IMEI or not, it pays to steal a phone in India
The ban on mobile phones that have no identification number, also called International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), is too little, too late.
The ban on mobile phones that have no identification number, also called International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), is too little, too late. Even now, anyone in India can steal a phone, or buy and use a stolen mobile. Because service providers are so reluctant to go after a thief, or a customer who bought a stolen phone, it’s really quite safe to steal a phone in India.
A Wikipedia entry says this of IMEI: “It’s used by the GSM network to identify valid devices and therefore can be used to stop a stolen phone from accessing the network.
The owner whose phone is stolen can call his network provider and instruct it to block the phone using its IMEI number.” That is, if you lose your phone, you could call your network provider and it could block that IMEI number so it cannot be used with any other SIM card, or flag it as “hot”.
‘Could’ is the operative word. Actually, the provider won’t. Its stance is: “We do not want to harass a customer who has bought a second-hand phone in good faith”. Even if that phone is stolen. Imagine that applying to cars? You buy a stolen car, and the authorities say, oh, poor fellow, let him keep it, he bought it in good faith?
Now, telcos might say the phone could be used on any other network, but in this day of roaming interconnect and settlement, tackling that is no big deal. A credit card company does not tell you that a lost card will be blocked only if the thief uses it on ‘their network’. Oh, and an Airtel or a Vodafone will not block a stolen phone even on their own network, unless they’re pressured by the police.
If you thought things would be easier with CDMA (code division multiple access) providers, where there are no SIM cards to change, it’s actually worse. Tata Indicom refused to block a very poor painter’s phone which was stolen; he finally had to change the number he had got printed on his card. He went through a police report, but no luck. I tried to help him, but couldn’t budge Tata Indicom.
The good news is that the police have begun to act on FIRs filed on stolen handsets. I know of a case in Delhi where a handset was recovered in a few days through the IMEI number. The bad news is that less than one in 10 phone thefts get reported, let alone an FIR registered.
So, the next time you lose a phone, file an FIR. You might just get it back.
A Wikipedia entry says this of IMEI: “It’s used by the GSM network to identify valid devices and therefore can be used to stop a stolen phone from accessing the network.
The owner whose phone is stolen can call his network provider and instruct it to block the phone using its IMEI number.” That is, if you lose your phone, you could call your network provider and it could block that IMEI number so it cannot be used with any other SIM card, or flag it as “hot”.
‘Could’ is the operative word. Actually, the provider won’t. Its stance is: “We do not want to harass a customer who has bought a second-hand phone in good faith”. Even if that phone is stolen. Imagine that applying to cars? You buy a stolen car, and the authorities say, oh, poor fellow, let him keep it, he bought it in good faith?
Now, telcos might say the phone could be used on any other network, but in this day of roaming interconnect and settlement, tackling that is no big deal. A credit card company does not tell you that a lost card will be blocked only if the thief uses it on ‘their network’. Oh, and an Airtel or a Vodafone will not block a stolen phone even on their own network, unless they’re pressured by the police.
If you thought things would be easier with CDMA (code division multiple access) providers, where there are no SIM cards to change, it’s actually worse. Tata Indicom refused to block a very poor painter’s phone which was stolen; he finally had to change the number he had got printed on his card. He went through a police report, but no luck. I tried to help him, but couldn’t budge Tata Indicom.
The good news is that the police have begun to act on FIRs filed on stolen handsets. I know of a case in Delhi where a handset was recovered in a few days through the IMEI number. The bad news is that less than one in 10 phone thefts get reported, let alone an FIR registered.
So, the next time you lose a phone, file an FIR. You might just get it back.