Your cell can be cloned and you will pay for it

Hyderabad, Jan. 12: Don’t lend your cellphone to anyone, not even for a minute. The other person could make a clone of your phone, and get you into serious trouble. One way that the other person clones your cell is by noting down the IMEI — International Mobile Equipment Number — by typing *#06#. The 15-digit IMEI number, unique to the cell and inscribed by the manufacturer, pops up immediately.

This he uses with cloning software available on the Internet to make a clone of your IMEI on his cell. Whenever he uses the clone, your IMEI number pops up and the call is traced back to you. If he misuses the phone, you’ve had it.

Alternatively, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity number from your SIM card can be similarly cloned. Then, the identity thief uses “your” SIM card and you end up paying the bills. Such cloning is rampant in the city, cyber forensic experts of the Central Forensic Science Lab have warned. CFSL Scientist M Kris-hna says: “We received a case recently where a police official from Delhi landed in jail as one of his relatives cloned his cellphone and used it to threaten his rivals.”

CFSL Scientist P Kris-hna Sastry of the computer forensic division told Chronicle that it’s time for service providers and users to wake up to the crime. He said use of fake BSNL cards was reported in the city. CDMA mobile cloning is also present. Three months ago, the Asif-nagar police busted a CDMA cloning racket. “In CD-MA phones, they clone phones by stealing Electronic Serial Numb-er. We should not hand over our cellphones casually, said Krishna Sastry.

“Mobile phone cloning is the most dangerous crime,” M Krishna said. “Mobile cloning is equipment cloning. In this case two mobile phones will have the same IMEI number. The service provider will track the IMEI to the original phone. SIM cloning is mostly used to avoid bill. “Under normal circumstance IMEI number should not be revealed, he said.

BSNL DGM (Market-ing) T S Ramakrishna said there was the possibility that cellphones cou-ld be cloned. “I deal with Tarang (CDMA) and B-Fones. In Tarang there is no possibility of cloning unlike other CDMA providers,” he said.