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The problems for dematerialised ID are linked to its attractions
- Stolen
mobiles 'will be blocked'
- Around 80% of mobile phones will be blocked on all five UK networks
within 48 hours of being reported stolen in future, industry leaders
have pledged.
- BBC News, 28 July, 2006
- Phones
and MP3s fuel robbery rise
- A rise in young people carrying mobile phones and MP3 players is being
blamed for street robberies and muggings jumping by 8% last year.
- BBC News, 20 July, 2006
- Curb
on mobile unblockers to cut crime wave
- The Home Office is preparing to tighten the law preventing the doctoring
of stolen mobile phones in its forthcoming violent crime bill, the Guardian
has learned ...
The crackdown comes as the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian
Blair, last week blamed April's 26.4% rise in robberies on the fashion
for flashy phones and iPods ...
Mobile phone handsets have a unique 14-17 digit number, the International
Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), which is blocked from its owner's network
within minutes of being reported stolen and by every other network in
the country within 24 hours, rendering the phone useless.
Unblocking software is available on the internet and a kit, including
the wire to attach the computer to the phone, has been available to buy
on eBay - which is now working with the police to stop the sale of the
equipment.
The technology works by reprogramming the phone's IMEI number. It is
the same technology used to "unlock" a phone from one network
for use on others, which is legal and advertised freely on the high street.
In phones produced in the past year the IMEI number has been encrypted
and made harder to reprogramme ...
- Police say that they are also facing a new phenomenon of mobile phones
being stolen for bulk orders to ship to other countries where they cannot
be blocked ... Foreign networks tell us that phones stolen from the
UK are being picked up on their networks, where there is no power to
block them."
- The Guardian, 31 May 2005
- Help
for lost and stolen phones
- Mobile phone owners are being urged to register their phones with
a national database of handset ID numbers ...
Crime statistics show that more than 50% of street crime involves a mobile
phone. And a survey reveals that more than half of all mobile phone users
have lost a phone in the last three years ...
Mr Lindsay [crime prevention officer with the National Mobile Phone Crime
Unit] said that currently more than 10,000 phones are lost or stolen every
month. Transport for London, which oversees the capital's travel infrastructure,
currently finds more than 600 phones per month on its buses, trains and
tubes ...
- Often, said Mr Lindsay, drug dealers will accept a phone instead of
cash as payment. Statistics show that 11% of all crime involves a mobile
phone, said Mr Lindsay.
- BBC News, 23 November 2004
- Thousands
of mobile phone 'thefts' are fake
- THE level of street crime in London is being distorted because 2,500
people each year are falsely reporting their lost mobile phones as stolen,
police said yesterday.
- The Times, 12 July 2004
- Police
bid to cut phone robberies
- About 1,000 police officers are hitting high streets across London
in a bid to cut mobile phone robberies ... The force says about 50%
of all street crime involves mobile phones and has urged people to keep
them out of sight around crime hot spots such as Tube stations.
- BBC News, 6 December 2003
- Huge
surge in mobile phone thefts
- Thefts of mobile phones in England and Wales have surged, with new
research suggesting more than 700,000 were snatched last year ... Not
only are overall robbery rates up 13%, but the proportion of those involving
mobiles has soared from 8% three years ago to 28% last year, says the
survey.
- BBC News, 8 January 2002
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