MARQUETTE -- Phone hacking is all over national media following the British News of the World scandal, but what is it and how is it done?
That's our Facebook Story of the Day.
Phone hacking, generally, often involves breaking into a person's voicemail system. It can be done a few different ways, but alarmingly, the most common way is simple.
Many cell phones come with a default voicemail password that some users never change. Hackers can simply dial an individual's number, enter the default password, and then have access to voicemails and mailbox settings.
This kind of activity isn't just an invasion of privacy, it's also illegal.
"When you tamper with somebody's phone line, whether it's mobile or whether it's a landline, you could find yourself in jail," said Steven Snowaert of the Marquette Police Department.
The Marquette Police Department says they haven't received any complaints of this happening in Marquette, possibly because it's hard to tell if someone has tampered with a voicemail system. The best thing you can do is to protect yourself is to create a unique password.
Another hacking method, called spoofing, doesn't require a voicemail password at all. In those situations, authorities urge you to closely monitor your phone records for indications of calls that appear to be made on your phone line to your voicemail that weren't actually placed by you.
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