Maybe you shouldn't even buy one, folks.
"Smartphone makers pressed to help curb theft" by Terry Collins | Associated Press, June 06, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO — Top law enforcement officials from San Francisco and New York plan to meet with some of the largest smartphone makers next week to help thwart the rise in cellphone thefts and robberies.
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Wednesday that their meeting, scheduled to take place in New York City on June 13, will be dubbed a Smartphone Summit.
Gascon and Schneiderman said they plan to meet with representatives of Apple Inc., Google Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., and Microsoft Corp. and urge them to create new technology to permanently and quickly disable stolen smartphones, making them worthless to thieves.
In San Francisco, where more than half of all robberies involve a cellphone, Gascon has called on the companies to create new technology such as a ‘‘kill switch’’ to render phones useless. His office cites a 27-year-old tourist who suffered severe knife wounds to his face and throat two weeks ago after being robbed by two men of his iPhone.
In New York, Schneiderman said, there was a 40 percent spike in cellphone thefts last year. Authorities there have coined a term for thefts of the popular iPhone and similar products: Apple-picking.
‘‘With 1.6 million Americans falling victim to smartphone theft in 2012, this has become a national epidemic,’’ Gascon said in a statement. ‘‘Unlike other types of crimes, smartphone theft can be eradicated with a simple technological solution.’’
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Almost one 1 of 3 robberies nationwide involves the theft of a mobile phone, reports the Federal Communications Commission, which is coordinating formation this fall of a highly anticipated national database system to track cellphones reported stolen....
Another f***ing database.
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Related: Cramming In a Cellphone Call
I'd rather not.
Sunday Globe Special: Chinese Authorities Behaving Like AmeriKa
See why?
And now you know who is stealing IDs, too!
"Police fear cellphone recycling kiosks encourage theft" by Cecilia Kang | Washington Post, March 24, 2013
WASHINGTON — Here’s an easy way to get some cash: Drop a used smartphone in any of the 13 ATM-like kiosks at shopping malls around the Washington region and, within minutes, the machine will spit out as much as a few hundred dollars.
The process is so simple that local police fear these ecoATMs are fueling one of the nation’s most pervasive criminal trends — cellphone theft.
The kiosks have become a particular thorn for police in Washington, where 40 percent of all forced robberies last year involved a cellphone, the highest percentage in the nation.
Related: Illegal Israeli Workers at Mall Kiosks Atttract Scrutiny of Law Enforcement
Just thought you should know who is behind all this s***.
In a recent investigation, Washington police found six cellphones stolen from city residents in ecoATMs located in the suburbs. Police in Arlington, Va., say they are investigating whether stolen phones have made it into an ecoATM at a shopping mall near Washington. Authorities shut the machine down this month, citing a lack of a proper merchant license.
‘‘This is a huge problem. The opportunity for quick cash is driving robberies of smartphones,’’ said Gwendolyn Crump, a spokeswoman for Washington Police.
The stolen smartphone market is thriving largely due to an unregulated trade that spans the globe, authorities say....
Operating like a hedge fund, huh?
Washington authorities say they have worked hard in the past year to keep phone thefts from rising. But the proliferation of ecoATM has presented a fresh challenge, they say.
One solution has been to create a national database of stolen phones, an idea championed by Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier....
But the effort is only now getting going. And the database won’t curb the growing international problem of stolen phones being reused abroad.
Turn it off and put it in a drawer.
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