By now, almost all investigators understand the value of cell phone forensic examinations and the recovery of deleted text messages from a cell phone. The very recent introduction of cell phone forensic tools and services is probably the biggest advance in the investigative industry since the invention of the magnifying glass. If a researcher can obtain consent or ownership of a mobile device, he can obtain call logs, call details, text messages, photos, videos, and even voice messages. The amount of information that can be recovered is staggering. There probably isn’t a better investigative tool available today, but not all investigators realize that cell phone forensics and erased data recovery can be successful on prepaid cell phones.
Privacy-conscious people will use a prepaid cell phone because you don’t have to provide a name, address, or phone number when you buy the phone or set up phone service. That’s why prepaid cell phones, also known as disposable phones, are so popular with drug dealers, criminals, and cheating spouses. The entire process can be done anonymously with cash without leaving a paper trace of the identity of the phone user. This makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to perform a reverse phone number lookup or get a customer’s name and address. But the phone’s internal memory is no different than any other phone and data stored or deleted can still be recovered and reduced to a report.
There is no physical difference between a Blackberry on AT&T or a Blackberry on a prepaid Internet service. Both phones can undergo a data recovery forensic exam and both exams would return the same amount of data. Similarly, you can subpoena the phone company’s custodian of records and obtain all detailed call records for a prepaid number just as you would for a monthly billed phone number.
In the case of a cell phone forensic examination to recover deleted text and phone numbers from a prepaid phone, the investigator has an advantage over the owner of the device. Most of the people who use these types of anonymous disposable phones do not know that a forensic examination will recover all the deleted information. Once this information is reduced to a report, it can be presented as evidence in court. The phone can be connected to the owner if it is in their possession at the time of seizure, or in some cases dialed phone numbers or other identifying information can be found on the phone to connect it to the owner.
Copyright (c) 2011 Opperman Investigations Inc.