Cell-phone hacking is up for sale

Courtney and her mom Heather Kuykendall were on edge whenever her cell phone rang.

Two years ago, hackers tapped into the Tacoma teen's phone leaving bone-chilling messages: "You are so dead" and "I will kill you."

"They said they were going to rape her. They called her boyfriend and said they already did," said Heather.

She got a new phone, changed her number, and still the calls kept coming.

Now ads are popping up on Craigslist promising for less than $30 you can hack into anyone's phone, you can read their text messages and find out to whom they're talking.

"Technology is great but there's a dark side to it," said Greg Parson, a private investigator.

He says the spyware commonly costs hundreds of dollars. It tracks everything. But how does it all work?

Our sister station, WTJR in Indianapolis, bought the software and with permission downloaded it to a producer's phone.

It took a while, but with some patience they hacked into her telephone.

They could find out whom she texted and even listened in on her phone calls.

Dan Neilsen is a cyber crimes expert with the FBI. He says this kind of software law enforcement officers have been using for years.

"Computers were invented on day one. Day two this started happening," he said.

But now they are sold on the Internet to anyone willing to pay for it. They are mostly shipped from overseas because these programs are illegal in the U.S.

Police are now training on this new frontier of stalking.

But do these hackers get caught?

In Courtney's case police never caught the stalker and the harassment eventually stopped.

Private investigator Greg Parson thinks it's disheartening to know how popular this software is.

"Well, you have just opened up your entire private life," he said. "The wonderful thing is, you are connected to everyone. The worst thing is, you are connected to everyone."

What are the red flags?

Experts say the software exhausts your battery life.

Also, check your cell phone bill. There may be a spike in charges.

And take the phone to your cell phone provider if you see signs of trouble.