'Third Ear' Busts Gang, Customer Kills Wife

eavesdrop (links to original article)

A gang specializing in 'eavesdropping' for suspicious spouses has
been busted in Antalya. Based on a tip made to the Antalya public
prosecutor about a year ago, it was determined that a group was
illegally monitoring telephones. The group was then itself placed
under surveillance by a court order. After a year of technical and
physical tracking the police learned that the gang had been operating
in 15 provinces.

Raids were simultaneously conducted at previously determined addresses
yesterday. Gang leader Ercan Ö. and a retired noncommissioned officer
were among 10 people arrested within the scope of the operation,
dubbed 'Third Ear'. The gang penetrated some official offices and
conducted monitoring of telephones and surrounding areas in exchange
for money. Most of its customers were individuals suspicious of their
spouses or lovers.

Police learned that the gang monitored a customer's spouse or lover
for 1500 Turkish Liras, sold equipment for surveillance programs
and area monitoring for between two and five thousand Turkish Liras
and offered physical tracking services, as well. Fourty-four people
in 15 provinces who obtained 'services' from the gang were taken
into custody. Some 50 people were victims of the gang's activities.
Important businessmen were among those who had the gang track
their wives or lovers.

It has been revealed that one of the gang's customers, 52 year-old
Faik Erdem Ferimaz, killed his wife Nurhayat Ferimaz on 30 June
2010 in Tekirdağ. Ferimaz learned that his wife, whom he was having
the gang monitor, cheated on him and he then strangled her with his
bare hands.

The gang used primarily two methods for monitoring cellphones.
In one of them, the gang would load a pirate program in three
minutes onto the telephone to be monitored. The gang then started
to listen to the cellphone conversations with their own equipment.
Most of the phones tracked this way were new phones that were
given as gifts to those who would be monitored.

The second method involved 3G phones, such that conversations
were automatically forwarded to the 'customer's' email as a voice
file. With this program the surroundings of the telephone in question
could be monitored. Faik Erdem Ferimaz had this system loaded
onto his wife's 3G phone and he was able to witness live her illicit
relationship.