Page 1 of 3 123 LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 22

Thread: cell phone cloning

  1. #1

    cell phone cloning

    source: http://www.ndtv.com/template/templat...egory=National
    Saturday, January 8, 2005 (New Delhi):


    Mohammad Yaseen, alias Monu, allegedly ran an illegal mobile phone exchange racket in New Delhi.

    Yaseen cloned mobile phone numbers and made calls from them while the genuine owners of those numbers were billed.

    "He used a software named Petagonia, which can be used for CDMA phones made available by Reliance, Tata and Garuda. It is run on a technique of divisional multiplexing," said Karnail Singh, joint commissioner of police, Special Cell.

    "These phones have ESN numbers, which he can cloned using the software. Yaseen used to buy a phone or get the ESN number of any phone and clone it," added Singh.

    Expat connection

    Expatriates, from places like Dubai, contacted Yaseen to connect them to a number in India. Yaseen would then set up a conferencing call, using a stolen CDMA phone number. He received his payments through a Hawala network.

    "They used to buy a phone, convert it into three by cloning it and then use all of them for four hours. He would then throw it without paying the bills. Since Yaseen used to operate from his car, it was difficult to trace him," added Singh.

    After his arrest, the police also recovered 23 mobile phones, a laptop and software cds.

    The police claim that illegal cloning of mobile phones may be the first such case in the country. But such a flourishing racket once again brings up the need to make our cyber laws more stringent.
    not even gsm cell phones are spared

    source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...how/986550.cms
    NEW DELHI: Slowly but surely, technology is showing up its ugly face too. Today it's increasingly being used by new-age criminals in a variety of ways. The latest is mobile phone cloning. Millions of mobile phones users, be it GSM or CDMA, run the risk of having their phones cloned. And the worst part is that there isn’t much that you can do to prevent this.


    A resident of Moradabad, Mohammed Yasin was arrested from South Delhi on Friday for cloning mobile phones and using them to facilitate ISD calls. A senior police officer says that this is just the tip of the iceberg.

    "Yasin used a software called Patagonia which can be used to clone only CDMA phones but there are software packages available in the market which can be used to clone even GSM phones. The man who is trying to clone your GSM phone just needs to know your International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) or instrument number. We are trying to identify phone dealers in Gaffar Market and Nehru Place who can make it possible," says the police officer, adding that Yasin had bought the software from Nehru Place.

    The 15-digit IMEI number is programmed into the handset when it is manufactured. The officer cites the example of a businessman who recently cloned the GSM phone of his rival and sent an SMS to the police that a Delhi VVIP would die in a blast. According to joint commissioner of police (special cell) Karnal Singh, not just the SIM but also the IMEI number can be cloned making it difficult to detect the crime.

    "The only precaution he can take is to scrutinise the phone bills and find out whether or not it mentions any call which was not made by him. We are talking to service pro-viders to look for a way out," he says.

    A SIM can be cloned again and again and they can be used at different places. Police say they can track messages and calls sent by cloned phones. However, if the accused manages to also clone the IMEI number of the handset, for which softwares are available, there is no way he can be traced. Adding to the police woes is the fact that the sale of Patagonia or other softwares used for cloning is legal in the country.


    well any ideas on how it is done and the s\w used?
    just curious

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2005
    Posts
    128
    Was reading up on cell phone cloning not long ago.

    But pretty much, i came to the conclusion it was not very possible, unless you had a specific phone. The Oki something. Ebay didnt have the phone, but keep lookin :P

    not sure which article it was, but a google search will give ya something
    http://sfx-images.mozilla.org/affili...88x31/take.gif
    If You\'ve Done Something Right. People Wont Know You\'ve Done Anything At All - God (futurama)

  3. #3
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Posts
    122

    Re: cell phone cloning

    Originally posted here by yourdeadin
    well any ideas on how it is done and the s\w used?
    just curious [/B]
    Well sim cloning is not new.Although CDMA cloaning is something new to me too.
    As far as sim cloning is concerned it is done with a hardware rather then a software.
    What is a sim ?
    It is just anather IC.
    So you need a hardware called IC copier which you can get for about $300.
    What next?
    Borrow someones mobile for a few hours say one day and use its sim and a blank sim for cloning.
    The whole process takes about 8-10 hours.
    nobody is perfect i am nobody

  4. #4
    A SIM can be cloned again and again and they can be used at different places. Police say they can track messages and calls sent by cloned phones. However, if the accused manages to also clone the IMEI number of the handset, for which softwares are available, there is no way he can be traced. Adding to the police woes is the fact that the sale of Patagonia or other softwares used for cloning is legal in the country.
    intresting ,well my delhi police is not so good in hi teCH CRIMES

    Adding to the police woes is the fact that the sale of Patagonia or other softwares used for cloning is legal in the country.
    so there is nothing that we indian's can do about it
    So you need a hardware called IC copier which you can get for about $300.
    kinda costly isn't it

    nehru place is very near to my place [i live in new delhi] i think i'll go and enquire there for my self
    i tried googling but could not find enough stuff on Patagonia
    any one else has some clue on software of such sort ?

    me thinks cell phones can also be tapped using the same trick,
    u clone the cell and u lissen to all the all he/she recives and makes

    hope so

  5. #5
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Posts
    1,207
    Cloning the IMEI will not allow someone to make calls on your bill, they must clone the SIM to do that with GSM.

    Here in the UK, analogue mobiles were turned off in 1999 - before then, cloning was rife, as the ESN could be read off the data channels and cloned into specially modified phones.

    Needless to say, these phones did not have SIMs - SIMs and GSM were introduced partially to increase security.

    Cloning the IMEI, really doesn't sound too useful to me - I can put my sim into another phone and it will work fine. I can sell my old phone (minus SIM), and the new owner won't have their calls charged to my bill.

    My understanding was, that SIM cloning is essentially impossible without physical access to the SIM - something which an attacker wouldn't typically have. But perhaps these Indian fraudsters have a way of doing it.

    Slarty

  6. #6
    My understanding was, that SIM cloning is essentially impossible without physical access to the SIM - something which an attacker wouldn't typically have. But perhaps these Indian fraudsters have a way of doing it.
    where there is a will there is a way

    me thinks that they have contacts with some shop keepers who sell these chips,
    these people clone the sim card even before they are sold and once sold they use them

  7. #7
    Antionline's Security Dude instronics's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    901
    This is very interesting.... seeing different ways as to perform this, but HOW would someone defend himself from this? Are there any countermeasures out there, and if yes, are theses countermeasures being promoted to the users?
    Ubuntu-: Means in African : "Im too dumb to use Slackware"

  8. #8
    the only counter measure we are being told to do is to check our post paid bills and report any unusal activity to the cops ,that is for CDMA.GSM'cloned phones are still to be caught

  9. #9
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2004
    Posts
    122
    Originally posted here by instronics
    This is very interesting.... seeing different ways as to perform this, but HOW would someone defend himself from this? Are there any countermeasures out there, and if yes, are theses countermeasures being promoted to the users?

    Originally posted here by yourdeadin
    the only counter measure we are being told to do is to check our post paid bills and report any unusal activity to the cops ,that is for CDMA.GSM'cloned phones are still to be caught


    instronics awareness on mobile users on this subjects is very important take for example sim cloaning............How it is done?
    Suppose mr X takes his friends(mr y) sim for a day or two and uses it to create a copy of it using IC copier in order to cloan a sim it takes 8-10 hours atleast first of all you should not give your sim to any one at the first place.
    Secondly When mr x and mr y are using the same number(in two sims)When some one say MR z calls that number sometime mr x's mobile will ring and sometimes mr y's mobile will ring( Depends which one is traced first).
    When Mr z sends a SMS to that number some times Mr x will get that SMS and some times Mr y will get that SMS.(this has actually happened to a friend of mine whose mobile company by mistake generated two sims with same number so when i used to call that number some times that other guy with same number answered and infact when both of them got Bills that bill was actually sum of cost of calls made by both of them.

    Now if there is awareness on this subject between average mobile users all over the world this problem can be detected earlier by them and they don't have to wait for bills to detect problem
    (till then Mr y would throw mr x's sim away and start searching for anather inocent victim )

    :P
    nobody is perfect i am nobody

  10. #10
    When Mr z sends a SMS to that number some times Mr x will get that SMS and some times Mr y will get that SMS.(this has actually happened to a friend of mine whose mobile company by mistake generated two sims with same number so when i used to call that number some times that other guy with same number answered and infact when both of them got Bills that bill was actually sum of cost of calls made by both of them.
    2 sims with the same number
    well that is a blunder on tha part of the cell company .!!
    so one thing is for sure that cell phone phreaking and tapping can be done in some or the same manner .
    i guess the sms problem can be solved by changing the message center settings (i think so)

    gsm cloned phones are still to be discovered in india

    Here in the UK, analogue mobiles were turned off in 1999 - before then, cloning was rife, as the ESN could be read off the data channels and cloned into specially modified phones.
    question anolog phones were banned all over the world after that rife , so i don think india has analog phones
    does it
    lemme check it out

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •