Sometimes federal agents nab their suspect by following investigative leads or a money trail. But it was a trail of cellular signals gathered with a device known as a stingray that in 2008 led FBI agents to the defendant in $3 million tax fraud scheme by tracking his wireless aircard to an apartment unit in Santa Clara.
A stingray, also known by the nickname triggerfish, mimics a cell tower and can be used to pinpoint the location of wireless phones and aircards. At the same time, according to civil liberties advocates, it sucks in information from all other gadgets in its radius.
