Inside the Stolen Smartphone Black Market In London 109
First time accepted submitter WebAgeCaveman (3615807) writes in with news about just how big the stolen smartphone black market is. "A black market of shops and traders willing to deal in stolen smartphones has been exposed by a BBC London undercover investigation.
Intelligence was received that some shops across a swathe of east London were happy to buy phones from thieves.
Two traders were filmed buying Samsung S3 and iPhone 4 devices from a researcher posing as a thief - despite him making it clear they were stolen.
The shops involved have declined to comment."
Changing IMEI is illegal (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Changing IMEI is illegal (Score:4, Informative)
Storing the IMEI in PROM instead of EEPROM would have no effect on production costs. Fuse bits are, if anything, cheaper than their rewritable equivalent (though IMEIs are what, 64 bits, so honestly it wouldn't make a cent of difference).
Re:Phone numbers (Score:4, Informative)
The IMEI isn't a routable phone number. It's an identifier (that is supposed to be) unique to each handset, somewhat like a serial number.