Daughter's cell phone randomly shows up in Monterey, Mexico

[LouisvilleCard]

I have an account on the free server that has worked great for several years.

In the last few weeks my daughter's phone will randomly show up as being located in Monterey, Mexico and then 5 minutes later back in the Midwest where I just spoke to her. She's 15 and has never been to Mexico nor has her phone ever been to Mexico. She did get a new phone for Christmas and Accutrack installed fine and shows her position accurately almost all of the time as it did on her old phone.

Any possibility that a duplicate tracker ID has been issued? If not, short of personal teleportation or a hypersonic jet that can make cross-country flights in that time frame is there any explanation anyone can offer?

Thanks-Card

[ATSupport]

Duplicate ID won't be a problem. It could be because the aging phone is getting unstable sometimes, either with the battery or with the GPS chip.

[hutch109]

Technically duplicate ID COULD be the problem - as you can have 2 phones with the same ID - and it will do what you say. With that said, AT will not issue 2 of the same numbers, but someone could have still inputed the wrong number into their phone - even though they use a check-sum to keep the guessers away.

The more likely cause would be a multi-path signal - if the unit is not staying in the wrong place for a long time. GPS location is based on exact timing - if the received signal is "slowed-down" by an outside force, the location would be incorrect. A reflected signal from a building, garage, overhang, or something else - could cause an erroneous location to be displayed.

The error is usally not that far off - where you would go from the midwest to Mexico though. When its in Mexico - how long does it stay there? Does it go from the midwest, to Mexico, back to midwest - with every passing minute? Or does it go from the midwest, to Mexico once - and then stay back in the midwest for a while?

Also - keep an eye on the altitude section - usually during multipath - you will get strange readings there also - negative amounts, or large jumps.

Eric

[LouisvilleCard]

Appreciate the reply, but the phone is a new i880 as of December 2007. It was a Christimas gift. It replaced an aging i850 and actually works much better as far as GPS and battery life goes except for this Mexico anomaly.

Duplicate ID won't be a problem. It could be because the aging phone is getting unstable sometimes, either with the battery or with the GPS chip.

[LouisvilleCard]

It was typically reporting in Mexico just a few reporting cycles of 5-6 minutes each and then returning to the Midwest. This morning I noticed reports stopped at 11:57 PM last night, she probably turned her phone off, and at 5:07 AM this morning to the present time it has reported as being in Monterey, Mexico again.

She was at a sleepover with girlfriends and the 11:57 PM report was exactly where I expected her to be. Since then I've had 17 straight reports over the last 5 hours that the phone is in Mexico.

Altitude in Monterey varies between 2079-2296 feet, no negative numbers, and has not been out of that range all morning. I am seeing some very low speed numbers and some heading changes that indicate movement and could account for the altitude variation.

Reports are not set to come in every minute since that would drain the old i850 in less than 12 hours so I have set it up at 5 or 6 minute cycles. I might set it to 1 minute on the new i880 and see if I can get any better detail. I'll also see what time she turned her phone off last night and back on this morning. Midnight I can see turning it off, but awake at 5:00 AM to turn it back on would be a minor miracle.

Appreciate your help as I am completely flummoxed, LouisvilleCard

Technically duplicate ID COULD be the problem - as you can have 2 phones with the same ID - and it will do what you say. With that said, AT will not issue 2 of the same numbers, but someone could have still inputed the wrong number into their phone - even though they use a check-sum to keep the guessers away.

The more likely cause would be a multi-path signal - if the unit is not staying in the wrong place for a long time. GPS location is based on exact timing - if the received signal is "slowed-down" by an outside force, the location would be incorrect. A reflected signal from a building, garage, overhang, or something else - could cause an erroneous location to be displayed.

The error is usally not that far off - where you would go from the midwest to Mexico though. When its in Mexico - how long does it stay there? Does it go from the midwest, to Mexico, back to midwest - with every passing minute? Or does it go from the midwest, to Mexico once - and then stay back in the midwest for a while?

Also - keep an eye on the altitude section - usually during multipath - you will get strange readings there also - negative amounts, or large jumps.

Eric

[hutch109]

You will not see that much difference in battery life - from 1 or 2 minutes; to every 5 or 6.

Are you able to get the phone?

If so - try this - when you see the Mexico reports coming in - and they are a few in a row - turn her phone off - or stop the AccuTracking application. If the data still comes in from Mexico - you the AT ID number has been duplicated. If it stops at the same time you turn your phone off - then its another issue.

I don't think that its a multi-path issue anymore - as you say its in the same city in Mexico - and your getting multiple reports.

What are the speeds in Mexico - if they are small - then it could just be GPS wander - and I would not worry. If its moving at 20+ MPH, then its another issue.

Also, what are the report intervals with the unit in Mexico - how often does that seem to be reporting?

Try to answer those and let me know - if you want, make me a guest account with read only - so I can peek at it and see what I can see.

Thanks

Eric

[LouisvilleCard]

Just spoke to my daughter. The phone was off from Midnight till about 11:30-12:00 this morning. I also received a report showing her where I expected her to be at 11:58 AM this morning.

I asked about her old phone, on the off chance that it was donated\sold and somehow ended up in Mexico, but the old phone is in her drawer at home. All of the reports from Monterey had to come from another phone.

Is there any way for AT to notify the account owner that a phone they have located in Mexico must have an incorrect Tracker ID since that would seem to be the only logical explanation here? If not, I can safely dismiss the reports from Mexico, it's just a nuisance.

Thanks-LouisvilleCard

You will not see that much difference in battery life - from 1 or 2 minutes; to every 5 or 6.

Are you able to get the phone?

If so - try this - when you see the Mexico reports coming in - and they are a few in a row - turn her phone off - or stop the AccuTracking application. If the data still comes in from Mexico - you the AT ID number has been duplicated. If it stops at the same time you turn your phone off - then its another issue.

I don't think that its a multi-path issue anymore - as you say its in the same city in Mexico - and your getting multiple reports.

What are the speeds in Mexico - if they are small - then it could just be GPS wander - and I would not worry. If its moving at 20+ MPH, then its another issue.

Also, what are the report intervals with the unit in Mexico - how often does that seem to be reporting?

Try to answer those and let me know - if you want, make me a guest account with read only - so I can peek at it and see what I can see.

Thanks

Eric

[hutch109]

There is no Nextel service in the city you describe in Mexico - therefore it must be a GSM type phone that is using AT service. Keep in mind, that if the duplicate ID exists - then the user in Mexico will also see your location information when they are watching theirs.

The only real way to get around this is to have a new AT number issued. If your on the "free" service I don't think you can do anything about it. You could set your account up on the pay plan - its not that expensive, and works pretty nice. Then you can add, change, delete, ID numbers whenever you want.

It would be very rare for another person to:
A: input the same PIN as you
B: have cellular service
C: have accutracking installed
D: run the application at startup
E: have a data plan with unlimited use

And a more things too.. but hey, anything is possible

Good luck!

Eric

[Rob]

How would they get your password to your account?

[LouisvilleCard]

I have not seen a period of consistent reports like I had the other morning. It's now back to 1-3 reporting cycles in Monterey and back to the Midwest.

Hutch109:

I'm just trying to make some sense of why it would work so reliably for years and suddenly have an anomaly pop up such as Monterey. This appears to be your line of work so I welcome any other reasonable explanation that you can come up with.

Rob:

Not sure if you're directing your question to me or Hutch109.

If the user in Monterey has incorrectly input my daughter's Tracker ID into his phone I would expect he's seeing nothing since his page would be looking for the Tracker ID that AT issued and not my daughter's ID.

If he can specify his own Tracker ID on the paid side of the site, and I don't know if that's possible since I'm on the free server, then I have to assume as an IT guy that he could not specify a Tracker ID that already exists.

So I assume that you're asking Hutch109 how the Monterey user is seeing my daughter's location without my password and I don't know how they could.

For now I'm going to delete her current Tracker ID, give her a new one, and see if that stops it. Appreciate all the input.

LouisvilleCard

[hutch109]

If you have the option to get a new ID - I would start there. A typical user on the AT side can not make their own ID - from the server side. BUT, an AT user CAN input an ID into the handset/phone - but it has to pass a check-sum calculation - to verify it COULD be one of the legit AT IDs. I hope that makes sense.

Like I said before - a user would have to...

A: input the same PIN as you
B: have cellular service
C: have accutracking installed
D: run the application at startup
E: have a data plan with unlimited use

The chances of that happening are pretty slim - almost impossible - I said almost.

A person would not need to know your password to your account - as the sticker does not change - its all part of a GUID scheme - but there is no way to reverse it - sooo... with that being said - unless you posted your sticker/GUID on a website somewhere - AND posted your AT ID for the phone - then the other person would not be able to put those together.

I wish I had a better answer for you - but keep me posted if it continues with your newly issued ID.

I don't remember the answer to this question - if you turn her phone OFF for a day - do you get any reports from Mexico that show as current?

Eric

[LouisvilleCard]

Since I changed her Tracker ID I've not had a single report out of our metro area.

I have had a few altitude anomalies that would indicate a multi-path signal as hutch109 talked about, but the location reported is within a few blocks or a few miles of where I would expect her to be as opposed to a different country.

Not sure what to attribute all of this reporting of the phone in Monterey, Mexico to, but so far changing the Tracker ID seems to have stopped it.

Appreciate everyone's help, LouisvilleCard