bad about me, and I’d press a button, and I’d get them.[5]
Current incarceration
On June 26, 2009, Matthew Weigman was sentenced for 135 months by US District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn, for convictions related to his involvement of swatting conspiracy. He was in federal custody since he was arrested in May 2008 in Boston.[3] Weigman was involved in making threats to a Verizon Security Officer, and attempted to hack into an US attorney’s voice- mail system in Dallas.[3] Weigman plead guilty to:
“…one count of conspiracy to retaliate against a witness, victim or an informant, and one count of conspiracy to commit access device fraud and unauthorized access of a protected computer.” [6]
Weigman admitted that he and his alliances made unauthorized access into Telecommunication Company’s sensitive information to gather personal identification information on certain people. He also pleaded guilty to using software’s to modify the telecommunication devices to gain free telephone service and to cut lines of other telephone subscribers.[6] On May 18, 2008, Weigman drove to the residence of the Verizon investigator who was investigating Weigman’s activity, and attempted to intimidate and frighten him. Weigman had admitted that he had already placed intimidating and harassing messages and calls to the investigator.[7] When Weigman phone line was disconnected by Verizon because the phone line he was using was illegitimate, he infiltrated the Verizon phone systems and he used this information to harass the employee and to gain information about the status of his investigation that Verizon was conducting.[7]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "14-year-old blind kid, angry and alone, discovered that he possessed a superpower — one that put him in the cross hairs of the FBI". Thepeoplesvoice.org. 23 August 2009. http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/08/23/14-year-old-blind-kid-angry-and-alone-di. Retrieved 15 July 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Morrell, Dan (February 2009). "Disconnected". Boston Magazine. http://www.bostonmagazine.com/articles/disconnected/page1. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
- ^ a b c Poulsen, Kevin (29 June 2009). "Blind Hacker Sentenced to 11 Years in Prison". Wired.com. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/blind_hacker/. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
- ^ Trahan, Jason (31 August 2008). "FBI: Teen Matthew Weigman tried to hack into Dallas' U.S. attorney's phone system". The Dallas Morning New. http://www.txcn.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/083108dnmethacker.36934b9.html. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
- ^ :"14-year-old blind kid, angry and alone, discovered that he possessed a superpower — one that put him in the cross hairs of the FBI", The Peoples Voice (13 August 2009)
- ^ a b Wilonsky, Robert (29 June 2009). "The 19-Year-Old Blind "Little Hacker" Gets 135 Months in Federal Prison For "Swatting"". The Dallas Observer. http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/06/the_blind_little_hacker_gets_1.php. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
- ^ a b Jacks, James T. (29 January 2009). "INDIVIDUAL PLEADS GUILTY IN SWATTING CONSPIRACY CASE". The Dallas Observer. http://www.justice.gov/usao/txn/PressRel09/weigman_swat_ple_pr.html. Retrieved 16 July 2011.
External links
Categories:- Phreaking
- Living people
- Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government
- People from Boston, Massachusetts
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