[kiryandil]

There is a federal law that says it is illegal to listen in on and/or record cellular phone calls. There’s no two ways about this if they don’t have a warrant for each cell phone they intercept.

Silly peasant!

Laws are for YOU!

[Gaffer]

Yes. I’m an engineer. Been in RF for decades. There are codes you can enter into your smart phone (even older ones) that will bring up a service mode. If you do that, there are usually options that show you the signal strength of the nearest tower (in dBm). That’s how your phone knows which tower to tie itself to for the time it has a good signal.

The very first thing I’d do if I were a criminal is run that code and see what the strengths were. If they were in the high 90s (actually negative dBms) I’d think it was a normal tower. If it were down in the 80s or better (a higher signal strength), I’d not make the call because it is likely a nearby spoofer.