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Sen. Schumer Reintroduces Cell Theft Deterrent Bill

Article Comments  37  

May 24, 2013, 1:55 PM   by Eric M. Zeman

Senator Charles Schumer of New York today reintroduced the Mobile Device Theft Deterrence Act. The bill was first proposed a year ago, but was never acted upon by congress. The act would make it a federal crime to alter or change the unique device identification or IMEI number of a wireless device. Together with the Federal Communications Commission, U.S. wireless network operators last year created a database of stolen device IDs. The database is used by the network operators to deny voice and data services to stolen devices registered on the list. The impetus behind the database and the Mobile Device Theft Deterrence Act is to make it difficult or impossible to activate stolen devices on wireless networks, which reduces the resale value of stolen phones and curbs the theft of mobile devices.

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Vmac39

May 28, 2013, 10:25 AM

remember back when....

Cell phones were being cloned. For those not familiar with the term, basically, you could activate the cell phone illegally, by using someone else number on your phone. That was a federal crime, too.

Not that they shouldn't try to deter, but this will not keep criminals from dong it. That's why they are criminals. They make money off of finding ways around the system.

The up side to this, it should reduce the petty juvenile crime of cell phone snatching, just because they want an iPhone.
Just because they want an iPhone? How 2009! 😁 These days it's more like 'just because they want a Galaxy S IV' 😁

But honestly I take your point, most theft of cell phones is NOT by professional criminals who make their living from stealing ph...
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MadFatMan

May 25, 2013, 8:32 AM

Hmmmm. Possible Motivation

Guess who just had their cell phone stolen and had to deal with the ace holes at Assurion..... Senator Schumer!!!
ajajajajajajaja true that ajajajajajajaja 🀣 🀣 🀣 🀣
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Jellz

May 24, 2013, 2:26 PM

Then again

Thieves can always just unlock the phone and sell it to someone in another country.
but unlocking is illegal unless you go through the carrier! πŸ™„

like criminals listen to laws anyways
But wouldn't people in other countries buy phones from their own country?
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RicKaysen

May 26, 2013, 9:35 AM

Skeptical

Not buying the story that Schumer is doing this solely to benefit the consumer. How many telecom lobbyists has he met with recently?
Telcoms aren't in favor of this legislation,......as it places all the burden and cost of enforcement on the carriers.


One thing is certain, Upchuck Schumer is one of the most arrogant, self righteous jerks in Congress. He has made his entir...
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Globhead

May 25, 2013, 6:15 PM

The next hacking/IP/whatever crime

This law seems useless because a thief can't change the IMEI until he has already stolen the phone, which is crime enough already. Why would a thief care?

Ah, but now the feds have yet another harassment tool. Did you download a phone utility? That's now a tool to commit a crime, if the feds feel like threatening you with another BS charge to bully you into pleading guilty to something else.
Willwise

May 25, 2013, 9:55 AM

Enforcement

I don't know if the title of this bill is an accurate one. This seems incredible hard to enforce, as mentioned before few people check to see if the hardware and software match. Furthermore I think a court would have a hard time proving that the person who has the phone is the one who altered it. One other thing to add, with the increasing number of phones wihtout removable batteries, it makes it even more difficult to check the hardware to verify matching nubmers. A nobel effort by Mr. Schumer, but I think it falls short when it comes to the matters mentioned above.
Well in my experience most people do not know what an 'IMEI' is or how to check it, either hardware or software. Even if people wanted to check, they don't know how.
 
 
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