Cell-site simulators, also commonly known as IMSI catchers or Stingrays, are devices that masquerade as a legitimate cell phone tower, tricking phones nearby into connecting to the device in order to log the IMSI numbers of mobile phones in the area or capture the content of communications. IMSI stands for International Mobile Subscriber Identity, and it’s an identifying number that is unique to each cell phone.

Because cell-site simulator more accurately describes the full capability of these devices, we encourage the use of this phrase.