o/t RICA's effect on criminal activity

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Yes, I did. Twice.
And got the same blank look.
Maybe the words "tracker", and "telemetry", and "remote control" didn't compute with the "consultants" involved.

Once again, I did, beforehand, make the effort to visit the Vodacom website about RICA, mentioned on this forum, and it says nothing, about presenting the sim, or the numbers on the back of it.
And I didn't get this crap at the CellC shop.

And slightly "Off Topic", so where are criminals now going to be getting their RICA registered cellphones ????
From you and me off course, or your kids walking home from school.
Just steal the phone.
Mmm, PIN number ?, blacklist ?, easy, just abduct the kid, phone and all.
I mean, your kid has just been abducted, are you even going to be thinking, to blacklist the kids phone ?
Hey!, we now have this cute little girl, and her phone, why waste the opportunity for some other stuff as well !

Mark my words, RICA is a can of worms.
Think I have a warped mind ?
Heads out the sand, people, Please.
 
And slightly "Off Topic", so where are criminals now going to be getting their RICA registered cellphones ????
From you and me off course, or your kids walking home from school.
Just steal the phone.

I'm not sure I follow - are people that desperate for cellphones that they're willing to resort to kidnapping and murder? I dunno that phones are worth that much to anyone. I guess some investigation into areas where it has been in use worthwhile... try India.
 
So tell me, mbp, how do you think a "Cash in Transit" heist is coordinated?
Or the guys ripping off a jewelry store in a shopping mall tell the getaway driver to move towards the entrance, or a drug dealer sets up a million Rand deal, or ten Plasma Screens that conveniently "Fell of a Truck", into a panel van happens?
These people use PAYG, and the cheapest phone at Cash Converters, or a stolen phone, ONCE !

Hope I haven't given you any tips here :-)
 
So tell me, mbp, how do you think a "Cash in Transit" heist is coordinated?
Or the guys ripping off a jewelry store in a shopping mall tell the getaway driver to move towards the entrance, or a drug dealer sets up a million Rand deal, or ten Plasma Screens that conveniently "Fell of a Truck", into a panel van happens?
These people use PAYG, and the cheapest phone at Cash Converters, or a stolen phone, ONCE !

Hope I haven't given you any tips here :-)

It's alot easier to do it in-house with your contacts at the cell phone company than go around abducting people just to get their phone...
:p no worries, no tips taken.
 
I'm with CnP on this one - maybe a bit over the top, but if you consider that criminals break into a house, shoot the occupants and only end up leaving with a bit of cash and a cellphone or two, then abductions, etc might not be so unrealistic...

I understand that looking at various merits of the system may yield a couple of positive steps for the implementation, but lo and behold, it needs to be very carefully monitored and controlled or the negative aspects will very quickly outweigh and positive feedback from it. And with the state of mind and attitude that this country operates in, it's worrying how quickly this new system can fall into collapse...
 
I'm with CnP on this one - maybe a bit over the top,

Yeah, that's me, expect the worst, if it doesn't happen, well, then you actually had a good day :-)

The question remains, "Where are the criminals going to be getting their phones from ?"

A friend handed in his pistol during this new firearm license crap, gets a phone call two weeks later, your firearm was used in a murder.
But I handed it in!
Yes, we know, turns out a konstabel was renting out firearms over the weekend, only this time the perpetrator dropped it and ran away, after shooting a shop owner.

Does "heads", "sand", ring a bell ?

g
 
Yeah, that's me, expect the worst, if it doesn't happen, well, then you actually had a good day :-)

The question remains, "Where are the criminals going to be getting their phones from ?"

A friend handed in his pistol during this new firearm license crap, gets a phone call two weeks later, your firearm was used in a murder.
But I handed it in!
Yes, we know, turns out a konstabel was renting out firearms over the weekend, only this time the perpetrator dropped it and ran away, after shooting a shop owner.

Does "heads", "sand", ring a bell ?

g

Ok - criminals are using cellphones for crime right now as we speak - what are you going to do about it?
 
Ok - criminals are using cellphones for crime right now as we speak - what [-]are you going to[/-] can you do about it?
Fixed it.

There is nothing that you can do about it. There is no way on earth that you can do the big brother thing - there are just too many phones to monitor. RICA is a big foofie.
 
This is my exact argument with regard to RICA. Criminals will turn to the public to get there SIM cards and phones for their quick heist or whatever.

RICA FAIL!!!!
 
Ok - criminals are using cellphones for crime right now as we speak - what are you going to do about it?
Be grateful that they could get the phones without being forced to possibly risk harming somebody to get hold of an "anonymous" phone.
 
So you have no way of tracing them... at least if they have to resort to stealing a phone to get the job done, the cops have something to go on...
When a phone is reported missing, you can actively monitor the system for it to turn up, or the sim or whatever... you can even traingulate and get location on the thing... if it is stolen, you can assume a crime has been committed...

If the phone is flashed and the imei is spoofed, and the sim is prepaid (without rica), you have nothing. You can't even trace the stolen phone...

So currently (without rica) your kids are a target because their phones are useful. How is that any different?
 
School children will become soft targets for criminals and ne'er-do-wells to obtain a SIM and phone quick-quick.

Sickening.

RICA = epic FAIL.
 
Consider this - pre-RICA : you can buy any SIM and grab a cellphone any place, use it once, and burn it.

With RICA - you can still grab a cellphone from somebody else, but the SIM will be a problem as you need to register, the solution will be to simply hijack somebody and use that person's SIM and cellphone...
 
So you have no way of tracing them... at least if they have to resort to stealing a phone to get the job done, the cops have something to go on...
When a phone is reported missing, you can actively monitor the system for it to turn up, or the sim or whatever... you can even traingulate and get location on the thing... if it is stolen, you can assume a crime has been committed...

If the phone is flashed and the imei is spoofed, and the sim is prepaid (without rica), you have nothing. You can't even trace the stolen phone...

So currently (without rica) your kids are a target because their phones are useful. How is that any different?
Currently it's LESS hassle to go and buy a R1,50 sim card than to find a soft target. How are you missing this point?

Insofar as the Police and their ability to react to yet another report of a stolen phone is concerned, it's laughable, completely laughable that you think that they are going to be able to get a court order to force the mobile network to provide the triangulation data.
 
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Currently it's LESS hassle to go and buy a R1,50 sim card than to find a soft target. How are you missing this point?

Insofar as the Police and their ability to react to yet another report of a stolen phone is concerned, it's laughable, completely laughable that you think that they are going to be able to get a court order to force the mobile network to provide the triangulation data.

Smart criminals won't stay long in one place - they will rush all over the place.

Yup, less hassle to buy a couple of R1.50 SIMs and discard them once used.
 
School children will become soft targets for criminals and ne'er-do-wells to obtain a SIM and phone quick-quick.

Sickening.

RICA = epic FAIL.

There have been four incidents this year that I know of at the primary school my kids attend... Vagrants wait for kids to be waiting for parents and then grab their phones and run... kids are traumatised... it's happening more and more often...
It happens right outside the school in broad daylight. They are easy targets.
 
There is no way on earth that you can do the big brother thing - there are just too many phones to monitor. RICA is a big foofie.

My Friend, you have no idea what you are talking about. :erm:

I have 72 Days of NON-STOP Mp3's on my Hard Drive.....and that's only 120GB or something....I have about 2.5TB Diskspace - so if I used my computer for Mp3 Files only,
I could store about 4 and a half years worth of non-stop Mp3 Audio

you know where the punchline is? that's my little PC, only one, with just over R1600 worth of Disk Space.

So answer me this: how many SERVER-CLASS systems can you put together with just 1% of our taxpaying money ?

trust me, it's doable.

Edit: And that is with not 128kbs, not 164kbs, not 192kbs, but mostly 256kbs Quality Audio. with surveillance/monitoring you only need about 64-128kbs, you don't need CD Quality. so that in effect turns my 4 years of audio into 8 or 16 years.
 
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For me, RICA is not about monitoring anything but having record of who owns what number... simple accountability.
 
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