"Spoofed" N-number -- who ya gonna call?

It's my turn now. I got the FlightAware alert my plane flying near Harold, Florida early morning yesterday. I called airport operation immediately and asking them checking whether my plane still parked in my hangar in the California home base. The answer was yes and this was a spoofing.

The plane flew for about 40 minutes and landed in a private airport. 30 minutes after it landed I went to FAA Public ADS-B Performance Report and run a report against my N number and write the spoofing incident into the note section. I thought this might be sufficient for my own record when I received the automated report emailed back to me.

But it turned out FAA could not produce a report and send the following email to me:
Your Performance Report request for Tail Number Nxxxxx on 7/13/2020 failed to generate a result.

If you believe this is an error, please respond to 9-AWA-AFS-300-ADSB-AvionicsCheck@faa.gov and include the following information:
1. Aircraft registration number and flight identification code,
2. Flight date and time,
3. Make/model of ADS-B transmitter and GPS, and
4. Any ADS-B avionics operating abnormalities observed or reported during the associated flight.
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I then composed a email describing this situation and attached FlightAware tracking URL to this FAA email address. This FAA division responded quickly with the following email:
We have no ADS-B record of a flight on 7/14. Attached is the record we have for ADS-B flights for your aircraft. Can you confirm that this looks correct?
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I opened the Excel file attachment. It basically has all my ADS-B flight records in the past 3 years but does not include this FlightAware flight.
I replied to this email saying all records were correct. End of story. I think I learn something from this.
 
jpskies said:
It's my turn now. I got the FlightAware alert my plane flying near Harold, Florida early morning yesterday. I called airport operation immediately and asking them checking whether my plane still parked in my hangar in the California home base. The answer was yes and this was a spoofing.

The plane flew for about 40 minutes and landed in a private airport. 30 minutes after it landed I went to FAA Public ADS-B Performance Report and run a report against my N number and write the spoofing incident into the note section. I thought this might be sufficient for my own record when I received the automated report emailed back to me.

But it turned out FAA could not produce a report and send the following email to me:


I then composed a email describing this situation and attached FlightAware tracking URL to this FAA email address. This FAA division responded quickly with the following email:

I opened the Excel file attachment. It basically has all my ADS-B flight records in the past 3 years but does not include this FlightAware flight.
I replied to this email saying all records were correct. End of story. I think I learn something from this.
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So no ADSB, which probably means flight following is my guess.
If you get a bill for landing fees, you’ll know it was on purpose ;-)
 
I suspect most of these have nothing whatsoever to do with ADSB. Since these come from an ATC radar facility rather than FA's ADSB sniffers, most likely they're a misheard or mistyped N number for a VFR popup (either someone getting flight following or entering B/C airspace).
 
I had the same thing happen to me. It was easy to see it really wasn't me since the plane in question was doing 300+ knots at 17k feet. It did freak me out at first until I saw the numbers.
 
jesse said:
ADS-B is not cryptographically secure - as there is no crypto even involved. Anyone can broadcast an ADS-B position with any tail number or serial number. They can also easily spoof the GPS data along with it. You can reconfigure an ADS-B box. Or you can simply build the transmitter yourself using some parts off eBay.

$100 tops and a few hours worth of work and it’s trivial to broadcast any aircraft youd like. You could draw a Congo line of 100 747s on final and even have them tracking appropriately.

ADS-B can’t do what the government promised. There is nothing secure about it. It’s a system that always trusts whatever it receives.
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:yeahthat:

An erroneous report from flightaware (or similar) could simply be someone entering the wrong N-number, but it could be someone deliberately spoofing. There are some (minimal) things the FAA does to validate ADS-B out messages, but I doubt flightaware is only getting ADS-B message from the FAA.
 
Several times on CAP's online scheduling software, I have noticed that N445CP, based in California, got scheduled for a sortie in Texas. The actual plane being flown was N455CP. We had to inform the pilot of the error in order to prevent CAP's flight-time accounting from getting messed up.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
So no ADSB, which probably means flight following is my guess.
If you get a bill for landing fees, you’ll know it was on purpose ;-)
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It's not. FlightAware recorded another spoofing flight again today (7/15). You can see the terms "First seen" and "Last seen". They must be observed by ADS-B receivers. Now what??

upload_2020-7-15_22-52-8.png
 
Could it not also simply be someone with the wrong code or tail number programmed into their Mode S transponder? Your registration number has a unique address that needs to be programmed into the transponder when it's installed.
 
On some ADSB units you can program in whatever tail number you want. Usually used for CMF flights instead of your actual tail number. But you could put in any number you want, and it shows up on flightaware....don't ask me how I know.
 
DaleB said:
Could it not also simply be someone with the wrong code or tail number programmed into their Mode S transponder? Your registration number has a unique address that needs to be programmed into the transponder when it's installed.
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That's my doubt. But why FAA does not have the records but FlightAware has? If FAA does not have such capability to query its database for wrongly programmed equipment, such as wrong tail number but other data elements are correct, it could cause issues like this. And there is no way to notify the offender ( e.g. using the unique code to track down the actual aircraft registration record). I don't know what kind of system breach or abuse could this incident infer.
 
I'd call no one. The FAA knows spoofing and mistakes are possible. If there's an incident or investigation involving your tail number, they're going to come to you first, regardless of what you do now. If you aren't involved in whatever investigation there eventually is or isn't, you'll say so.
 
EdFred said:
On some ADSB units you can program in whatever tail number you want. Usually used for CMF flights instead of your actual tail number. But you could put in any number you want, and it shows up on flightaware....don't ask me how I know.
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I know. I fly another experimental plane (seem on my profile picture) that has Uavionix echoUAT installed (similar to their certified SkyBeacon series). I have the app installed in my cellphone, the Call Sign element can be changed to whatever you want other than normally your N number.
upload_2020-7-16_7-27-56.png
 
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The interesting thing is that when I punched in an ID different than my tail number, both of them actually showed up on flight aware. One under my real ID and the other under the test ID
 
jpskies said:
That's my doubt. But why FAA does not have the records but FlightAware has? If FAA does not have such capability to query its database for wrongly programmed equipment, such as wrong tail number but other data elements are correct, it could cause issues like this. And there is no way to notify the offender ( e.g. using the unique code to track down the actual aircraft registration record). I don't know what kind of system breach or abuse could this incident infer.
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I'm talking about a Mode S transponder, not ADS-B. Totally different. The FAA PAPR won't show anything but ADS-B. So here are a couple of possible scenarios:
  • Pilot has a Mode S transponder set up with the wrong address, and no ADS-B equipment. FAA won't show anything in the PAPR since there's no ADS-B.
  • Pilot has a Mode S transponder set up with the wrong address, and does have separate ADS-B OUT set up correctly. FAA won't show anything in the PAPR for YOUR tail number, but would for his.
 
DaleB said:
Pilot has a Mode S transponder set up with the wrong address, and no ADS-B equipment. FAA won't show anything in the PAPR since there's no ADS-B.
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Possible but not likely. They are flying though (not just under) Class C airspace.

Screenshot_20200716-103935_Firefox.jpg
 
EdFred said:
On some ADSB units you can program in whatever tail number you want. Usually used for CMF flights instead of your actual tail number. But you could put in any number you want, and it shows up on flightaware....don't ask me how I know.
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I would say on all units, since they have to be programmed on install, unless someone made a one-time-use transmitter. On the GDL-82 it just takes a USB cable and free garmin software.
 
jpskies said:
It's not. FlightAware recorded another spoofing flight again today (7/15). You can see the terms "First seen" and "Last seen". They must be observed by ADS-B receivers. Now what??
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Time for you to fly to Florida, locate this AC and person, and meet behind the hangars;)
 
Lindberg said:
I would say on all units, since they have to be programmed on install, unless someone made a one-time-use transmitter. On the GDL-82 it just takes a USB cable and free garmin software.
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On the NGT9000 you can set it up to change it on EVERY flight with no reprogramming or cabling needed. When it's powered on it asks for flight number - and you can punch in "**** OFF" if you want to. Or you can hit a button that says use tail number.
 
I'm not convinced that the data has to be from ADS-B in order for the "first seen" and "last seen" labels to appear. The fact that the Wednesday flight was in, not above or below, class C and that it only shows up for five minutes suggests that ATC misheard the tail number and corrected it shortly thereafter.
 
Palmpilot said:
I'm not convinced that the data has to be from ADS-B in order for the "first seen" and "last seen" labels to appear. The fact that the Wednesday flight was in, not above or below, class C and that it only shows up for five minutes suggests that ATC misheard the tail number and corrected it shortly thereafter.
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Before ADSB was even a thing, I saw my tail number show up a few times in flightaware and it wasn't me. Then coming back on a trip I actually heard them on the radio...
One digit was off from my tail number. Punched them into flightaware and saw a number of flights between the same two airports that I had supposedly been flying to and from.

Flight aware does still pull from non-adsb source I believe. So it's still happening.
 
I tried. But it displays an error page once I submit the case. Not sure whether FlightAware actually get it or not. I forgot to turn on Chrome debugger to confirm what really happen. lol.
smv said:
Have you tried this?

View attachment 87772
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I'm still really wondering why it matters? Because you're worried someone's going to bust a B and the Feds will throw you in jail without asking if it was you? But the feds know this is a possibility, so.... And before ADSB, couldn't someone just give your N number out over the radio? Does the concern stem from a false initial assumption on the infallibility of ADSB? Unless the guy is taking off and landing at your base, the odds that he'd be mistaken for you seem exceedingly slight.
 
Lindberg said:
I'm still really wondering why it matters? Because you're worried someone's going to bust a B and the Feds will throw you in jail without asking if it was you? But the feds know this is a possibility, so.... And before ADSB, couldn't someone just give your N number out over the radio? Does the concern stem from a false initial assumption on the infallibility of ADSB? Unless the guy is taking off and landing at your base, the odds that he'd be mistaken for you seem exceedingly slight.
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Bust Bravo or TFR or just land somewhere they automatically bill landing aircraft would be my concern. Or worst they cross country borders. Pretty sure you will be considered guilty based on the “evidence” and will have to prove you’re innocent.
 
I will mentioned that one time this happened to me, I was able to track down where the aircraft was "spotted", then headed over to LiveATC.net, found the corresponding approach control facility, and overheard a controller working an aircraft with a tail number with an extra digit in front of mine. So clearly the controller miskeyed the call sign. No worries.

these days it seems every time I take off FlightAware tells me that it spotted me in Kansas. I have no idea why it does this but I'm not too concerned since I'm the one actually flying the aircraft and I know where I am.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
Bust Bravo or TFR or just land somewhere they automatically bill landing aircraft would be my concern. Or worst they cross country borders. Pretty sure you will be considered guilty based on the “evidence” and will have to prove you’re innocent.
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They'll certainly come to you first. But the FAA knows, just like everyone in this thread, that ADSB is fallible.
 
Brad Z said:
I will mentioned that one time this happened to me, I was able to track down where the aircraft was "spotted", then headed over to LiveATC.net, found the corresponding approach control facility, and overheard a controller working an aircraft with a tail number with an extra digit in front of mine. So clearly the controller miskeyed the call sign. No worries.

these days it seems every time I take off FlightAware tells me that it spotted me in Kansas. I have no idea why it does this but I'm not too concerned since I'm the one actually flying the aircraft and I know where I am.
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so....you really didn't go to Kansas? o_O
 
Brad Z said:
I will mentioned that one time this happened to me, I was able to track down where the aircraft was "spotted", then headed over to LiveATC.net, found the corresponding approach control facility, and overheard a controller working an aircraft with a tail number with an extra digit in front of mine. So clearly the controller miskeyed the call sign. No worries.

these days it seems every time I take off FlightAware tells me that it spotted me in Kansas. I have no idea why it does this but I'm not too concerned since I'm the one actually flying the aircraft and I know where I am.
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Checkout_my_Six said:
so....you really didn't go to Kansas? o_O
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"Toto...I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
 
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