By Clayton Barnes
Having your stolen cellphone blacklisted doesn't always make it completely useless to criminals.
In fact, after scanning your cellphone for important information or banking details, criminals could easily unblock any blacklisted cellphone by having its International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number altered for just more than R100.
Thousands of cellphones are stolen across the country every week and the numbers are steadily increasing as it becomes easier to have a stolen cellphone unblocked.
In a written response to a parliamentary question last week, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said that between January 2005 and the end of March this year, 249 911 cellphones had been reported stolen countrywide.
But experts warn that the actual number of cellphones stolen could be much higher as many don't report stolen cellphones to police.
Nqakula said phones that had been reported stolen to service providers were disabled. Such thefts, according to experts, were under-reported because they often do not involve violence and most phones are not insured.
Pieter Kitshoff, a senior private investigator at investigating company Justicia Investigation, said criminals could get stolen cellphones unblocked "cheaply and easily".
"It's happening, especially at the Nigerian repair shops, at very low prices," said Kitshoff. "I advise all my clients who had their cellphones stolen to greylist their phones instead of blacklisting it, as this could help us locate the stolen phone."
Greylisting is when a phone is temporarily blocked. Criminals can however, still use the phone by switching SIM cards, but can be traced, while blacklisting permanently blocks the phone.
Kitshoff said the "dodgy" repair shops unblock blacklisted cellphones by altering or duplicating the phone's IMEI number, making it reusable. "They duplicate the cellphone's IMEI number with cellphones that could be in for repairs," he said.
"Say you send your water damaged phone to a repair shop where duplication takes place, the repairmen or women could easily duplicate the legal phones number on to the stolen phone by using specialised software.
"This then unblocks the phone which is often resold."
Police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Billy Jones said cellphones were stolen in the majority of robbery cases reported.