A 25-year-old youth running a shop in Burma Bazaar, who had been buying stolen handsets from mobile phone snatchers, was arrested on Friday. Police seized 70 mobile phones, including 50 expensive iPhones, from him.
The stolen phones seized from the shop; Inset: Abdul Rahman
Chennai:
Though he reset each handset before selling them off, many mobile phone manufacturers, including Apple, have an added facility where the phone owners would get a message when a new SIM card is inserted in their phone. The owner would receive a text or e-mail with the number of the newly installed SIM card. According to police, it was this this system that helped the investigators to zero in on a stolen iPhone.
One of the snatching victims, who lost his phone to snatchers at T Nagar, received a message alerting him that a new SIM card has been inserted in his lost iPhone. He immediately got in touch with the Mambalam police with this information. They traced the phone number and found that it belonged to one Venkataraman of Kodungaiyur.
However, when police questioned Venkataraman, they found that didn’t have the phone with him. Police probed further and found that investigators from other states had also questioned him earlier.
During a detailed probe, police received tipoff about Abdul Rahman through their sources in Sathya Bazaar, Burma Bazaar and Ritchie Street. Signal location of the phone at the time when the new SIM was inserted also helped them track him.
When questioned, Rahman confessed to buying stolen phones. When he had to reset the stolen phones, he used the SIM card that he had bought using Venkatraman’s voter identity card, he admitted during interrogation. Police added that Rahman managed to obtain the ID card through a friend.
“Whenever Rahman inserted the SIM card for resetting, the mobile phone owners received a message, with the phone number of Venkatraman. That is why sleuths from other states had tracked and questioned in the past,” the police noted. Sources said they were also questioning Rahman’s brother, who is into servicing of laptops.
The man was identified as Abdul Rahman of Perambur, a Class 8 dropout,. Police said he used to buy mobile phones from snatchers at very cheap rates. These were then sold to customers as second-hand phones after resetting the device and restoring it to factory default setting.
Though he reset each handset before selling them off, many mobile phone manufacturers, including Apple, have an added facility where the phone owners would get a message when a new SIM card is inserted in their phone. The owner would receive a text or e-mail with the number of the newly installed SIM card. According to police, it was this this system that helped the investigators to zero in on a stolen iPhone.
One of the snatching victims, who lost his phone to snatchers at T Nagar, received a message alerting him that a new SIM card has been inserted in his lost iPhone. He immediately got in touch with the Mambalam police with this information. They traced the phone number and found that it belonged to one Venkataraman of Kodungaiyur.
However, when police questioned Venkataraman, they found that didn’t have the phone with him. Police probed further and found that investigators from other states had also questioned him earlier.
During a detailed probe, police received tipoff about Abdul Rahman through their sources in Sathya Bazaar, Burma Bazaar and Ritchie Street. Signal location of the phone at the time when the new SIM was inserted also helped them track him.
When questioned, Rahman confessed to buying stolen phones. When he had to reset the stolen phones, he used the SIM card that he had bought using Venkatraman’s voter identity card, he admitted during interrogation. Police added that Rahman managed to obtain the ID card through a friend.
“Whenever Rahman inserted the SIM card for resetting, the mobile phone owners received a message, with the phone number of Venkatraman. That is why sleuths from other states had tracked and questioned in the past,” the police noted. Sources said they were also questioning Rahman’s brother, who is into servicing of laptops.