Gang making stolen phones untraceable busted, 2 held

If you think the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number on your phone is going to keep it safe, think again. With the arrest of two men, the Delhi Police have busted a gang of thieves that used high-end gadgets and software to sneak into your Google account and bypass the phone security features, and to change the IMEI number so that the phone could be sold as new.

The arrestees were identified as Mehtab Malik and Praveen Sharma, and 65 smartphones were recovered from their possession. Expressing serious concerns about the vulnerability of advanced security features on phones, DCP (southeast) Romil Baaniya said: "The devices used by these two men were Ultimate Multipurpose Tool, a dongle shaped device, along with a BST device. These were used to reset the factory settings of a phone. Generally, when this feature is activated, the phone sends a message to your linked email ID, alerting you about the security breach. But the software allowed the gang to bypass the Google account settings, which also disabled the GPS settings on a phone, making it impossible to be tracked."

He further said other gadgets, such as Octoplus and Z3X Box, were also being used to change the IMEI number. These devices helped the accused generate a fake IMEI number for each phone, and similar IMEI numbers were allotted to many phones, which were then resold, Baaniya added.

During interrogation, the duo told the police that they had bought these gadets from the Gaffar Market in Karol Bagh and had also ordered them online. Another device recovered from their possession, DC Unlocker, which was used to unlock the phones, was purchased from abroad, the police said.

Both accused are school dropouts and had learned the hacking tricks from either watching online videos or at mobile repair workshops. Baaniya also stressed that in order to curb the menace completely, a crackdown on markets selling these gadgets and software was required.