Tracing calls through the IMEI

Hi all,
I've found bits and pieces on the net but no definitive answer - my
wifes phone has been stolen and I'm wondering can (and WILL) the
service provider (Optus) or the police trace incoming and outgoing
calls through the IMEI if the thief has put in another SIM. We have
blocked the sim but kept the IMEI unblocked. I'm P*ISSED and want the
bastard caught.

It was stolen from her desk in her office between 6.30 last night and
8.30 this morning - so it was either the cleaners or some workmen
putting in new lights. Strangely enough they were stupid to leave a
drill bit on her desk and steal her phone, so I think I know whether it
was the cleaner or the workmen, don't you? But its a big office,
several thousand employees and a lot more than one workman was working,
so hard to trace that way.

Thanks
P*SSED OFF


--
falconboy

---

› See More: Tracing calls through the IMEI

track/trace a stolen phone?

Technically , yes...practically...no (for reasons of cost, time, likelihood
of conviction).

Unless a murder was involved...or major crime/terrorist threat....not going
to be pursued.

So...Catch 22.... go out and murder the culprit and then the police can
follow it up. Unfortunately the target of their enquiries would be you!

At the end of the day...today...it's still just a phone.

"falconboy" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>
> Hi all,
> I've found bits and pieces on the net but no definitive answer - my
> wifes phone has been stolen and I'm wondering can (and WILL) the
> service provider (Optus) or the police trace incoming and outgoing
> calls through the IMEI if the thief has put in another SIM. We have
> blocked the sim but kept the IMEI unblocked. I'm P*ISSED and want the
> bastard caught.
>
> It was stolen from her desk in her office between 6.30 last night and
> 8.30 this morning - so it was either the cleaners or some workmen
> putting in new lights. Strangely enough they were stupid to leave a
> drill bit on her desk and steal her phone, so I think I know whether it
> was the cleaner or the workmen, don't you? But its a big office,
> several thousand employees and a lot more than one workman was working,
> so hard to trace that way.
>
> Thanks
> P*SSED OFF
>
>
> --
> falconboy

> can (and WILL) the
> service provider (Optus) or the police trace incoming and outgoing
> calls through the IMEI if the thief has put in another SIM.

The police can compel carriers to provide details of subscribers using
a particular IMEI/s. Obviously, whether your local cops are willing to
do that for the theft of a single handset is another matter. The
technology's there though.

Also, note that inquiries would need to be made with all three GSM
carriers (not just Optus), as the thief (or the sucker that bought it)
might use any of those carriers' SIMs in the stolen handset.

Good luck with it.

falconboy wrote:
> Hi all,
> I've found bits and pieces on the net but no definitive answer - my
> wifes phone has been stolen and I'm wondering can (and WILL) the
> service provider (Optus) or the police trace incoming and outgoing
> calls through the IMEI if the thief has put in another SIM. We have
> blocked the sim but kept the IMEI unblocked. I'm P*ISSED and want the
> bastard caught.
>
> It was stolen from her desk in her office between 6.30 last night and
> 8.30 this morning - so it was either the cleaners or some workmen
> putting in new lights. Strangely enough they were stupid to leave a
> drill bit on her desk and steal her phone, so I think I know whether it
> was the cleaner or the workmen, don't you? But its a big office,
> several thousand employees and a lot more than one workman was working,
> so hard to trace that way.
>
> Thanks
> P*SSED OFF

With such a large office I suspect there would be security operating in
the building at least out of business hours, I suggest reporting it to
them as well as your employer and of course Police.

Usually the employer doesn't give a ****, but at least if they are aware
and also try to let as many other employees know about the theft so as
to hopefully prevent it happening again.

Optarse should black list the phone to prevent the phone from working on
the Network (and I believe all Networks now if I am correct) making the
phone worthless to anyone.

Unfortunately the workplace is never a safe place to leave any personal
items. Last year a friend of mine that works at a place that has secure
access with swipe cards and several security cameras had an expensive
digital camera stolen from his desk. The company refused to compensate
for it and the Security Staff were unable to establish who the offender was.


--
73 de Simon, VK3XEM.

Thanks for your reply.

Yes, I forgot the fact that he (most likely a 'he') could use a
different SIM.

That was my thought with the police too - but I am wondering, if the
police don't take it further, can we insist on getting the records from
the service providers ourselves considering the calls were made using
OUR phone? At least records of the outgoing number used (hence only
identifying the potential thief)....


--
falconboy

falconboy wrote:
> Thanks for your reply.
>
> Yes, I forgot the fact that he (most likely a 'he') could use a
> different SIM.
>
> That was my thought with the police too - but I am wondering, if the
> police don't take it further, can we insist on getting the records from
> the service providers ourselves considering the calls were made using
> OUR phone? At least records of the outgoing number used (hence only
> identifying the potential thief)....

To be honest is it worth the effort? If the crim is smart enough they
CAN change the IMEI and their laughing. The police aren't going to help
over a couple of hundred dollar phone.

At least block the IMEI at the service provider to make it harder for
the crim to offload the phone.

Hi Nick,

No offence, but **** it! Yes it is worth the effect. As a law abiding
citizen I'm sick of the filth that get away with **** like that because
of the low value of the goods. I have a police scanner and hear the
minor crap the police spend attending on their regular beats, so why
the hell shouldn't this be followed up? The dickhead that stole it is
most likely to have stolen goods before, and probably will again, so
its not just 1 phone we are likely to be talking about. And it wasn't
like he found it in the street, he KNEW it belonged to the person whos
desk it was, and even opened a few draws and found the charger. I want
the ****ers balls on a plate.

I doubt the crim is smart enough, he's likely to be some dumb tradesman
opportunistic thief who'll stick his sim card in and think all his
Christmas' have come at once. Considering the wider community, the
chances of him having the knowledge etc to chance the IMEI I think are
slim.

Sorry man, don't mean to be pissed off at you - I'm just pissed off in
general.

Thanks
Martin


--
falconboy

falconboy wrote:
> Hi Nick,
>
> No offence, but **** it! Yes it is worth the effect. As a law abiding
> citizen I'm sick of the filth that get away with **** like that because
> of the low value of the goods. I have a police scanner and hear the
> minor crap the police spend attending on their regular beats, so why
> the hell shouldn't this be followed up? The dickhead that stole it is
> most likely to have stolen goods before, and probably will again, so
> its not just 1 phone we are likely to be talking about. And it wasn't
> like he found it in the street, he KNEW it belonged to the person whos
> desk it was, and even opened a few draws and found the charger. I want
> the ****ers balls on a plate.

While I see your point I'm not arguing from a moral or ethical point of
view I'm just stating that the police WON'T follow this up. There are
bigger fish to fry. I agree with you that they should but you have to
face the facts that they won't.

> I doubt the crim is smart enough, he's likely to be some dumb tradesman
> opportunistic thief who'll stick his sim card in and think all his
> Christmas' have come at once. Considering the wider community, the
> chances of him having the knowledge etc to chance the IMEI I think are
> slim.

He probably won't understand but I'm sure in the end someone who gets
their hands on it will know what to do.

> Sorry man, don't mean to be pissed off at you - I'm just pissed off in
> general.


Tough break but you really need to realise that a $300 phone theft is
NOTHING in the grand scheme of things. Leaving the phone unblocked just
makes the theifs job that much easier.

falconboy <[email protected]> wrote

> No offence, but **** it! Yes it is worth the effect.

For you, sure. I'd do the same thing myself. I doubt the cops will
be convinceable to bother tho, particularly as it requires the cops
to deal with at least two of the mobile telcos and at least one of
them is likely to be pretty bureaucratic to deal with for this stuff.

> As a law abiding citizen I'm sick of the filth that get away
> with **** like that because of the low value of the goods.

Sure, me too.

> I have a police scanner and hear the minor crap
> the police spend attending on their regular beats,
> so why the hell shouldn't this be followed up?

Basically because I doubt the average cop would even know
where to start to get that info out of the mobile telcos, let alone
getting the location of the mobile now out of them. They'd
certainly do it with that woman who went missing yesterday
in Sydney for example, but I doubt it with a stolen phone.

> The dickhead that stole it is most likely to have stolen
> goods before, and probably will again, so its not just
> 1 phone we are likely to be talking about.

Thats harder to say. Since he was so careless about the
drill, its more likely it was spontaneous theft, the first time.

> And it wasn't like he found it in the street, he KNEW it belonged
> to the person whos desk it was, and even opened a few draws
> and found the charger. I want the ****ers balls on a plate.

Yeah, I would too, but I dont like your chances with the cops.

No harm in asking them tho, the worst they can do is tell you they
wont be bothering, or fob you off and dont actually do anything.

> I doubt the crim is smart enough, he's likely to be some
> dumb tradesman opportunistic thief who'll stick his sim
> card in and think all his Christmas' have come at once.

Yep, very likely. Very few crims are rocket scientist material.

Corse it might have been a cleaner smart enough to
make it look like one of the tradesmonkeys that night too.

> Considering the wider community, the chances of him having
> the knowledge etc to chance the IMEI I think are slim.

Yeah, I doubt he'd bother and you'd soon find out
anyway if the cops are prepared to get the telcos
to see if any calls have been made using your IMEI.

> Sorry man, don't mean to be pissed off
> at you - I'm just pissed off in general.

Yeah, I'd certainly **** over the thief myself if I could.

In fact I have done so, in a situation where I didnt need
to get the cops involved until I had the crim in hand, literally.
Over stuff of rather less value than in your case too.

Yeah yeah, I comprehend all this, but I'm still PISSED OFF AND WANT TO
KILL THE ARSEHOLE.

Optus are onto it and doing a search which we should know in a day or
so. So if they say they do have record of the phones IMEI being used,
we will hopefully be able to at least get a copper we know of that
might be willing to follow it up.

However if it was used on another carrier, we still need someone
friendly from Telstra or Voda that will do a search for us.....come on,
there has to be someone on here that can and will do it. Surely its a 5
minute search on the system. And if there is no record, then thats it,
if there is, print it off and fax it to me, I'll do the rest.

The fights not over yet, and its worth a try. Come on, lets do
this!!!

Thanks fellas!


--
falconboy

>>
>> That was my thought with the police too - but I am wondering, if the
>> police don't take it further, can we insist on getting the records from
>> the service providers ourselves considering the calls were made using
>> OUR phone? At least records of the outgoing number used (hence only
>> identifying the potential thief)....
>
> To be honest is it worth the effort?

I bet if the phone was insured, and a claim was made, the insurance company
would track it down.



If the crim is smart enough they
> CAN change the IMEI and their laughing. The police aren't going to help
> over a couple of hundred dollar phone.
>
> At least block the IMEI at the service provider to make it harder for the
> crim to offload the phone.

Yeah, I'd certainly **** over the thief myself if I could.
>
> In fact I have done so, in a situation where I didnt need
> to get the cops involved until I had the crim in hand, literally.
> Over stuff of rather less value than in your case too.


****, it was only 200 years ago when the poms populated our country over a
loaf of bread or a hanky.

two bob <[email protected]> wrote:

>> Yeah, I'd certainly **** over the thief myself if I could.

>> In fact I have done so, in a situation where I didnt need
>> to get the cops involved until I had the crim in hand, literally.
>> Over stuff of rather less value than in your case too.

> ****, it was only 200 years ago when the poms populated our country over a
> loaf of bread or a hanky.

No they didnt, that's always been a myth.

two bob <[email protected]> wrote:

>>> That was my thought with the police too - but I am wondering, if the police
>>> don't take it further, can we insist on getting the records from the service
>>> providers ourselves considering the calls were made using OUR phone? At
>>> least records of the outgoing number used (hence only identifying the
>>> potential thief)....

>> To be honest is it worth the effort?

> I bet if the phone was insured, and a claim was made, the insurance company
> would track it down.

You've just lost your bet, they dont.

>> If the crim is smart enough they CAN change the IMEI and their laughing. The
>> police aren't going to help over a couple of hundred dollar phone.

>> At least block the IMEI at the service provider to make it harder for the
>> crim to offload the phone.

He appears to want to **** the crim over instead.

Might be viable given that he does know a cop.

> Yeah yeah, I comprehend all this, but I'm still PISSED OFF AND WANT TO
> KILL THE ARSEHOLE.
>
> Optus are onto it and doing a search which we should know in a day or
> so. So if they say they do have record of the phones IMEI being used,
> we will hopefully be able to at least get a copper we know of that
> might be willing to follow it up.
>
> However if it was used on another carrier, we still need someone
> friendly from Telstra or Voda that will do a search for us.....come on,
> there has to be someone on here that can and will do it. Surely its a 5
> minute search on the system. And if there is no record, then thats it,

No, it takes about 30 seconds.