Mobile technology taught to turn on thieves

[rpm]

Mobile technology taught to turn on thieves

Stolen mobile telephones are being taught to turn against thieves by sending home word of where they are and letting owners snoop on calls.

 

[PeterCH]

"Tied to the phone rather than the SIM, Maverick locates the phone, pulls contacts into the cloud and lets you pester the thief until he reconsiders a life of crime," DEMO producers wrote in a review posted online.

However it doesn't actually get the phone back to you. You get to pay for
the priviledge of pestering a criminal, till he comes after you or looses the phone
or downloads a hack to disable the software (as will probably happen if this
product becomes popular).

 

[chubster]

Now how is a phone going to be tracked if there is no battery in the phone?

 

[fz1]

While this is all good (should be installed by default on contract phones offered here in SA), I would prefer being able to make the phone self-destruct and maim the f****** b****** that stole it from me. Maybe, like, blow his fingers off (or at least burn them severely, or cause damage to his face). They deserve no less... *

What I don't understand is why thieves continue to steal cell phones - I had the IMEI blacklisted within half an hour. The Vodacom rep told me that renders the phone unusable on any GSM network worldwide. Are they selling blacklisted phones' parts now or what?

* Yes, I was mugged of my cell phone 2 weeks ago. All I can say is that I hope the losers that did it burn in Hell.

 

[cyberarmy]

First you probably need a Windows Mobile or Symbian based phone, and all they do is build the program into the ROM of the phone, it can be easily flashed with a copy of ROM file(Just like you take your Nokia or HTC phone to the shop and get a upgrade or you DIY at home) which does not contain this stupid program........

 

[spacemuis]

What I don't understand is why thieves continue to steal cell phones - I had the IMEI blacklisted within half an hour. The Vodacom rep told me that renders the phone unusable on any GSM network worldwide. Are they selling blacklisted phones' parts now or what?

Ha! You wish.

First of all it's quite possible to modify the supposedly immutable IMEI of a handset. The networks allow any valid IMEI on the network as long as it's not on the blacklist.

Secondly, you might THINK you've blacklisted the phone with the network but what they don't tell you is that they within a week or two that blacklisting will mysteriously evaporate... I have this on good authority from several of the employees at a Vodashop - they often blacklist handsets for customers but when they check up on its status a while later find that it is no longer blacklisted.

This is of course because it is absolutely in the networks interest to have as many phones stolen and repurposed as prepaid handsets - more customers! More phone sales (to the original owners)!

We had a short term cell phone rental business once and always recovered our own phones. We never blacklisted them but let them go back into circulation. Then, after a few months and once there were a number of stolen handsets in circulation, we'd get a warrant from a magistrate to get the SIM records for those IMEI's from the networks. We hired a voice artist to call all the new "owners" and lie to them - telling them what a great prize they've won and then easily getting all their personal particulars (place of work, etc). Then we'd do the rounds with a police constable and simply go pick up all the phones. Protesting users were threatened with prosecution for receiving stolen goods - that, together with the presence of a copper quickly convinced them to part with their ill-gotten goods.

This had the added benefit of dis-incentivising people from wanting to buy stolen phones again in a hurry!

PS. Have you ever wondered how you can sign up for R11.70/month to track any phone with the owner's permission (i.e. it's really easy for the networks to offer this) and get positional accuracy within about a city block - yet even if you've reported a phone as stolen at a police station, the networks are somehow unable to track it's position for you? A friend had her laptop bag stolen once with a switched-on cell phone inside and we thought we could convince the network to track it - but they wouldn't do it without a court order... yet I can transact to the order of 100,000's of rands with my bank - via the phone!?
Again, the obvious answer is that the networks do NOT want you to recover your stolen phone - they want someone else to start using it, and for you to buy a new one...

 

[fz1]

If that is the truth it is truly depressing.

 

[Tns]

ok and how do this so called prgram stand up to a format? once you format the phone and card memory all is gone

 

[-toady-]

Ha! You wish.

First of all it's quite possible to modify the supposedly immutable IMEI of a handset. The networks allow any valid IMEI on the network as long as it's not on the blacklist.

Secondly, you might THINK you've blacklisted the phone with the network but what they don't tell you is that they within a week or two that blacklisting will mysteriously evaporate... I have this on good authority from several of the employees at a Vodashop - they often blacklist handsets for customers but when they check up on its status a while later find that it is no longer blacklisted.

This is of course because it is absolutely in the networks interest to have as many phones stolen and repurposed as prepaid handsets - more customers! More phone sales (to the original owners)!

We had a short term cell phone rental business once and always recovered our own phones. We never blacklisted them but let them go back into circulation. Then, after a few months and once there were a number of stolen handsets in circulation, we'd get a warrant from a magistrate to get the SIM records for those IMEI's from the networks. We hired a voice artist to call all the new "owners" and lie to them - telling them what a great prize they've won and then easily getting all their personal particulars (place of work, etc). Then we'd do the rounds with a police constable and simply go pick up all the phones. Protesting users were threatened with prosecution for receiving stolen goods - that, together with the presence of a copper quickly convinced them to part with their ill-gotten goods.

This had the added benefit of dis-incentivising people from wanting to buy stolen phones again in a hurry!

PS. Have you ever wondered how you can sign up for R11.70/month to track any phone with the owner's permission (i.e. it's really easy for the networks to offer this) and get positional accuracy within about a city block - yet even if you've reported a phone as stolen at a police station, the networks are somehow unable to track it's position for you? A friend had her laptop bag stolen once with a switched-on cell phone inside and we thought we could convince the network to track it - but they wouldn't do it without a court order... yet I can transact to the order of 100,000's of rands with my bank - via the phone!?
Again, the obvious answer is that the networks do NOT want you to recover your stolen phone - they want someone else to start using it, and for you to buy a new one...

A prize-worthy post! Thanks