Cloned ... and Go Figure! (non-technical)

[Joel Nelson]

Zen Reinhardt wrote:
> 
> Hello List!
> 
> I guess anything can happen at least once to anyone.  Last night I came to
> the realization that my cell phone may have been cloned when the phone rang
> at some odd hour.  


Zen- 
Sadly, you are not alone. The cellular fraud business is a HUGE loss for
the cellular operators. They are applying many high tech methods to 
reduce this problem, but it is far from perfect. The advent of digital
phones will greatly help, but a knowledgable bad guy (at great expense)
still provide illegal service. 

As for the cellular operator watching the account activity in the same
manner as credit card companies. That depends upon the particular 
operator. You were fortunate that you were able to report this fraud
quickly. I would expect that you will get relief from these calls. They
can set thresholds on call usage and flag them as suspicious. A few 
years ago, I made a trip to California and used my phone as a roamer in
that area. I made many calls out there and was queried by the operator
about this. Fortunately, all my calls were legit. 

One method I use to avoid cloning and the associated problems is to 
leave my cell phone off unless I am originating a call. This gives
the cloner less opportunity to grab my account data. My pager remains
on constantly. If someone wants me, they page me and I will respond. 
This has the additional advantage of being able to screen the calls, and
I don't have to keep track of the cell phone battery and replace and
recharge them. A single AA battery keeps the pager going for weeks. 

Hope this helps a little.

Joel
Lake Zurich, IL