Smartphones Driving Violent Crime Across US

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
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Cellphone crime in the US is beginning to reach epidemic proportions according to recent studies of collected data. More specifically, the incidence of violent crime involving cellphones is on the rise.

It's easy to see why the thefts are so rampant. Criminals can quickly turn stolen phones into several hundred dollars in cash, and phone users are often easy targets as they walk down the street engrossed in the screen and oblivious to their surroundings.
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Just like flashy jewelry, waving expensive smart phones attracts undesirable attention and these are not affixed to your body making them easy to snatch and grab. People in these areas should not use smartphones in areas they could easily be stolen.
 
This is kind of a bad thing for Google Glass... being $1000s and easily grabbable, plus constantly visible.

Though it can be remotely switched off, probably not that long before people can get around that (plus if it was being sold to someone they might not know).



Terminus said:
Get a concealed weapon permit and a really thin shirt.
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You'd likely perish from ENS way before violent crime that way. :p
 
DeathPrincess said:
This is kind of a bad thing for Google Glass... being $1000s and easily grabbable, plus constantly visible.

Though it can be remotely switched off, probably not that long before people can get around that (plus if it was being sold to someone they might not know).
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Google Glass will likely cause violent crime just because people are wearing them around other people and some people won't like having the invasion. I expect that there'll be incidents where hormone-enraged men will beat each one anothers faces over them.
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
Google Glass will likely cause violent crime just because people are wearing them around other people and some people won't like having the invasion. I expect that there'll be incidents where hormone-enraged men will beat each one anothers faces over them.
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Can't wait to see all the POV knuckle sandwiches on YouTube! :p
 
Trickle down economics at work... This way people who can't afford the latest tech are able to. It also keeps the manufacturers happy because you'll buy another, newer phone...

Seriously though, this is a problem that could be fixed by the manufacturers quickly and easily. Brick phones that are reported stolen as soon as they get a data connection. If it's your phone, you get an unlock code and bam! working phone. Crime goes down, people enjoy their expensive tech, problem solved.
 
Decibel said:
Seriously though, this is a problem that could be fixed by the manufacturers quickly and easily. Brick phones that are reported stolen as soon as they get a data connection. If it's your phone, you get an unlock code and bam! working phone. Crime goes down, people enjoy their expensive tech, problem solved.
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But that would make way too much sense.
 
Decibel said:
Trickle down economics at work... This way people who can't afford the latest tech are able to. It also keeps the manufacturers happy because you'll buy another, newer phone...

Seriously though, this is a problem that could be fixed by the manufacturers quickly and easily. Brick phones that are reported stolen as soon as they get a data connection. If it's your phone, you get an unlock code and bam! working phone. Crime goes down, people enjoy their expensive tech, problem solved.
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Oh, sorry, trickledown economics also dictates that any common user isn't important enough to have such a feature on their phones... so we'll reserve that for business and government class phones.

And to show you how little you really do matter: When your phone is stolen and reported to the carrier as such: They'll happily reactivate that phone for a new customer.

Make it illegal for carriers to activate a phone that has been reported stolen and the problem will largely resolve itself.
 
Best thing you can do is not buy an iPhone which will net you a better phone anyway and throw an extended battery on it, then when ignorant criminals see you they will think you have some old fat phone not worth anything.

Also guys lol where have you been the entire reason phones are locked to carriers was because carriers said it prevented theft, now does it? nope because if phones are worth money thieves have plenty of options. Hack a new ESN or GSM card in, sell it to another country, sell it for parts. Look on ebay any day and you can find thousands of phones with bad ESNs which can mean several things but often means they are stolen. Guess what they are still selling for hundreds of dollars, usually its not more than a $100 penalty on the price for a bad ESN.
 
Decibel said:
Seriously though, this is a problem that could be fixed by the manufacturers quickly and easily. Brick phones that are reported stolen as soon as they get a data connection. If it's your phone, you get an unlock code and bam! working phone. Crime goes down, people enjoy their expensive tech, problem solved.
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It's almost disturbing how little manufacturers and carriers give a shit about this. It seems to me that it'd be such an easy thing to combat on a "smart" phone. Either brick the phone or blacklist it after it gets stolen and the incentive to steal them would drop like a rock.
 
If the wireless providers would just hurry up with blacklisting stolen phones, this wouldn't be such a problem.
 
If somebody tries to activate the stolen device police should be called to check and arrest if possible.

This database should also be made where you can search the IMEI number to verify its status.
 
Tudz said:
It's almost disturbing how little manufacturers and carriers give a shit about this. It seems to me that it'd be such an easy thing to combat on a "smart" phone. Either brick the phone or blacklist it after it gets stolen and the incentive to steal them would drop like a rock.
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Read the post above yours.
 
Look like prey to the predator and one will become prey. It's that simple. Expecting police or some law to stop theft is just plain ignorant.


Posted from Hardforum.com App for Android
 
rudy said:
Read the post above yours.
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I did ;) It's why I find it disturbing that manufacturers and carriers would sooner see their customers bashed and robbed rather than lose the profits when those bruised customers limp back to buy a new phone and the black market buyer comes to sign up for a new plan with the stolen phone.
 
"Think of it as evolution in action".

The point is, why try to fix stupid? In fact, let the stupids get killed before they reproduce and create more stupids.

My wife is all for an "open season" on morons using a cellphone for chatting or texting while driving, or walking about in public. And I agree.
 
DPI said:
Sounds more like your erotic fantasy (which we didnt really need to hear about)
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I admit that it'd be better than reading The Other Side of Midnight. ^^ Then again, most men who would wear Google Glass are probably not very easy on the eyes. All that blubber flopping around during a fight would be a dissapointment when you prefer athletic or at least moderately fit people in a brawl. Meh, society....I are disappoint. :(
 
Tudz said:
I did ;) It's why I find it disturbing that manufacturers and carriers would sooner see their customers bashed and robbed rather than lose the profits when those bruised customers limp back to buy a new phone and the black market buyer comes to sign up for a new plan with the stolen phone.
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Well then you didn't comprehend it. The point is a phone has value no matter what. What do you want the carriers to do? Force companies to construct the entire phone of a single device on a chip where even the screen is fabricated and sealed together with the PCB and implement a ton of tracking crap which will bring up all sorts of privacy issues? No matter what these phones are still going to have tons of value no matter how hard they make them to steal because people can just ship them to another country or use them for parts.

Also what about the rights you have lost, personally someone stealing my phone has never happened to me but I have had at least 4 instances in my life where it would have been nice to be able to just flip a sim card in and out of a phone and have it working on my carrier. Instead I have to jump through hoops and deal with locked phones and carrier specific models.

Stolen phones are net zero if the carrier lets a customer activate it on their network. lets take ATT, Joe steals a phone from tudz and activates it on his ATT account, Tudz goes and buys a new phone, but Joe didn't, see, ATT didn't make money off of Joe. Its not that big of a deal. ATT would rather kill the phone and make both Joe and Tudz buy a new phone. But then Joe would just sell it on ebay as a deactived phone and someone would buy it and ship it to Thailand. So to me I think carriers do have a vested interest in stopping theft, but you know you cant reason with someone who had their phone stolen. But I promise you no matter what protection is enabled phone theft will continue until phones become cheap and near worthless, nothing else will stop it. And the more protection the harder it will be for legit customers to do anything but it wont effect criminals it never does.
 
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