Wednesday, March 28, 2001

Dutch police fight cell theft with text 'bombs' After a user reports his GMS handset stolen, the police start sending out one Short Message Service text message to the phone every three minutes: "This handset was nicked, buying or selling is a crime. The police." See web page story at: http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/03/28/SMS.bomb.idg/index.html Thomas Dzubin, Vancouver, Saskatoon, or Calgary CANADA [Thomas Dzubin via risks-digest Volume 21, Issue 32] 0:00 # G!

Cellphone text bombs CNN and IDG report http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/03/28/SMS.bomb.idg/index.html that the Dutch police are using a kind of mailbomb technique to discourage theft of wireless phones. If a phone is believed to be stolen, police track it down with its unique identification number and send the message "This handset was nicked, buying or selling it is a crime" every three minutes via SMS. The RISK here is fairly obvious. What to do if your phone ends up mysteriously on the 'stolen' list? Go to your local police station? The phone company? Conrad Heiney conrad@fringehead.org http://fringehead.org/ ["Conrad Heiney" via risks-digest Volume 21, Issue 32] 0:00 # G!