Is your cellphone SIM registered?

telgom said:
I am sure you will also have to provide your "race" when you register. Now, where have I seen that before?
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Nope, I had to pick up my wife's upgrade yesterday (Her contract is in my name) and all had to do is supply my id (like always on contract) and proof of residence.
 
Wait for them to SIM it on you

It can be worse than you imagine. Your cellphone will get stolen. Remember, that you will not be able to buy a replacement phone and card because your ID was stolen as well and will be cut off for weeks. The cellphone companies will take ages to process your report (especially since you won't have an ID) since they make money as long as the phone is active. Copying the banks, let's say it will take two working days (i.e. about a week) to process your request.

In the meantime, your phone and SIM will be used during a crime. The police will trace the owner - not because they are so clever, but because it will be one of the easiest things to do. Your cellphone company will provide your details to them and they will arrest you (unless you live in an informal settlement - and I suggest that everyone forced to register, claim to live in a shack). Now you will be in jail, not even a SIM card up your @ss and will have to prove your innocence. Good luck.
 
telgom said:
It can be worse than you imagine. Your cellphone will get stolen. Remember, that you will not be able to buy a replacement phone and card because your ID was stolen as well and will be cut off for weeks. The cellphone companies will take ages to process your report (especially since you won't have an ID) since they make money as long as the phone is active. Copying the banks, let's say it will take two working days (i.e. about a week) to process your request.

In the meantime, your phone and SIM will be used during a crime. The police will trace the owner - not because they are so clever, but because it will be one of the easiest things to do. Your cellphone company will provide your details to them and they will arrest you (unless you live in an informal settlement - and I suggest that everyone forced to register, claim to live in a shack). Now you will be in jail, not even a SIM card up your @ss and will have to prove your innocence. Good luck.
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You would have been in trouble prior to this given the situation. I'm not sure about the technical details but you are supposed to report it when your phone is stolen. So, your phone is stolen and you don't report it. It gets used in a crime and the network tracks the IMEI back to you. It's that simple really. In this example the sim card registration wasn't even needed.

Your perception that the police will rock up at your place and just arrest you is not correct. Had you not reported it stolen then I can see some trouble looming though. (But as I said, that is already the case given that it's your phone that was used)
 
Thats a good reminder to report stolen phones, and make a note of the serial number ASAP.

I agree with the act. It definitely makes it harder for criminals to get new numbers. Before they could walk into picknpay and pick up 10 sim cards for R20. Now just getting one sim card requires a whole crime in itself, which could get them busted. A lot of fraudsters don't do physical crime. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but theres a fskload of fraud going on in SA. Every few days I hear about someone I know getting a call from scammers, every time you list something on gumtree you have scammers calling you, faxing you etc etc.
Scammers also make it harder for normal people to do business because everyone gets so paranoid.
 
Thus, we have elevated the cell phone to the status of a firearm.

I think i'm going to have to insist that they implement the "How to use your phone with responsibility", training.
Then you will be issued with a "communications license" to use your cell phone.

You will have to renew the communications license every 1 years, at a cost of R90.
 
“You can help to make SA a safer place, as this law aims to help law enforcement agencies to identify the users of cellphone numbers and track criminals using cellphones for illegal activities,”
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Zolisa Masiza and MTN are idiots.
 
Lazy said:
One of the big problems with crime is that it's more difficult to tie suspects together than you think. So they catch one guy, but his 2 mates are more difficult to track down [or identify]. So unless everyone involved use fruadulent means to obtains sims and assuming that he has his [fraudulent] sim with him when he is arrested (which you can safely assume I guess) then tying him to some phone calls and identifying the individuals on the other side of the call would definately help.

This is not a crime preventative measure, it's a tool to assist after the fact. Anyone who's ever been affected by crime can tell you that the police need all the help they can get. This is help, or an attempt to help at least.
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Expect to get detained for calling wrong numbers or speaking to people you never knew were crims.

Also who's to say someone won't hack into the database and discover that you and your family are at the movies and it's the perfect time for a break-in.

This worries me ...
 
Sackboy said:
Expect to get detained for calling wrong numbers or speaking to people you never knew were crims.

Also who's to say someone won't hack into the database and discover that you and your family are at the movies and it's the perfect time for a break-in.

This worries me ...
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If that was the case, then why don't we such reports with contract customers?
 
Lazy said:
You would have been in trouble prior to this given the situation. I'm not sure about the technical details but you are supposed to report it when your phone is stolen. So, your phone is stolen and you don't report it. It gets used in a crime and the network tracks the IMEI back to you. It's that simple really. In this example the sim card registration wasn't even needed.

Your perception that the police will rock up at your place and just arrest you is not correct. Had you not reported it stolen then I can see some trouble looming though. (But as I said, that is already the case given that it's your phone that was used)
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If I had a R2 SIM from PnP, recharged using cash and a phone bought on eBay, how would they trace me? Furthermore, do you trust the police to keep this database up to date? Believe me, I am also more than fed-up with crime but why not rather "RICA" register shoes? They are also used by most criminals, often leave traces etc.

BTW, let us assume that SA has 20m cellphones and that 10% are stolen each year - a conservative estimate on both numbers. That makes more than 5000 per day and hence around 5 per SAPS police station per day. In my experience, this will require at least half a day's work for at least one police officer at each station in the country. Do they have the human resources to handle this, and would those resources not be better employed otherwise?
 
Really DUMB

Lope said:
I agree with the act. It definitely makes it harder for criminals to get new numbers. Before they could walk into picknpay and pick up 10 sim cards for R20. Now just getting one sim card requires a whole crime in itself, which could get them busted.
everyone gets so paranoid.
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I really wonder at the IQ level of our populace :sick:

WHERE did you ever see perps going into "Pick-n-Pay" to purchase SIM's ???????

Perps will just "hire" a mobile at the same place and time that they get the 9mm or the AK :erm:

The "informal" person that owns the mobile when found ( if ever ) will have a watertight alibi -- provided by other "informals" and their "lost-the-docket" buddy in the charge office :rolleyes:

Paranoid is GOOD

MW
 
On contract. A whole 1 min of my life was 'wasted' registering. All done. No pain.
 
Hi sorry i am new at this forum
Here is another scary thing
It states ALL SIM cards must be RICA Registered so this mean that the Farmers who have tracking devices on Animals have to register those sim cards in those devices as well
The same goes for our complex who uses a premicell in their gate intercom system - Every sim Card has to be registered

Pointless exercise I feel especially for contract subscribers as you have most of our details (Banking - cos I get a deduction everymonth, adress - cos I get your bills every month ect) so WTF
 
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