NEW DELHI: Your smartphone’s
IMEI number
many no longer remain
unique as racketeers have
resorted to using special
software to ensure stolen
phones are not recovered by
the police.
The International Mobile
Equipment Identity (IMEI)
number is a unique code
that is used to identify mobile
phones.
Tracking the IMEI number
has for long been a very
useful method to detect
crimes and recover phones.
However, the tactics to
superimpose a new IMEI
number on stolen phones
has actually left the police
thinking as such phones
have become very difficult
to trace and there are serious
concerns that criminals
can easily get away by using
such phones for nefarious
activities. Earlier, while
racketeers managed to
change every aspect of a
phone except the IMEI
numbers, thus often leaving
them with the option of either
dismantling the phones
and selling their spare parts
separately or selling them in
far-flung areas of the country
so that recovering them
became very difficult.
Senior police officers say
that racketeers are now using
a software by the name
‘Flasher’ to change the
IMEI number of the phone
after connecting it to a computer.
Chinese software
The China-manufactured
software is available for
anywhere between Rs.
10,000 and Rs. 20,000 in the
grey markets and in particular
the popular Gaffar
Market in Karol Bagh.
“They are able to superimpose
new IMEI numbers
on almost all phones that
run on android. For now,
the i-phones are not susceptible
to tampering of IMEI
numbers,” said a senior police
officer with the crime
branch. In fact, the software
provides the option of allotting
one IMEI number to
multiple phones, a technique
that misguides police
during investigation.
“There was an occasion
when we had signals from
Gurgaon, Lucknow and
Vishakhapatnam flashing
when we searched for one
IMEI number. So, superimposing
one IMEI number on
several stolen phones
means we do not know
which is the phone being
pursued by us,” says a police
officer who investigates stolen
mobile phone incidents.
Operation mobile hunt
Since the rampant use of
this modus operandi came
to Delhi Police’s notice early
this year, there have been at
least four occasions when
police have busted such syndicates.
One such occasion was in
July when police began a
campaign ‘Operation Mobile
Hunt’.
However, that has not
been able to break the backbone
of these syndicates as
they continue to target
smartphones in the city.
Police say they are closely
working with the mobile
phone manufacturers to
find a solution.
“Few phones with
changed IMEI numbers are
being recovered through
these methods. Those
phones which land in the
hands of hardcore racketeers
can generally be assumed
to be lost forever as
the technique is being widely
used,” said the officer.
As compared to 7,38,673
phones reported lost or
snatched entire last year in
the city, over 9 lakh such
cases have already been reported
till August-end this
year.
Senior officers say less
than one per cent of all missing
phones are recovered.