Techniques for generating an interloping beacon which can control the behavior of a target wireless device on a CDMA frequency channel without noticeably altering the behavior of non-target wireless devices which share the frequency channel of the target wireless device's live beacon. The interloping beacon is an override beacon which overrides the live beacon's pilot channel and a control message on a code channel on which control messages may be addressed to the target wireless device. The override beacon provides the overriding pilot and the overriding control message only as long as is required for the target wireless device to respond to the overriding control message. The period of time during which the overriding pilot and the overriding control message are generated for the override beacon is so short that only the target wireless device responds without noticeable effect on collateral wireless devices.