Make your own free website on Tripod.com





cell phone


Every cell phone is supposed to have a unique factory-set electronic serial number (ESN) and telephone number (MIN). A cloned cell phone is one that has been reprogrammed to transmit the ESN and MIN belonging to another (legitimate) cell phone. Unscrupulous people can obtain valid ESN/MIN combinations by illegally monitoring the radio wave transmissions from the cell phones of legitimate subscribers. After cloning, both the legitimate and the fraudulent cell phones have the same ESN/MIN combination and cellular systems cannot distinguish the cloned cell phone from the legitimate one. The legitimate phone user then gets billed for the cloned phone’s calls. Call your carrier if you think you have been a victim of cloning fraud.











Click on parts of the image to learn more

cell security cell fraud more security
-- High-tech detectives have come up with a way to snatch fingerprints out of the air, and it's helping stop thieves who charge calls to the accounts of unknowing cell phone customers. The scam is known as cloning. Thieves capture the signal of a legitimate call, then electronically duplicate the cell phone number. How do thieves get the numbers? With very little trouble -- if they have the right gear. "(Certain) scanning devices allow them to monitor the radio airwaves and capture a subscriber's electronic serial number and their phone number as its being transmitted to the cellular network," says Erin Eggleton of Cellular One. "Once they have that, they use a black box with programming software (built) into it, where they can re-program those numbers into a second phone." Then they steal phone time, and lots of it -- an estimated $1 million to $2 million worth a day in the United States and Canada.



click to learn about cell security
click to learn about cell fraud