Vonage Eavesdropping?

Posts: 72 · Full Forum Member Joined: Jun 15, 2006 Posts: 72

VonageTPA wrote:

If you bothered to read the original poster's message & link, you would see we're dealing with good 'ol consumer networking here

I believe that the original poster was worried about a 3rd party outside the home eavesdropping on conversations. Yes, it is easier to do that on the PSTN, but you should give the poster the complete truth.

Posts: 646 · Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 7:49 pm Post subject:

Um... I thought the main point of that site was to show that ARP spoofing could be used to trick the switch into acting (somewhat) like a hub?

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 26, 2006 Posts: 4

Please someone help me, my situation is my husband left me 4 months ago and the situation is terrible! So we have Vonage and he set it all up and controls it (very computer savy by the way) and occasionally emails me voice messages left for me etc. Of course I havn't got round to changing to a new phone service yet as attourneys are still fighting it out...anyway what I desperately need to know (I am so loosing sleep after hearing about this possibility) is can he be recording or listening in to calls I make or receive? (as it is his account etc). As you can imagine calls with family, friends and especially attourneys are pretty confidential.....please someone put my mind at rest, either way, thank you!

Posts: 1123 · Vonage Forum **MVM** Joined: May 26, 2005 Posts: 1123

While I think it's a possibility he may be, I also think it's an EXTREMELY remote one. It would be prudent of you to establish your own phone service now and not advertise the number, only to your family and attorney's. If you are in the middle of a divorce you need to sever all ties, especially anything that could allow him access to your confidential information.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 26, 2006 Posts: 4

Dave, thank you so much for your reply...if it is a possibilty do you know how it can be done? Why extremely unlikely? I know he is extremely capable and probably would do something like this, all I know is info. that should be to my attouney only, he knows about, I am so grateful for my family in Canada to have pointed this out!..just way too late! Of course I also have my computers now to worry about too! Just one more headache! It's bad enough to be in this situation (divorce), I really wish i'd thought of this possibility of the phones! I've never been in a forum before, I called Vonage the first person said yes it could be done, but I called back later, the second person went to get the manager and then said no, so this site is my only hope. THANK YOU.

Posts: 2257 · Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 9:24 pm Post subject:

If you are using Vonage voice mail, and he is getting the emails, then chances are he is also receiving the contents of the voicemails attached to the email (one of the features Vonage provides). It's quite possible that is how he has the information you say he should not.

If you have access to the Web account on Vonage, reset the email address and password immediately. If you do not have access to the web account, STOP using the Vonage he controls RIGHT NOW, and go out and get your own phone. Cell, Vonage, landline, whatever. Get that number to your lawyer ASAP.

You may also want to let your lawyer know what is going on. I doubt what he has done is illegal, since he is only "intercepting" voicemails that went to an account that presumably has his name on it, but your lawyer needs to know that your ex knows more than he should.

Technically, he could run a packet sniffing application on a local computer, looking for Vonage packets, and forward them all to some server he has access to. That's unlikely, but Vonage data is not scrambled or encrypted, and anyone with enough control over the local network could probably intercept them and reconstruct conversations. If he's very capable, then this is possible, but it's pretty unlikely.

Save yourself the trouble, though, and get your own phone line that he has no control over. DO NOT use email accounts that he may possibly have passwords for, since it's a trivial exercise to pull a "copy" of the email without taking it off the server (get yourself a new email account today and start using it).

If he has had access to the computer and you are concerned about using it, back up your data on the computer and stop using it. Get a new computer or (if the computer is now your property) use your recovery disc to reload the computer from scratch.

In all likelihood, he's simply received some voicemails he shouldn't, and discovered they were yours by listening to them, then forwarded them to you. However, it's not a chance you want to take in my personal opinion.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 26, 2006 Posts: 4

Thank you for the reply....I know he gets the voicemails (as does send/email some to me), however, what i'm really concerned about is evesdropping/recording conversations I am having (whether I have dialed out or someone's dialed in). Thank you so much for all your advice, of course I am the computer idiot and he set up all my electronics i.e. administration / passwords etc on everything, so i'm struggling to sort this out! Thank you for taking the time to send the message, much appreciated.

Posts: 7 · Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:28 pm Post subject:

I find that to be extremely unlikely. Just remember, though, that if you are using a cordless telephone, anyone with a garden-variety police scanner can listen in on your conversations from as far away as 1/2 mile... maybe further with the right antenna system on the scanner.

Additionally, as someone else mentioned earlier... With regular telephone service (P.O.T.S. or "Plain Old Telephone Service") anyone can listen in on your calls rather easily with any telephone and 10 dollars worth of parts from Radio Shack.

I also have a device in my toolbox that "listens" for noise on wire lines. I can run it along the outside of a telephone CO box and hear a bunch of dial tones, and when it comes across an active line, I can hear the conversation on the line. Since there is no physical connection to the wires, the people on the phone would never hear any clicking on the line, and therefore have no idea that someone has joined them.

Vonage, on the other hand is a great deal more difficult. I consider myself to be pretty good with computers and technology, yet I have no idea how one would sieze the Vonage packets, or further, how to listen to them later.

Posts: 4 · New Forum Member Joined: Jul 26, 2006 Posts: 4

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the info., I guess I just on't understand why it can't be done (recording phone conversations in or outgoing etc)..when it clealry is done for the voicemail..ie someone calls in talks and the message is recorded online etc...guess i'm just computer illiterate and paranoid on top of it! Thanks for the info. though...I so hope it can't be done!

Posts: 7 · Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2006 8:08 am Post subject:

I think you are okay as far as that goes. I would maybe change the password for the account, or open another account tho. Just to be safe.