A joint venture by several of the large cell phone providers
is going to help people avoid identity theft.
They are building a database of lost and stolen cellphones with the
intent of blocking the phone being reactivated.
The wireless companies are making this effort in a positive attempt to
block cell phone thieves from using the stolen phone.
The core idea is in to help keep the owner's personal
information out of the hands of the person who steals or finds the phone. The
cell phone will have an identifying code assigned to it that will allow
providers to deactivate the phone and stop it from being used again once it
reported lost or stolen. Anyone trying to reverse engineer or hack the code should
face serious legal troubles.
Customers with AT&T, Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile, and
Verizon will have the protection. The Federal Communications Commission
believes the database will be ready to launch sometime around October.
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