There’s an IMSI catcher (stingray) being used on the west end.

These pretend to be cell towers and can route your phone calls, text messages, and data through them, and are used to track your location.

I’ve picked up over a dozen different 'towers" that don’t exist.

This is one. It’s a house. There is absolutely no tower of any sort there whatsoever.

You can help locate real and fake towers by using an app like network survey and upload anonymously.

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.craxiom.networksurvey

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

https://umatechnology.org/detect-avoid-imsi-catcher-attacks-with-imsi-catcher-detector/

    • masterofn001@lemmy.caOP
      3·
      16 days ago

      Apparently those things are just basically amplified antennas. They don’t clone or pretend to be towers. They just boost signal. And send it along its way to wherever signals are impeded. And then back again.

      There’s no middle man listening in.

      • CameronDev
        2·
        16 days ago

        I dont think thats true, some are definitely base stations. You can get ones that use your home internet as the backbone. I’ll try find one.

        Edit: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Femtocell

        Furthermore, femtocells lower contention on the main network cells, by forming a connection from the end user, through an internet connection, to the operator’s private network infrastructure elsewhere.

        Dunno if these things are still a thing or not, but it sounds like it would show up as a cell tower.

        • masterofn001@lemmy.caOP
          3·
          16 days ago

          Fair enough. But towers don’t just show up randomly. And/or only once. And they typically don’t move. As many of the ones I’ve discovered have.

          And I’ll tell you I know there isn’t a tower/repeater/femtocell in my driveway as can be found in the database/map (not the one shown).

          • CameronDev
            2·
            15 days ago

            Yeah, I would expect them to turn up and stay relatively static. Is the triangulation that accurate? I’m guessing you don’t have a stingray on your front drive either

            • masterofn001@lemmy.caOP
              4·
              15 days ago

              Not anymore. There’s also one next door.

              Pinged once. Never seen before. Never seen again.

              That’s what gives it away. A “tower” that appears once, randomly, and never again.

              Those are stingrays.

              I upload all my network tower data to the online database.

              I meander about town.

              I am keenly aware of my surroundings and what is/isn’t (supposed to be) there.

              The triangulation is difficult when there’s only 1 point. But the gps and all that is accurate to a few meters.