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Trying to figure out some sort of method in which it would be possible to detect nearby phone numbers e.g. within a private premises.

My only lead so far is to build a mini mobile base station that would let phones connect to it - even then my theory for this has many holes and blanks.

The above may be completely off or possibly I may be on to something, either way if someone could give me a rough idea of what direction to take it in that would be much appreciated - I do not require any kind of code as I would much rather figure it out myself via a finger pointed in the right direction.

Even if you do not have any solid answers but some tips that could possibly help me piece this together, that'd be great.

Vadim Kotov
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Muhan Alim
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    In the system you are building, is it for a group of users who collectively want to make us of this feature? As in all the said users in the said private premise is a willing party to this feature? As in will they consent to having something changed on their phone end (maybe a software, not hardware change) to assist this capture of phone number? – Arvind Sasikumar Jul 05 '17 at 12:12
  • @ArvindSasikumar They will sign an agreement stating the terms of what will happen but it won't be possible to install/download anything on their phones to help capture their phone number. This is why I'm looking at mobile/network solutions rather than smartphone app solutions. Thanks. – Muhan Alim Jul 05 '17 at 15:07
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    I like this question and I thought a lot over this and I am trying to find a solution. Why is it that you can't install software on the users' phone? I mean anyways they have to sign an agreement . Why not instead have them install the software and have them agree to the terms and conditions there itself? – Arvind Sasikumar Jul 07 '17 at 06:51
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    Because I was thinking about doing this without a software or hardware upgrade on the users' end and if such a thing was possible, then mobile phones would be such an insecure thing. I mean anyone could literally get the phone numbers of everyone in a particular area and this could be used for serious malicious purposes. – Arvind Sasikumar Jul 07 '17 at 06:54
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    Attempting this outside the legal and commercial framework of the service provider is immoral and possibly, (IANAL), illegal. – Martin James Aug 21 '17 at 12:50

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This link might be useful. It feature some code and instructions for a personal cell tower. https://julianoliver.com/output/stealth-cell-tower

Ohad Rubin
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After a lot of searching, I came across something called an IMSI-catcher, which is a telephone eavesdropping device used for intercepting mobile phone traffic and tracking location data of mobile phone users. Now, this does not give the MSISDN (the phone number) but does give the unique IMSI number of the user, so maybe that could help.

Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMSI-catcher

Also, accroding to this article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3AIMSI-catcher), it is not possible to get the MSISDN with this method since mobile phones send the IMSI when connecting to towers which internally is converted by the provider to the mobile number (MSISDN).

Arvind Sasikumar
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I looked into the same idea but, at only a theoretical level. I found that whenever someones WiFi is turned on, they will ~constantly broadcast a signal. A signal that contains there MAC address. You can use this to identify who is there. Most people either forget, or are just lazy to turn of there WiFi when they leave home/work, and you can exploit this. So all you have to do is passively listen for these signals. The best thing is that you don't broadcast any signals at all, so they have no idea you know that they are there. More information at: https://www.crc.id.au/tracking-people-via-wifi-even-when-not-connected/.

I hope I could help, please comment if you have any questions.

Smart Head
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