The prolific rise of mobile phone thefts and what can be done industry wide to help break the cycle
Mobile phone theft is a multi-billion-dollar global industry issue. From the moment a batch of new smartphones leaves the factory, there is a risk that they could be stolen.
From the prolific rise of snatch thefts from unsuspecting consumers in the street to a disturbing trend noted by the Sunday Times of criminal gangs intercepting courier vans filled with new smartphones, opportune theft is big business.
Devices are vulnerable at every step of their life cycle, in 2018, for example, a group of Brazilian thieves disguised as workers made off with a shipment of Samsung Galaxy smartphones worth $1 million from Rio de Janeiro’s international airport. This is anything but an isolated issue.
The UK’s BSI Supply Chain Services and Solutions assesses that companies lose more than an estimated $76 million annually in the UK alone to cargo theft, highlighting the severity of the issue.
When it comes to helping stop the snatch theft cycle currently blighting our streets, our CEO Dion Price, explains that current manufacturer implemented anti-theft solutions are fairly straightforward to overcome with just a simple re-flash of certain devices. Even with the newest anti-theft features now being introduced the onus is on the consumer – you have to set it up yourself, humans don’t tend to forward plan. If they were as effective as we would all hope then the incentive for theft would have been reduced and the problem would start to fall.
Trustonic can lock a device anywhere in the world within 30 seconds or less, with a robust solution that renders the phone completely inaccessible until released. Trustonic is working with the government to advocate a proactive, industry-wide adoption of a centralized IMEI list of devices entering the UK. This will enable us to activate the ‘Kill Switch’ should it be stolen and instantly disable the device, making it useless to the thief and acting as the ultimate deterrent.
Over the last 10 years, we have grown to become the largest and most secure mobile device locking provider globally.
Our technology has helped to protect tens of millions of devices on behalf of our operator, retailer and financier customers around the world, including 80% of tier one global mobile operator groups.
The platform achieves this by enabling operators to securely lock and unlock any Android device globally from a single, convenient interface that is connected to them via a simple API.
It is applicable across a number of scenarios such as smartphone supply chain protection, SIM control, and device financing.
Ultimately, industry inertia is fuelling the problem. If manufacturers worked together to enable their smartphone remote locking solutions in the UK, it would remove the ability for the thief to unlock, reset or reflash the phone, thereby removing its value as an item for resale. If we remove the resale value of stolen devices, it will definitively stop the rise in thefts.
Protecting operators’ brands
With the cost-of-living crisis squeezing consumer budgets, many smartphone users are being drawn towards the greyer end of the market, where the origins of a device cannot necessarily be trusted.
In fact, when purchasing from this portion of the market, there is a very real risk that a consumer could be buying a stolen device. With our supply chain protection solution, however, operators can have greater assurance that their devices will be better protected, should they fall into the hands of thieves who intend to traffic them to unwitting consumers.
After only a short time in the market, the solution is capable of eliminating the incentive for street theft of devices, and/or organised crime involving the hijacking of vehicles they are transported in. Trustonic locked devices no longer have a value.
Our device locking technology is a force for positive change, benefitting operators, retailers and consumers in equal measure.
