Government Clamps Down on Recycling Stolen Mobile Phones
Around £4 million worth of stolen handsets, which is about 100,000 are being sold every year. Since mobile phones blocked from use on networks in the UK will still work abroad, thieves sell the handset to recycling firms.
Recycling companies urge people to send in their old mobiles for money, and then the devices are resold, usually in developing countries. The UK government has now developed a strategy that recycling firms have agreed to follow to prevent stolen mobiles from being sold to them. They must check the mobiles against the National Mobile Phone Register, a database, and report if any of the devices have been stolen.
Over 15 mobile phone recycling firms, which represents 90% of the industry, have agreed to this new strategy of checking the mobiles through a national database, which is linked to 3 others - the police database of mobiles reported stolen, a voluntary public register and the industry database of blocked mobiles. If a phone is found to be stolen, the recycling company will then refuse to buy it while reporting the issue with the would-be-seller’s details to police.
Charlo Carabott, the managing director of Mazuma Mobile, a recycling company that has agreed to the strategy, says that some of the handsets they buy can be worth over £200, such as an iPhone. They want to make recycling mobiles as attractive as possible, he continued, but it’s obvious now that their prices may be encouraging people to commit theft. They didn’t want this to happy, so they have been involved with preventing it from the start, but this is the first time a standard has been adapted for the industry, he added.
Recycle your old stuff!