Verizon Accepted Fake Search Warrant, Gave Customer's New Address and Phone Number to Stalker

Verizon’s dangerous misstep highlights privacy loopholes across cell providers and law enforcement.

The second-largest cellular service provider in the United States made a glaring privacy misstep earlier this year, and it could have cost one of its customers her life. Verizon reportedly fell for a fake “search warrant” in September and handed personal data over to a customer’s stalker. The stalker, who crossed the country to confront his victim, was later arrested outside the victim’s home. The stalker had been carrying a knife.

Verizon’s dangerous misstep is detailed in an FBI affidavit filed Thursday. The document, according to 404 Media, identifies Robert Michael Glauner as the stalker. Glauner reportedly met his victim, identified as MGD, online. The two engaged in a short, web-based romantic relationship before MGD ended things in August or September. Glauner allegedly spent the next several weeks trying to contact MGD, as well as MGD’s parents and workplace. MGD changed her phone number four times, but Glauner somehow found her new contact each time—except for the last. 

That’s when Glauner reportedly initiated his fake search warrant. In an email to the Verizon Security Assistance Team (VSAT), Glauner posed as a detective working on a homicide and impersonation case. He alleged that MGD was his prime suspect and requested MGD’s new phone number, as well as her ingoing and outgoing call and text data, via an artificial “warrant.” He then followed up with a phone call to VSAT pretending to be the same detective. 

On Oct. 5, VSAT handed Glauner MGD’s phone number, phone records, and home address. Glauner used this information to send MGD multiple texts in which he threatened suicide and personal harm against MGD. Then he drove from New Mexico to North Carolina, where MGD reportedly resides, and drove to his victim’s home with a “black folding razor blade knife,” methamphetamine, and rope. By then, law enforcement had been made aware of Glauner’s concerning behavior and had stationed officers outside of MGD’s home, where they apprehended Glauner and took him into custody. 

Credit: Michael Förtsch/Unsplash

It doesn’t take an intimate knowledge of law enforcement to spot the warning signs all over Glauner’s “warrant.” Not only did he send it from a private email address—"[email protected]"—but the email itself was sloppy. “Here is the pdf file for search warrant,” the message read. “We are in need if the this [sic] cell phone data as soon as possible to locate and apprehend this suspect. We also need the full name of this Verizon subscriber and the new phone number that has been assigned to her. Thank you." The PDF was “signed” by a "Detective Steven Cooper" of North Carolina’s Cary Police Department (CPD), for whom no Detective Cooper actually works. 

But that’s the problem: Sloppiness is a mainstay of local law enforcement. Having once worked in police communication rooms, I can attest to the unfortunate reality of a disorganized and inconsistent document transmission process, regardless of whether said documents are headed to a private entity or another facet of the agency’s municipality. Emergency data requests, or EDRs, are addressed with concerning haste due to their time-sensitive nature. And when that’s considered the norm, it isn’t surprising that a cell provider would accept and fulfill a fake request without question. 

This isn’t to say Verizon isn’t responsible for its mistake. VSAT should have at least noticed the private email address attached to the “warrant” and rejected Glauner’s request. But again, if VSAT’s mishap is representative of its own communication norms, it could mean trouble for customers’ personal data.

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