Three arrested for mobile fraud

CHENNAI: The Cyber Crime Cell of the city police on Saturday arrested three persons who flouted Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) guidelines by implanting International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number in mobile handsets from Korea.

"IMEI is like a fingerprint, as it is a unique number that is given to every mobile handset," Assistant Commissioner, CCC, Dr M Sudhakar told Express. "Without the IMEI number, communication is not possible," he said. TRAI banned implanting of IMEI numbers in mobile sets, including those from Korea and China that come without them, after November 30, 2009. "If the IMEI numbers are tampered with, altered or newly implanted, the uniqueness of the set is lost," the officer said.

Acting on a tipoff that a shop in Ritchie Street was cloning IMEI numbers on Korean mobile handsets, a special team set up under the directive of City Police Commissioner T Rajendran and supervision of DC, CCB, C Sridhar, raided the shop and arrested Mohammed Abdullah of Royapettah, Krishnan of Tiruttani and Saddam Hussain of Perumbur and seized a Spiderman software kit among other equipment.