Cell phone crime prompts UK feds to call for help

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By IDG

(IDG) -- The theft of mobile phones has reached epic proportions, with a mobile phone being stolen every three minutes in the UK, the UK Home Office said in a report released Tuesday.

The report estimates that 710,000 mobile phones were stolen in the UK last year, more than double the 330,000 mobile phones that were officially reported as stolen or were the target of an unsuccessful theft, the Home Office said. Thefts of mobile phones make up one third of all thefts in the UK, and an estimated 2 percent of all phone owners have had their mobile phone stolen in the last year, the report said.

Forty-eight percent of all of the mobile-phone theft victims were under the age of 18, while a third of all of the phone theft offenders were 15 or 16 years old, with 80 percent of all suspects being under the age of 18, the report said.

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Victims over the age of 18 were more likely to be targeted between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., especially in the early hours of the morning. Those under 18 were most at risk between 2 p.m. and 10 p.m., the report said.

Along with more police action, the UK government called on the mobile telecommunication industry to collaborate with the Home Office on ways to keep mobile phone users safe from increasing street crime.

"The UK phone operators have already agreed on some early measures to test ways of putting stolen phones out of action. They've also agreed to improve security as investment takes place in new systems," said Home Office Minister John Denham, speaking from a prepared statement at a school in London on Tuesday.

"A start has been made, but more needs to be done before Britain's mobile phone system can lead the world in security. We're also looking to handset manufacturers to show more interest in the security of the phones they are selling to British consumers," Denham said.

Specifically, the government wants mobile operators to put provisions in place to allow accounts to be cut off when phones have been stolen and IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) numbers compromised, the report said. The IMEI number is a unique 15-digit serial number on each phone that can normally be found behind the battery in the phone, or by keying in *#06#.

But the industry itself has been resistant to such calls. For example, Vodafone Group PLC, the world's largest mobile phone operator, and BT Cellnet PLC have declined to put the technology into place to block service to phones based on IMEI numbers, since its older networks don't have the ability to do so, a Home Office spokesman said. Newer operators such as Orange SA, Virgin Mobile Telecoms Ltd. and One2One PLC do currently offer that service, the spokesman said.

This is not the first time that the Home Office has called on the mobile phone industry to improve the security of mobile phones. In January of last year, the Home Office called for industry cooperation after its figures for 1999-2000 showed that mobile phones made up 12 percent of all stolen property, up from 3 percent in 1998-1999. The number for 2000-2001 stands at 28 percent, the Home Office said.

The various mobile phone operators, such as Vodafone and Orange, declined to comment directly on the Home Office report, opting instead to direct all inquires to the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum. The industry as a whole has "over the years introduced a number of security features. We have introduced additional security measures in both the SIM cards and, in some cases, the IMEI numbers," said forum spokesman Jack Wraith.

In exploring ways to curb the theft of mobile phones, the Home Office also singled out a technique created and used by the Amsterdam police force called text message bombs. Begun in March 2001, when a mobile phone running on a GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network is reported as stolen, the Amsterdam police floods the phone with SMS (Short Message Service) text messages that say: "This handset was stolen, buying or selling is a crime. The police." As a result, the phone cannot cope with all of the activity and shuts itself down.

By July of last year, the Amsterdam police reported a significant drop in mobile phone thefts: 255 cases of street robbery were reported resulting in 186 mobile phones stolen, compared with 482 reports of street robberies and 339 handsets stolen in January of 2001.

The Home Office report urgers mobile phone users to be more proactive in protecting their property in the same way that people protect their wallets. Users should avoid using phones in the street, or walking while typing out text messages and phones should be kept out of sight when not in use, the report said. Furthermore, PIN codes should be used to lock phone, ringers should be turned off and users should record their phone's IMEI number, the report said.