Home › News ›

Sen. Schumer Reintroduces Cell Theft Deterrent Bill

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.

AT&T »
Sen. Schumer »

Related

Metro Launches new REVVL Phones with Unique Perks Attached

May 14, 2024
T-Mobile today announced the REVVL 7 series of T-Mobile-branded phones exclusively for T-Mobile and Metro by T-Mobile. T-Mobile also announced some slightly unusual perks exclusive to the REVVL series on Metro.

FTC Sues to Stop Nvidia's Acquisition of Arm

Dec 2, 2021
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is taking action to block the proposed acquisition of Arm by Nvidia. Arm designs chip architectures used throughout mobile and computing industries.

Victims of Domestic Abuse Gain New Rights re Cell Service

Dec 9, 2022
President Biden has signed into law the Safe Connections Act of 2022, which provides several new rights relating to cell phone service for victims of domestic abuse and human trafficking. Crucially, it mandates that carriers allow victims to separate their service (and that of dependents, such as children) from family plans controlled by their abuser.

New York State Launches Mobile ID App

Jun 11, 2024
New York is newest US state to offer an official, standards-compliant mobile ID (MiD). The new New York Mobile ID app is available for both Android and iOS.

FCC to Mandate Location-Based Routing for 911

Dec 21, 2022
The FCC has officially proposed new rules that would require wireless carriers to route 911 calls to the appropriate call center based on the caller's actual location, instead of the location of the nearest cell tower. This change should reduce incidents where 911 calls or texts are routed to the wrong 911 call center when the caller is near a city or county border.

Comments

This forum is closed.

This forum is closed.

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.

T Bone

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...
(continues)

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!!!

freek1989

ajajajajajajaja true that ajajajajajajaja 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

...

Jellz

May 24, 2013, 2:26 PM

Then again

Thieves can always just unlock the phone and sell it to someone in another country.

johnhr2

but unlocking is illegal unless you go through the carrier! 🙄

like criminals listen to laws anyways

DarkStar

But wouldn't people in other countries buy phones from their own country?

...

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?

T Bone

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...
(continues)

...

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.

T Bone

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.

Page 1 of 1