Mobile phone cloning

Cell phone cloning is copying the identity of one
mobile telephone to another mobile telephone.
Usually this is done for the purpose of making
fraudulent telephone calls. The bills for the calls
go to the legitimate subscriber. The cloner is
also able to make effectively anonymous calls,
which attracts another group of interested users.
Cloning is the process of taking the programmed
information that is stored in a legitimate mobile
phone and illegally programming the identical
information into another mobile phone. The
result is that the "cloned" phone can make and
receive calls and the charges for those calls are
billed to the legitimate subscriber. The service
provider network does not have a way to
differentiate between the legitimate phone and
the "cloned" phone
HOW IS CELL CLONING DONE?
Cloning involved modifying or replacing the
EPROM in the phone with a new chip which
would allow you to configure an ESN (Electronic
serial number) via software. You would also
have to change the MIN (Mobile Identification
Number). When you had successfully changed
the ESN/MIN pair, your phone was an effective
clone of the other phone. Cloning required
access to ESN and MIN pairs. ESN/MIN pairs
were discovered in several ways:
Sniffing the cellular
Trashing cellular companies or cellular resellers
Hacking cellular companies or cellular resellers
Cloning still works under the AMPS/NAMPS
system, but has fallen in popularity as older
clone able phones are more difficult to find and
newer phones have not been successfully
reverse-engineered.
Cloning has been successfully demonstrated
under GSM, but the process is not easy and it
currently remains in the realm of serious
hobbyists and researchers.
HOW TO PREVENT CELL CLONING?
Uniquely identifies a mobile unit within a
wireless carrier's network. The MIN often can
be dialed from other wireless or wire line
networks. The number differs from the
electronic serial number (ESN), which is the unit
number assigned by a phone manufacturer.
MINs and ESNs can be checked electronically to
help prevent fraud.
.Mobiles should never be trusted for
communicating/storing confidential
information.
Always set a Pin that's required before the
phone can be used.
Check that all mobile devices are covered by a
corporate security policy.
Ensure one person is responsible for keeping
tabs on who has what equipment and that they
update the central register. How do service
providers handle reports of cloned phones?
Legitimate subscribers who have their phones
cloned will receive bills with charges for calls
they didn't make. Sometimes these charges
amount to several thousands of dollars in
addition to the legitimate charges.
Typically, the service provider will assume the
cost of those additional fraudulent calls.
However, to keep the cloned phone from
continuing to receive service, the service
provider will terminate the legitimate phone
subscription. The subscriber is then required to
activate a new subscription with a different
phone number requiring reprogramming of the
phone, along with the additional headaches that
go along with phone number changes.