Millions of mobile phone users in Bangladesh face increasing threats of spoofing, cloning and hacking of their information.
Based on some complaints from both subscribers and mobile phone operators, the regulator plans to take safety measures against such crimes related to mobile phone technology. Besides, BTRC will launch a discussion today to find ways to protect the subscribers.
A BTRC official said common users along with some high ranking people in the government were becoming the victims of mobile phone crimes.
Cloning of mobile phones is done by copying phones or subscribers’ information from one to another device for purposes of obtaining free calls, using different services, for secret information and data.
Today millions of mobile phones users, be it Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), run the risk of having their phones cloned. And the worst part is that there isn’t much that you can do to prevent this.
However, all these incidents have been initiated from outside the country and there is no technical mechanism here to control this fully.
Grameenphone says it has come up with solutions to the problem.
“We have started working with BTRC on this issue. We are also going to participate in a meeting on Thursday (today),” Mahmud Hossain, chief corporate officer of Grameenphone, told Dhaka Tribune.
Bangladesh has a subscriber base of 128.7m with 50m of them using internet. With spread of internet use on mobile phones, the crimes have increased.
Such crimes first came to light in January, 2005 when the Delhi police arrested a man with 20 mobile phones, a laptop, a SIM scanner, and a writer. The accused was running an exchange business illegally wherein he cloned CDMA-based mobile phones. He used software for the cloning and provided cheap international calls to Indian immigrants in West Asia. A similar racket was found in Mumbai and four mobile dealers were arrested.
Mobile phones have become a major part of people’s daily life. Bangladesh’s mobile phone market has grown rapidly in the last few years on the back of falling phone tariffs and handset prices, making it one of the fastest growing markets globally.
On the other hand, the number of mobile phone subscribers is exceeding that of fixed-line users.
The “cloning” occurs when the account number of a victim telephone user is stolen and reprogrammed into another mobile telephone. Each mobile phone has a unique pair of identifying numbers: the electronic serial number (ESN) and the mobile identification number (MIN).
The ESN/MIN pair can be cloned in a number of ways without the knowledge of the carrier or subscriber through the use of electronic scanning devices.
After the ESN/MIN pair is captured, the cloner reprogrammes or alters the microchip of any wireless phone to create a clone of the wireless phone from which the ESN/MIN pair was stolen. The entire programming process takes 10-15 minutes per phone. Any call made with cloned phone are billed to and traced to a legitimate phone account. Innocent citizens end up with unexplained monthly phone bills.