‘It’s Perfect for a Burglar’ : Users of Cordless Phones Warned of Eavesdroppers

John Sullivan, a University of Scranton freshman, has a warning for the more than 9 million people who use cordless telephones: eavesdroppers may be listening.

Sullivan, 18, said no elaborate monitoring equipment is needed to listen to the private conversations of people using cordless phones.

“Just about any radio will do it,” he said. “Turn an AM radio past the 16,000 mark. And the older the radio, the better chances you’ll have--the older ones don’t have solid-state.”

Sullivan ought to know. He has listened to conversations on subjects varying from drug deals to the sexual exploits of cheating spouses and stockbrokers discussing the details of a prime purchase.

‘Called Tons of People’

Sullivan does most of his listening on a ham radio and often calls people to tell them he eavesdropped.

“I’ve called tons of people after listening to their conversations and really no one knew this was happening,” Sullivan said. “One woman asked if I’d read ‘1984’ and another said she’d call the police.”

Sullivan, of Haddonfield, N.J., said people usually give their names during conversations and he just looks them up in the phone book. Many people, he added, think interception of the average phone conversation would damage no one.

“But any conversation has the potential to be damaging if taken a certain way,” he said. “If nothing else, a burglar could hear you say you’ll be out of the house. This whole thing is a mess and it’s just going to get worse.”

The Federal Communications Commission says cordless telephones have been improved since they burst onto the market a few years ago. Conversations from the newer phones probably can’t be picked up on a conventional radio anymore, but a ham radio operator has a clear shot to eavesdrop on any cordless phone, an FCC official said.

‘Buying Like Crazy’

“It’s perfect for a burglar,” said the FCC’s Jeff Young. “Although we don’t have any numbers to support it, I would imagine the number of people eavesdropping has risen over the last few years.

“I really don’t think the public, as a whole, are aware of people listening to their conversations,” he said. “They’re buying the telephones like crazy.”

Young said there is no move to make such eavesdropping unlawful, but it is already illegal to divulge any information gained.

Sullivan contended that technical efforts to block such eavesdropping will fail.

“Their efforts to make listening-in impossible won’t work,” he said. “There’s always going to be a way to beat it.”

Sullivan said conversations on the new telephones may be monitored by a scanner--a device most ham operators have. He said companies claim to have built the newer phones to reduce static, but it probably was an attempt to limit the distance over which the signals can be received.