ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES
APPLE
PICKING
listings that include the term
“Bad ESN” — shorthand for a
phone that can’t be used on a
particular wireless network because its serial number has been
reported lost or stolen.
James Person, chief operating officer of CDG, an international wireless industry group, said he has
counted more than 30,000 sales
of smartphones with tainted serial
numbers on the auction site. Since
these phones can’t be used on Verizon’s network, he believes most
are trafficked to other countries.
HUFFINGTON
03.24.13
Many phones that are stolen on
the West Coast of the United States
are subsequently smuggled across
the border to Mexico, he said. Mexican drug dealers use phones stolen
in the U.S. to communicate with
relatives of kidnapping victims, according to Hector Olavarria Tapia,
Mexico’s former under-secretary
of communications. “The easiest
way to communicate with the families is to use a mobile device that
is not tracked,” he said at a press
conference last fall.
In response, the U.S. and
Mexican governments agreed in
November to deactivate stolen
phones in both countries to pre-
Sen. Charles
Schumer
(D-N.Y.)
speaks
at a news
conference
in 2012, held
to announce
initiatives
to combat
the growing
number
of robberies
targeting
cell phones.