Handphone thieves and their fences may soon be out of business.
A national database for lost and stolen handphones will be set up and any handphone reported lost will be completely disabled. This means a stolen handphone cannot be sold to anyone to be used even with a new SIM card, said Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chairman Datuk Dr Halim Shafie.
Similar schemes launched in Britain and Australia had proven to be successful. Statistics in Britain had shown that in the first six months following the launch of the programme in November 2002, almost 500,000 lost or stolen mobile phones were blocked.
In Australia, there was a 23% drop in mobile phone thefts within 12 weeks of the launch of the scheme.
Dr Halim said the Government was setting up the database to curb the alarming increase in handphone thefts in the country. Last year, some 100,000 handphones were reported lost; the actual figure could be much higher than that as most Malaysians are reluctant to report the loss of items like handphones.
The move will also incorporate a nationwide handset blocking service, meaning that those who lose their handphones will be able to render the devices useless upon reporting their loss to the database operators.
This includes barring the PIN Unblocking Key (PUK), which provides access to the SIM card.
With the system, consumers and handphone traders can also check if a handphone offered to them is stolen.
The service, however, will not be compulsory and it will not be free. There will be an affordable one-time registration fee.
The MCMC will gather all registered International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) codes from all telcos and govern the database.
A lost phone, which has been registered in the database, will be re-activated by the respective telcos upon verification of the handphone's IMEI code.
All handphones are assigned a unique 15-digit IMEI code in the factory. The code can be accessed by pressing *#06#.
The code is unique to every Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) handphone and is used by mobile service providers to identify the validity of the devices.
“It is imperative that an individual note down the IMEI code and keep it in a safe place.
“This is to enable one to present the code and verify that he is the actual owner of the stolen phone when it is recovered,” said Dr Halim.
He described the move as a landmark collaboration between the MCMC, Malaysia's mobile service providers, the police, the Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations and the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation.
“With phone thefts in Malaysia growing rapidly from year to year, this database will certainly benefit the public and relevant authorities,” he told The Star after opening the Seminar on Inter-Carrier Blocking of Lost or Stolen Handsets here yesterday.
In explaining its benefits, Dr Halim said it would reduce crimes such as snatch thefts and house break-ins, in addition to the enhancement of personal security – especially of children and the elderly.
“More importantly, we must take into account that the database would reduce the Government's revenue leakage because of unapproved and unpaid taxes on handphones smuggled into the country.
“Ultimately, our goal is to urge the public to alert the authorities of their losses and blacklist stolen devices, and eventually render mobile phone thefts as a useless business,” he said.
