Mobile Phone Crime Wave

from the phone-jacking dept

It seems there's a mobile phone crime wave going on in the UK these days. Mostly, they think it's just teens who steal a phone and use it until the owner cuts off service, but there are also a number of professionals who steal the phones to resell them outside the UK. Somewhere between 30 and 40% of all "street crimes" in the larger cities in the UK involve mobile phones. They should look into the system the Dutch police used for a while where they would bombard stolen phones with SMS messages saying that it was stolen. Update: There's even a story about a girl who was shot in the head by someone trying to steal her mobile phone. Also, here's a story of a number of kids being held at gunpoint for their mobile phones.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.