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Stolen Cellphone Databases Switched On In US
alphadogg writes "U.S. cellphone carriers took a major step on Wednesday toward curbing the rising number of smartphone thefts with the introduction of databases that will block stolen phones from being used on domestic networks. The initiative got its start earlier this year when the FCC and police chiefs from major cities asked the cellular carriers for assistance in battling the surging number of smartphone thefts. In New York, more than 40 percent of all robberies involve cellphones and in Washington, D.C., cellphone thefts accounted for 38 percent of all robberies in 2011."
Welcome to the 21st Century.
The EU has had this for over a decade.
The cellphone is less of the cost than the service.
Because they can sell the phone at just below "off contract" prices. Remember, the cost of cell phones if you purchase them outright is about 2-3x what it is if you buy them on contract. If you are on contract and lose your phone, the replacement is full price. Or, people can buy these phones and use them on non-contract networks that tend to be cheaper since they usually don't offer phone discounts.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Carriers decide to start using the exact same technology to block users from re-selling used phones.
That is a ton of "man hours" for the police to track someone down for stealing a $100 device. In most states, they can't prove the current holder of the phone stole it, so the best they can do is confiscate the stolen goods. By making them not work at all, it should make the market for stolen phones dry up..
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
The new database blocks the IMEI number, a unique identification number in the cellphone akin to a VIN (vehicle identification number) in a car. The ID number remains with the cellphone no matter what SIM card is used.
10% of IMEI numbers are not unique according to British Telecom. That being said in the UK at least, if your phone gets blocked by accident, there is a procedure to get it unblocked - so all is not lost for you.
They are. It takes time to catch the small fish and work your way all the way to the top. A huge cell phone theft ring was broken up in the DC area last year. YMMV but some police jurisdictions are actually trying to combat this.
I sold an iPhone 3s for $175 on eBay, just after the 4s came out. I was due for an upgrade, so I sold my old phone.
I would get the same $$ if I stole yours and sold it. The cost of the service is irrelevant the the thief, as long as he can get good money for a stolen phone.
What do they care? They'd rather you bring in your old phone than buy a new one, because they subsidize the cost of the new phone. A carrier's favorite customer is the one who's still using his original iPhone 1. Still paying for a data plan, using relatively small amounts of data, and they paid off the subsidy a long time ago.
The US didn't start using this blacklist until a few months ago.
I'm not sure why TFA says "Wednesday" - over on XDA, people with corrupt IMEIs started complaining 2-3 months ago.
(On Samsung devices, if the EFS partition gets corrupted, it'll be regenerated with a "test IMEI", which all European carriers block but US carriers allowed until recently. The test IMEI is blacklisted. Some shady characters were intentionally corrupting TO the test IMEI to prevent AT&T from detecting their device as a smartphone and all started whining when their hack caused their device to be 100% blocked as stolen.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?