Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1993 11:52:29 GMT
From: Brian.Randell@newcastle.ac.uk
Subject: "Re-Chipping" Stolen Mobile Phones

 [Following is the complete text of an article in the 15 Dec 1993 edition of
  the (UK)Independent.  I am somewhat surprised at the claimed extent of
  "re-chipping" of stolen mobile phones, and at the fact of it being legal, but
  have no basis on which to dispute the facts as stated.  Brian Randell, Dept.
  of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU,
  UK Brian.Randell@newcastle.ac.uk +44 91 222 7923]

LOOPHOLE ON STOLEN PHONES ATTACKED, 
Patricia Wynn Davies, Political Correspondent

BRITAIN'S latest crime wave - the reprogramming of hundreds of thousands of
stolen mobile telephones - is legal, while the necessary technology is openly
advertised in newspapers and magazines.  Telephones automatically barred from
networks when a theft is reported are re-entering the system in their
thousands after being "rechipped" by people the law does not treat as
criminals.

Robert Maclennan, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman, has written to
Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, urging the closure of the legal loophole.
Organised rings of mobile phone thieves were getting "easy pickings" amounting
to about 350M pounds a year, Mr Maclellan said.

The rechipping process, involving the reprogramming of serial numbers so that
the network no longer recognises the phone as the stolen original, can be
easily accomplished using equipment that can be plugged into an ordinary home
computer.

Chipping services offered by dealers and openly advertised in trade magazines
and newspapers have been defended as a necessary facility for honest customers
buying second-hand telephones from previous owners who have run up bad debts
during the recession. But the biggest beneficiaries appear to be criminals.

The reprogramming racket has provided a ready outlet for small and big-time
thieves - the black market price of up to (pounds) 150 for a stolen cellphone
easily outstrips that of a stolen car stereo - while spawning a mini-industry
of "phone chippers" turning out new sets of chipping software each time a new
model is launched.

Thefts are estimated by the industry to be running at 10,000 a month, more
than 400 each day, while police forces around the country believe they account
for 40 per cent of city-centre car break-ins.

Mr Maclennan has told Mr Howard that the loophole could be easily closed with
a minor amendment to the 1984 Telecommunications Act in the forthcoming
Criminal Justice Bill.

"This is straightforward counterfeit, but astonishingly it is not illegal," he
said. "The police know who many of the crooks are, but cannot touch them."

A similar process of "cloning" a subscribers' serial and telephone numbers
into another person's phone results in innocent subscribers being billed for
fraudulent calls.  Both processes render the phone untraceable.