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Cellphone THEFT: Taking a Bite Out of "Apple Picking" [Rural Telecommunications](Rural Telecommunications Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) When most people hear the phrase "apple picking," they conjure up images of a simple country activity, but big city law enforcement officials don't envision an innocent pastime. Instead, they say it's the street lingo for the theft of iPhones, iPods and iPads. Urban police departments around the country reported that in 201 1, smartphone and cellphone thefts made up 30%-40% of all robberies in major U.S. cities, totaling as many as 27,000 thefts. In urban areas, it's not uncommon for thieves to snatch the devices (and not just those with the Apple brand) out of users' hands on crowded buses or subway cars and then jump off for an easy and quick getaway. In some cases, victims have been attacked and even killed while being robbed of their devices. Police consider it the modern-day version of purse snatching because a stolen phone is worth hundreds of dollars on the black market. Mobile security firm Lookout estimates that stolen and lost phones cost American consumers $30 billion per year. In rural areas ol the country, the story is aillèrent. H Cell to Action With more than 50% of all Americans now owning smartphones - and with that rate rising each year - the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association, which represents 60 U.S. cities, issued a declaration calling for action. That call was heard by politicians, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the industry. Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced legislation last spring to make it a federal crime to tamper with a phone's International Mobile Equipment Identity number. Since then, the bill has stalled in committee, and telecommunications lawyers said they doubt if it will be passed in the near or distant future. "The proposed legislation is being used to highlight the problem in hopes that the industry will fix it," explained Carri Bennet, managing principal for Bennet & Bennet, a communications law firm. Tony Veach, an attorney with the same firm, agreed, adding that most companies would rather take voluntary measures than face regulations that force them into specific actions. "This is a noncontroversial issue," he said. "Most of the carriers view it as a pretty easy initiative to sign on to." Working with the FCC, police departments, as well as handset manufacturers and operating system developers (which include Apple, Motorola, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Nokia and Research in Motion), CTIA-The Wireless Association, has coordinated a nationwide database to prevent reactivation of stolen phones. Currently, this database is only for GSM phones; by November, it should be expanded to include phones on the Long Term Evolution network. Thus far, rural providers Cellcom (serving areas in Wisconsin and Michigan) and Nex-Tech Wireless (operating in central and western Kansas, as well as parts of Colorado) have joined with nationwide wireless providers AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon in the voluntary program. "We encourage all carriers - large and small - to participate. The more that participate, the more successful it will be," said Brian Josef, CTIA's assistant vice president of regulatory affairs. The other component of the antitheft initiative is educating consumers to report lost or stolen phones. A recent study by Pew Research Center, an independent opinion research group, found that 36% of urban residents have had a phone lost or stolen, and 29% of suburban residents have reported lost and/or stolen phones. This compares with 26% of rural residents who have experienced either a lost or stolen phone. Aaron Smith, senior research specialist with Pew, said that the center was surprised that the percentages for suburban and rural areas were so similar. He added that, in this study, Pew did not further delineate between loss and theft. More Loss Than Thaf b in Rural Areas Rural crime expert Ralph Weisheit, professor of criminal justice at Illinois State University, said he doubts if rural theft rates are as high as urban or suburban theft rates. "Crime of all types is less prevalent in rural areas, but robbery represents the biggest gap of all because it requires the use of force to take something from somebody," he explained. "In a rural area, you're likely to know everyone, so it's easy to identify the perpetrator. On the other side, there's the guilt from stealing from somebody you know." The only exception to that theory could possibly be rural tourist areas, Weisheit said. "I could see device theft being an issue in a rural tourism spot because somebody could steal from a tourist because that person is unlikely to have the time or resources to pursue the matter," he said. But Angelika Senn - customer relations manager for Horry Telephone Cooperative (HTC; Conway, S.C.), which provides service in the Myrtle Beach area - said its incidence of stolen devices is very low. "The majority of HTC customers report cellphones as lost rather than stolen," she said, adding that of those reported stolen, it's typically thefts of high-end smartphones. Educating Consumere It's an educational process, said Johnie Johnson, president and chief executive officer of Nex-Tech Wireless, a subsidiary of Rural Telephone, Golden Belt Telephone and Mutual Telephone. "Every phone operating system -whether it's Apple, BlackBerry or Android - has applications that allow customers to back up pictures, contacts and other important information," he explained. All of this data can be sent to the "cloud," or remote server. "If the customer finds the lost phone, all of that data can be restored. If the phone is lost for good, there are apps to wipe it clean." Nex-Tech customers are also encouraged to put passwords on their phones so unauthorized users cannot tap into sensitive information, such as bank accounts. Social Security numbers and date of birth, Johnson said. He encouraged other rural telcos to take similar steps, as well as to join the antitheft initiative. "It's the right thing to do because it ensures that your customers are protected and have a great experience with your company," he said. Brighid Riordan - director of public affairs for Cellcom, a wireless communications company that is a subsidiary of Nsight, which began operations as Northeast Telephone Co. in Pulaski, Wis. - agreed that joining the antitheft effort and training customers about security measures is another way that local rural providers can add value. "This type of consumer education helps differentiate the regional carriers from the nationwide carriers," she said. "We are the local choice. We're here to inform, educate and help our customers." The sales process at Cellcom takes quite a long time, Riordan explained. "We want our customers to feel comfortable using their phones, understanding how they work, and making sure they understand how to protect their phones and the information that they have on them," she said. "We follow that up with email, on Facebook posts and through a portion of our website. Let's face it: People are busy and this is a topic they don't often think about." HTC's Senn also said her co-op works to educate customers about safety precautions. "On the front end, HTC encourages customers to password-protect their phones," she said. During the sales process, customer relations associates also explain and demonstrate various safeguarding applications. "There are several options, including locking, remote tracking, remote wiping, Apple iCloud, Windows mobile apps and more." As an authorized retailer of AT&T, HTC is participating in the antitheft initiative, which, the telco points out, is helpful not only in terms of combatting loss and theft but also in preventing fraud. "Customers may report stolen devices to receive new phones," Senn explained. "Through the block-listing database, HTC can limit the number of fraud cases." Nex-Tech's Johnson explained that the antitheft effort is not a new concept but rather an expansion to deal with the explosive growth of users. "Back in the dinosaur days when people carried brick phones, there was a nationwide negative list as a safeguard in case a freight truck or train car carrying these phones was hijacked," he said, explaining that a "negative list" tracked which cellphones had invalid roaming information or unpaid bills, both of which signaled theft. "Now, it's been expanded from the manufacturers to the carriers." Before, devices were tracked via the numbers on the subscriber identification module (SIM) cards, but thieves learned how to swap out these cards on stolen phones, put in new SIM cards and thus reactivate them for use. By tracking the phones via the numbers engraved into the devices and listing them in a nationwide database of stolen and lost phones, it makes it harder for thieves to recirculate stolen phones back into use. Nex-Tech currently has its own database of phones. "Once a nationwide database is set up, it'll be a simple matter of downloading and merging with that," Johnson said. There likely will be a small subscription fee to manage the database once the database is fully online. "But we view that as a minimal cost of doing business." Rachel Brown is a freelance writer. She can be reached at [email protected]. (c) 2013 National Telephone Cooperative |