FCC Acts Concerned About Telco Doublespeak

Note To Fugitives: Stay Off Of Skype

from the man-on-the-run dept

Fri, Aug 25th 2006 1:04pm — Carlo Longino

We reported last week about Kobi Alexander, the ex-CEO of Comverse, who's gone on the lam to avoid charges relating to a stock-options scam. Now, he's apparently been tracked down in Sri Lanka -- by a private eye hired by a venture capital company, who was able to trace him to a fishing village by tracking a call he made to relatives over Skype. It's not clear it's done much good, as the FBI just says it's checking out the report, while rumors say Alexander's already ditched Sri Lanka, perhaps for some place where it's a little harder to get extradited. In any case, one of Skype's selling points is its "security" -- but as is pointed out on Bruce Schneier's site, there's a big difference between the encrypting of calls Skype does, and a system that offers anonymity, as Alexander has presumably discovered.

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19 Comments

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Frink, 25 Aug 2006 @ 1:26pm

One private eye can find this guy? Maybe Homeland Security could hire him to look for Osama.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2006 @ 1:26pm

i still can't get over "lam"... people should go on the "lamb"

1st
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2006 @ 1:26pm

or not
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Poor Lamb..., 25 Aug 2006 @ 1:57pm

Poor Lamb...
Leave the poor lamb alone!
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2006 @ 2:06pm

Re: Poor Lamb...
just silence the lamb and be done with it.
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Thinking about dinner ideas, 25 Aug 2006 @ 2:42pm

Re: Poor Lamb
mmmmm....leg of lamb....

(I was on the lam once, then my friends did an intervention and I went into rehab. I've been off wool for 16 months, 22 days straight!)
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Thinking about dinner ideas, 25 Aug 2006 @ 2:44pm

Re: Poor Lamb
...or maye I'll just have some toast and lam...
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Flashback, 25 Aug 2006 @ 2:44pm

Re: Poor Lamb
I remember fighting the commies back in Viet Lam
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Evil, 25 Aug 2006 @ 2:48pm

Re:
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Evil Bastard, 25 Aug 2006 @ 2:51pm

Re:
I'm On The Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep (Old BOC Song ) :) http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B00005LNBQ.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V65930896_.jpg
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jed, 25 Aug 2006 @ 3:08pm

yah really
yah really
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Ben Damnit, 25 Aug 2006 @ 3:08pm

ok so back to
Talking about the story, seriously though, a PI can track a guy down via skype? Was he using his own, registered account or something? (in which case the guy is dumb),

lesson 1) Create new accounts for EVERYTHING if you're trying to hide.
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Hungry, 25 Aug 2006 @ 3:30pm

Lamb
Break out the mint jelly!
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Don G., 26 Aug 2006 @ 5:01am

Re: ok so back to
He may have, but it probably wouldn't have helped. The tracking appears to have been done by checking (somehow) calls to his family -- i.e., monitoring inbound calls, probably all inbound calls.
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Jon, 26 Aug 2006 @ 6:56am

Learning the language
Pardon me, but "lam" is the correct usage. "Going on the lamb" involves addiction to wool or other, even more disgusting things!
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Anonymous Coward, 26 Aug 2006 @ 8:18pm

fuckin morons - whole lam shit is retarded
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Yimba, 26 Aug 2006 @ 8:35pm

Huh, I'll be "dam"ed. . .
"On the lam" has been popular American slang for "on the run" since at least the latter part of the 19th century. The root of "lam" is the Old Norse word "lamja," meaning "to make lame," and the original meaning of "lam," when it first appeared in English back in the 16th century, was "to beat soundly." The English word "lame" is from the same source, as is "lambaste," a double whammy in that the "baste" part is from a Scandinavian root meaning "thrash or flog."

The change in the meaning of "lam" from "beat" to "run away" probably echoed another slang term for running away -- "beat it." To "beat it" or "lam it" is to rapidly beat the road with one's feet by running, just as sheep do when they smell mint sauce.
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Chaz, 27 Aug 2006 @ 5:35pm

Free Lamb?
Ok, wheres the FREE lamb for people on the lam I don't have a way to call.
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Mr. P, 27 Aug 2006 @ 8:27pm

Skyp had a record of the call - to connect the call it used the origonating IP and the Destintation IP, and all the hops inbetween. Since all IPs are registered - you follow the hops back to Sri Lanka, the IP provider. From there the PI just needed to buy off the IP provider, or more likely a employee, to get the information on receintly opened accounts. A few visits later and bingo.

not that hard really.

P

( and no - I don't spell very well at 3AM)
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