Don't block your stolen cellphone

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Don't block your stolen cellphone
By Clayton Barnes
...
In a written response to a parliamentary question last week, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said that between January 2005 and the end of March this year, 249 911 cellphones had been reported stolen countrywide.

But experts warn that the actual number of cellphones stolen could be much higher as many don't report stolen cellphones to police.

...
Pieter Kitshoff, a senior private investigator at investigating company Justicia Investigation, said criminals could get stolen cellphones unblocked "cheaply and easily".

"It's happening, especially at the Nigerian repair shops, at very low prices," said Kitshoff. "I advise all my clients who had their cellphones stolen to greylist their phones instead of blacklisting it, as this could help us locate the stolen phone."

Greylisting is when a phone is temporarily blocked. Criminals can however, still use the phone by switching SIM cards, but can be traced, while blacklisting permanently blocks the phone.

Kitshoff said the "dodgy" repair shops unblock blacklisted cellphones by altering or duplicating the phone's IMEI number, making it reusable. "They duplicate the cellphone's IMEI number with cellphones that could be in for repairs," he said.

"Say you send your water damaged phone to a repair shop where duplication takes place, the repairmen or women could easily duplicate the legal phones number on to the stolen phone by using specialised software.
Click to expand...


That's 6700 phones reported stolen every month.
 
I gather that's about 6700 robberies or muggings we're talking about with maybe a few
car break ins.

Maybe the Cops should go after these shops eh. Making it difficult to UNBLOCK
a phone will soon prevent criminals from stealing em.
 
PeterCH said:
I gather that's about 6700 robberies or muggings we're talking about with maybe a few
car break ins.

Maybe the Cops should go after these shops eh. Making it difficult to UNBLOCK
a phone will soon prevent criminals from stealing em.
Click to expand...

A grand idea, and they could send officers round to the local ironmongers once a week too, to check for 'stolen' cables..... In an ideal world ja.....*sighs....:(
 
It doesn't help reporting a phone stolen. Just like stolen cars, they are sent to chop-shops and the parts end up being sold at fleamarkets or shady cellphone shops.

And it is fairly easy to hack the IMEI, which is the root of the problem.

If you could de-activate a phone via the air, then it might be possible to do something about the theft issue.
 
Damn. I just blacklisted my phone which was stolen last night. :(

Going by the uselessness of the officers at the police station I went to, I don't see there being much help in them trying to trace it. :rolleyes:
 
If the cell operators looked on their network for duplicate IMEI numbers, and then blocked those, it will also sort out the problem of the reprogrammed phones.
 
Yea I blacklisted my phone 2 weeks ago , Didn`t even bother reporting it to the police. Its not like they gonna go out and just look for my cellphone , just like they didn`t pitch up when it did get stolen , I had the cars number plate and everything that the guy jumped into.

What we need is a MASS solution

EG:

Nod said:
If the cell operators looked on their network for duplicate IMEI numbers, and then blocked those, it will also sort out the problem of the reprogrammed phones.
Click to expand...
 
lilGr said:
Yea I blacklisted my phone 2 weeks ago , Didn`t even bother reporting it to the police. Its not like they gonna go out and just look for my cellphone , just like they didn`t pitch up when it did get stolen , I had the cars number plate and everything that the guy jumped into.

What we need is a MASS solution

EG:
Click to expand...
When some containers of phones were stolen
some years back the special task force tracked
each one down. They could do it for a customer's
phone but why should they.
 
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