Starting today, stealing a cell phone will become a lot less enticing for thieves. The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association has launched a national blacklist program to stop cellphone theft. The program uses IMEI validation to validate that the phone in question has not been reported lost or stolen. Now this database can be useful to you as well. If you go to ProtectYourData.ca, you can use their web based tool to check the IMEI of any device you plan to buy off Craigslist, eBay, or Kijiji, That way you don’t end up with your pockets being significantly lighter and a phone that you’ll can’t ever activate. As a bonus, it also searches for the IMEI of a phone that was reported stolen in the US.
Finally, here’s a tip from me. You should not only report your phone as being stolen or lost, but you should make a note of what the IMEI of your phone is. It’s often printed inside the phone’s battery compartment or if you fish though the options of your phone, you can find it that way. That way you can do your part to combat cell phone theft.
Kudos to the Canadian wireless industry for finally implementing this. It’s something that is desperately needed in Canada to reduce if not eliminate cell phone theft.
UPDATE: This blog entry from Telus talks about how they were ahead of the curve in this regard.
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This entry was posted on September 30, 2013 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, theft, wireless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Stolen Phone Blacklist Launches In Canada [UPDATED]
Starting today, stealing a cell phone will become a lot less enticing for thieves. The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association has launched a national blacklist program to stop cellphone theft. The program uses IMEI validation to validate that the phone in question has not been reported lost or stolen. Now this database can be useful to you as well. If you go to ProtectYourData.ca, you can use their web based tool to check the IMEI of any device you plan to buy off Craigslist, eBay, or Kijiji, That way you don’t end up with your pockets being significantly lighter and a phone that you’ll can’t ever activate. As a bonus, it also searches for the IMEI of a phone that was reported stolen in the US.
Finally, here’s a tip from me. You should not only report your phone as being stolen or lost, but you should make a note of what the IMEI of your phone is. It’s often printed inside the phone’s battery compartment or if you fish though the options of your phone, you can find it that way. That way you can do your part to combat cell phone theft.
Kudos to the Canadian wireless industry for finally implementing this. It’s something that is desperately needed in Canada to reduce if not eliminate cell phone theft.
UPDATE: This blog entry from Telus talks about how they were ahead of the curve in this regard.
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This entry was posted on September 30, 2013 at 1:07 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Canada, theft, wireless. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.