The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Two in phone-cloning gang held

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Saturday, Jul 19, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Two in phone-cloning gang held

Staff Reporter

The gang cloned over 70 phones of Tata Tele Services

— Photo : NAGARA GOPAL

Game of deceit: Deputy Commissioner of Police (Task Force) V.B. Kamalasan Reddy checking the seized computer and software used to prepare the duplicate phones.

HYDERABAD: Two members of a gang that allegedly cloned over 70 phones of Tata Tele Services, intending to use them for operating call termination rackets, were arrested on Friday.

The arrested persons, Mirza Mohammed Azar, 26, and Shankar Rao Biradar, 24, and the absconding gang leader, Mohd. Asif, earlier worked with an outsourcing agency of Tata company. A hunt was on for Asif whose arrest would lead to the busting of many call termination rackets, the Commissioner’s Task Force DCP V.B. Kamalasan Reddy told a press conference.

ESN

Since Azar, Biradar and Asif worked with an outsourcing agency that used to activate fixed wireless landline phones of Tata Tele Services, they were familiar with the source and Electronic Serial number (ESN) of the phones. ESN is the unique identification number embedded or inscribed on the microchip in a wireless phone by the manufacturer.

Each time a call is placed, the ESN is automatically transmitted to the base station so the wireless carrier’s mobile switching office can check the call’s validity. By encrypting the source code and ESN on a blank SIM card of a mobile phone, the gang prepared nearly 70 duplicate phones. The trio supplied these phones to some call termination racket operators. “Azar and Biradar claim other details are only known to Asif who is absconding,” the DCP explained. The outsourcing agency suspended the trio on learning that they were illegally collecting details of the source code data transfer.

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