Written by: NiRA
The CEO of a UK-based company has been arrested by the FBI for ostensibly advertising and marketing a spyware application to people who doubt on their romantic partners cheating on them.
StealthGenie observes victim’s phone calls, text messages, videos, emails and other communications without them knowing when it is installed on the victim’s phone, according to of Dept. of Justice.
The CEO of the mobile spyware maker is a Pakistani man named Hammad Akbar, he is 31 year old and is from Lahore. He was arrested over the weekend in LA (Los Angeles) for spanking StealthGenie spyware app and now is facing several federal charges.
According to the US Dept. of Justice, Akbar manages a company named InvoCode, which sold the app (StealthGenie) online.
Company’s business plan for the product is focused on “the spousal fraud” market, which was anticipated to constitute 65% of the StealthGenie app customers, as the plan even implied that, stating that the target population was cheating spouses and romantic partners.
According to the indictment the business plan stated:-
“According to our market research, the majority chunk of the sales will come from people suspecting their partners to be cheating on them or wanting to keep an eye on them”
Once it is installed on the device, it lets conversations to be observed as they are taking place, it enables the consumers to call the phone and start it at any time to observe all the conversations within a 15 foot radius, and collects the user’s incoming and outgoing SMS and emails, incoming voicemail, calendar, photos, address book and videos. All of these featured are activated without the knowing of the device’s user.
According to the law enforcement agency, StealthGenie spyware application is able to:
- Record all incoming/outgoing voice calls;
- Intercept calls on the phone to be monitored while they take place;
- Allow the attackers to call the phone and activate the app any time in order to monitor all surrounding conversations within a 15-foot radius;
- Monitor the user’s incoming and outgoing e-mail messages, SMS messages, incoming voicemail messages, address book additions, as well as Smartphones’ calendar, photographs, and videos.
The federal prosecutors stated that this case is the first one when the US Dept. of Justice has prosecuted advertising and someone for selling mobile device spyware apps which aims on adults.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division mentioned in a statement:-
“Selling spyware is not just reprehensible, it’s a crime,”
“Apps like StealthGenie are expressly designed for use by stalkers and domestic abusers who want to know every detail of a victim’s personal life–all without the victim’s knowledge.”
Akbar was charged with conspiracy, sale of a sneaky capturing device, advertisement of a known capturing device and advertising a device as a sneaky capturing device in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Buuut…it’s ok for the NSA to do it?
And the FBI, CIA, and just about every other alphabet organization you got in the states. A little bit hypocritical don’t you think FBI?
no you dont understand. its different because they are doing it for our safety and its not unconstitutional in anyway shape or form
Then Justice should arrest all private detectives that are hired to follow people and other stuff.
NO YOU DONT UNDERSTAND OFFICER THAT THE POINT OF HIS APP WAS TO HELP ALSO BUT BECAUSE HE DOES NOT WORK FOR A GOVT IT WAS OK FOR THE FBI TO DO THIS? NO IT IS NOT IF HE CANT DO IT NO ONE SHOULD AND FOR OUR SAFTY THAT IS A LIE THE FBI IS NOT ABOUT THE SAFTY OF PEOPLE THEY ARE ABOUT THE SAFTY OF THOSE IN POWER
There are still a lot of choice of spy software on the market
But is seems not for a long time – hunters start hunting for the spy services: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.antispy.app
This software is very useful and saved realtionships…. As well as its very useful for keeping an eye on our children due to shortage of time… And whoever is buying it, its for personal use and no one can do harm to anyone by this… I dont think that’s there’s any harm… Y the US Government has problems with it… No one has right to jump in someone’s personal life if its a crime y doees the Government himself does it by tracking ?? its reverse with the common man…
You dont think that this is 1. A political issue for some politician to gain brownie points, 2. A threat to their on monopoly, 3. A threat to the establishment because it is so easy to put nto a phone and maybe they have found it tracking them, 4. Typical paranoia
This is just an example of the hypocrisy that is systemic in our Government. How does a Government have the right to develop and share the very same information that this man provided as a service to consumers? What if this app helped prevent criminal activity? It’s absurd, there is no more justice in this country.
This is just an example of the hypocrisy within our own Government. There is no more justice in this country anymore. It is just laws. I won’t be surprised if they slap an espionage charge on this dude. They get away with everything else.
This man Akbar has no idea how many lives he has destroyed with his greed! StealthGenie has ruined mine financially and emotionally! Forever!
If you are really insecure enough to use this software you have big psychological problems as a person. If you use it on your kids then you are out of touch with them. If you are willing to commit a federal crime you deserve to go to prison for a long time! Every person! Even the provider of the software!
People don’t just use it to spy, they also use it for other agendas.
Let’s ask how you all would feel when it’s you on the victim side! Hopefully this necessary action will prevent it from happening to millions of people in the future!!! Great Job and keep it going!!!!
There are plenty of GOOD uses for software like this.
You could argue that if you use this on your children, you are out of touch with them. However, statistics were reported that 48% of parents believe that their child is truthful about their online behavior, while in actuality, 78% of children lie about their online behavior. A tool like this can literally make the difference between the life and death of your child, who may be communicating with a predator.
The fact is, whomever is the owner of the device or machine (not the user, but the owner), has the legal right to monitor the usage of it.
Companies use software very similar to this, to monitor the computer usage of their employees, and are within their rights to do so. While there is definitely a trust issue here and yes some people tend to take trust issues to an entirely new inappropriate level, one could argue that if the user wasn’t doing anything wrong, then this app wouldn’t catch anything that would destroy a relationship.
They have completely over looked a few key details.
1. If the spouse that installs the software is the person who purchased the phone, is paying for the phone and who’s name is on the phone, then the phone is their property and they have the right to install this app on it if they choose.
2. The United States does not share the same laws as the UK. Therefore you’d have to wonder how they are able to enforce US laws on a UK citizen
3. You are able to do a lot of this with Apple devices without installing anything.
I see this no different than a store selling a gun. The store markets a product. It is not the responsibility of the store if the buyer uses the gun to commit a crime later.
With that said, I do think the company could have used a different strategy to sell their product. People are able to figure it out on their own, the multiple uses for it.
FBI = InfagGard
Organized Stalking community based.
*InfraGard
https://www.infragard.org/
I’m just sayin’…