Police departments around the United States are reporting a spike in thefts of cell phones, especially smart phones such as iPhones and Androids. Crimes involving cell phones now comprise 40 percent of thefts in major American cities, according to the Federal Communications Commission?s analysis of statistics provided by police departments.? Many of those thefts involve violence and even deaths.
Construction firms must be extra vigilant about theft. Construction had many of the earliest adapters of cell phones, fueled by the temporary nature of projects, lack of easy availability?of landlines on jobsites and the nomadic nature of workers in construction.
The question becomes, is there any relief in sight??
That is a question that many are asking, including?New York State?Attorney General?Eric T. Schneiderman and?San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon.??Schneiderman sent letters on May 10 to executives of Apple, Samsung, Microsoft and Google/Motorola asking how they help prevent those thefts and if they experienced financial gain from the number of customers who had to replace the devices.? He says in?each letter,??? I would like to know what [each company] is doing to combat this growing public safety problem ? I seek to understand why companies that can develop [sophisticated operating systems and handheld devices] cannot also create technology to render stolen devices inoperable and thereby eliminate the expanding black market on which they are sold.?
Gascon last month asked Apple to embed a ?kill switch? to render stolen iPhones unusable.? Afterward, Gascon told the?Huffington Post that the meeting with Apple was ?very underwhelming.?
Google released a statement to Schneiderman?s letter right away, stating, ?We encourage smartphone users to lock their device with a PIN or pattern and set their device to automatically lock when not in use.?
A unique serial number on each phone ? called an IMEI number ? is supposed to disable a phone reported as stolen from working on the network of the phone?s service provider.? Last year, under pressure from the FCC, the four major wireless service providers ? Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile ? agreed to sharing their lists of the IMEI numbers from stolen phones with each other so those phones will not be usable on any of their networks.? The initiative will go into effect by the end of the year.
Currently?those phones proliferate on sites such as craigslist and eBay, noted by sellers as ?bad ESN,? meaning they are useless on a certain?provider?s network because they have been reported as lost or stolen.?? Many of?stolen phones end up in other countries, where traffickers can get as much as $1,000 each?for them.
Nearly 10 percent of Americans have had their phone stolen, according to a 2013?survey conducted by a mobile-security firm advising Schneiderman?s office.? Huge criminal organizations, including terrorist organizations, have complex networks set up to steal and sell phones and tablets like iPads in bulk and traffic them in other countries.? Schneiderman?s letter states, ?A recent study says that lost and stolen cell phones cost consumers $30 billion last year.?? The problem is so serious that police departments in?several major?U.S. cities have set up undercover task forces to catch people who steal or buy those devices.? Mexico and the United States last year agreed to deactivate stolen phones in?each other?s countries to try to stem cross-border trafficking.
Even disabled phones are valuables because they are, in essence, computers.? They can also connect to WiFi hotspots, where users can access the web; download apps, music?and games; and?send text messages or make phone calls via the web.? In addition, the devices contain?personal information that is an identity thief?s gold mine.
For individuals, each?wireless carrier?s website gives instructions?as to how to locate and/or disable a stolen phone, which helps to a degree.? Critics say the?service providers could do more, such as tie phone warranties to?buyers rather than to the devices that anyone other than the legitimate owner may take advantage of.
In light of no foolproof solution in sight, maybe the best deterrent to theft of one?s device is to own a BlackBerry.? One?potential thief was stymied after he?demanded iPhones from some Columbia University students; they?surrendered their BlackBerrys and the thief said he didn?t want them and?handed them back.
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