Dial ‘C’ for crime

Associated Press

SAO PAULO, Brazil — They’re used in Brazil to organize prison riots, kidnappings and murders, while in Vietnam they’re a drug dealer’s best friend.

Cell phones are fast becoming a favored accessory for crooks.

Now, with the arrival of prepaid handsets that can be bought "off the peg" at supermarkets or gas stations — unregistered and harder to trace — organized crime has yet another weapon.

"Organized crime uses prepaid mobiles a lot. Crooks need communications that are hard to trace," said Ross Anderson, a security engineering expert at Britain’s Cambridge University.

"Most of the illicit use is to cheat telecom carriers out of revenue, but there are also strong links to the drug trade, the arms trade and terrorism," said Charles Freire at the Brasilia offices of FML, a telecommunications fraud and security consultancy.

According to the official Voice of Vietnam radio, narcotics police last year busted 55 drug syndicates and, in one swoop, seized more than 120 mobile phones.

In Brazil, the criminal use of wireless is altogether more sinister and deadly.

A year ago, about 20,000 inmates in 29 jails across Sao Paulo state staged the country’s largest prison riot, killing 16 prisoners and taking 8,000 others hostage. The rebellion, authorities said, was coordinated by prepaid cell phones smuggled into jails. Calls could not be traced.

Add to that, the use of cell phones in a spate of violent kidnappings in Sao Paulo that spiraled to 267 last year from 63 in 2000 and it’s easy to understand why last week, after a popular mayor was kidnapped and executed, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso called prepaid mobiles "an instrument of crime" and threatened to ban them.

He quickly backed down because pay-as-you go wireless has been embraced so universally by poorer Brazilians.

"The prepaid phone isn’t just the bad guy here," said FML’s Freire. "It’s a revolutionary product that has democratized communications."

So what can be done?

"The itemized phone bill has long been a powerful investigative tool," said Anderson.

While pay-as-you-call mobiles don’t have bills, buyers could at least be forced to produce I.D. at purchase, said Freire.

Network operators are already swapping information about "suspicious" numbers — ones that make frequent calls to known offshore tax havens or known drug trade strongholds, he added.

With current equipment, even prepaid cells can be located by triangulating their position through transmission towers. But until their users can be identified, that probably won’t discourage criminals.

In Britain, police blame a steep rise in violent street crime on cell phone theft. More than 700,000 cell phones were stolen last year and in one high-profile attack on New Year’s Day, a 19-year-old girl was shot in the head after handing over her mobile to a robber.

A recent government report urged cell phone manufacturers to consider boosting security on the next handset generation.

Analysts say one way to go would be by installing fingerprinting sensors on handsets, though they are currently expensive at about $10 each.

Voice authentication is also an option.

Domain Dynamics Ltd., a British company, has patented voice authentication software that, according to marketing manager Martin George, has been sufficiently compacted to fit on chips in handsets and on the SIM security cards used on GSM networks "for a matter of a few tens of cents a phone."

"Our tests will only be proven by putting the system into public use, but we’re confident it will slash mobile phone thefts by over 80 percent," George said.

Phones loaded with the software will only work once they recognize the owner’s voice. With global positioning satellite technology, they will also be traceable to within 10 meters, said George.

"Your voice is like your fingerprint, everybody’s is unique," George said. "This is like a three-part lock: you can only unlock the phone with the chip in the phone, the chip on the SIM card and your voice."