The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Law & Order

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 13, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Law & Order

Complaints can be e-mailed to the Database Management authorities and victims need not go to police station, says P. Oppili

How to complain about cellphone theft?

On an average, about 150 mobile phone instruments are either stolen or snatched or lost in the Chennai Metropolitan Police area. But not every loser approaches the police to lodge a complaint. What should the owners of mobile phones do when they lose their instrument?

In the past two months, when the city police had to spare much of its manpower for poll duty, as many as 40 cellphone theft cases had been solved and instruments restored to owners.

An officer of the Database Management Division of the Cyber Crime Wing of the Central Crime Branch (CCB) wing said while about 50 instruments are pocket picked in public places, about 30 are snatched from the owners. The remaining handsets are misplaced, he says.

Last year, the Crime Records Bureau received about 3,000 complaints, and the Database Management Division received another 1,000 complaints, the police officials say.

A sizeable number of complaints had been received from people travelling in buses on the Adyar-Guindy and Thorappakkam-Parry's routes.

The next common target is lodging houses where bachelors or Information Technology professionals are put up. These inmates normally keep the windows and doors open, making the job of the lifters easy, say the police.

How to register complaint when a cellular phone is lost or stolen?

The victims could send their complaints to cop@vsnl.net. Complaints could be sent to the Database Management authorities by e-mail and victims need not go to a police station in person to register the loss of their handsets.

The complaint should have information such as name and address of the complainant, model and make of the lost mobile instrument, the last used number, address and e-mail for communication with missing date and IMEI number. Many people do not note down the IMEI number of their mobile. One can see the number by typing *#06# on their GSM mobile phone. The owners should record the 15-digit number, which is displayed in the instrument, police suggest. Here are some tips for those planning to buy a cellular phone.

- Do not buy a second-hand cellular phone from strangers. It could have been used for some anti-social activity, landing the second-hand buyer in trouble at a later date.

-Similarly, they should not sell the instrument to strangers. The unknown buyer could use them for some nefarious activities, warn the police.

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