The events that took place on Thursday May 12th at the El Dorado Avenue with 26th street, where a priest from the Minuto de Dios University was killed after an assault in which robbers tried to steal his mobile phone, turn on the alarms about the need to act against a scourge that every day takes a greater toll on innocent victims.
According to the Ministry of Defense, during 2010, 3.880 mobile phones were reported stolen. These, summed to the 1.052 that have been reported in 2011, show that behind this crime lies a lucrative business that incentives the growth of an illegal market where robbers, buyers and resellers are making a profit and are obtaining benefits.
Meanwhile, Colombians, more and more terrified with the situation, will continue being victimized by a problem that doesn’t seem to have a solution in the short term.
During the past eleven years, the mobile phone market has become one of the most profitable and attractive markets, going from 2 million users in 2000 to more than 44 million in the present day, according to the information provided by the Superintendence of Industry and Trade (SIC in Spanish).
A high percentage of the total number of users now have smart phones, which are equipped with video and photographic camera, music player, Wi-Fi wireless network, internet access and multiple features that turn the mobile phone into an integral communications device. Proof of this is that during 2010, the use of mobile internet increased by 59.21% according to Cisco´s Bandwidth Barometer. Subscriptions to mobile internet services reached 591.488 in 2010 and according to experts, a larger increase is expected due to the need of Colombians to be permanently “connected” to their emails and social network accounts through their mobile phones.
A recent investigation carried out by Semana Magazine indicates that a thief receives between 50.000 and 80.000 Colombian pesos for every stolen mobile phone, which is then sold at an average price of 300.000 pesos in the illegal market (the commercial value of a Blackberry stands between 700.000 and 1.000.000 pesos)
Something similar happens with phones from other brands of this same range. Their demand in the market is becoming greater.
This dynamic has accelerated mobile phone theft to the point that Comcel decided to suspend its insurance service for mobile devices. This service basically consisted on replacing a user´s phone if it got stolen or lost. Now Comcel offers vehicle assistance to its clients instead.
The situation has become so disturbing that tricks that show you how to block a cell phone´s ID, in order to prevent other people from using it, have started circulating through social networks. One of the tricks consists on dialing *#06# without hitting the send or call button. After doing this, a unique code will appear on the mobile phone´s screen. The idea is to report this number to the mobile service operator, so that if the phone gets stolen the device can be immediately blocked, preventing it from being used, even if the thief changes the SIM card.
Never the less, some say that this trick is not entirely safe since devices can be sold in illegal markets in Venezuela and Ecuador, where the phones can be used even if they have been blocked in Colombia.
In order to tackle this situation, the Colombian Government launched a strategy at the beginning of April that addresses legal, technological and security issues in order to discourage this particular crime.
The initiatives main objective is to reform the penal code (through an article that was included in the citizen security law that is being discussed in Congress) in order to punish members of criminal organizations dedicated to manipulating and reprogramming stolen devices. However, this will not be enough. As long as there are people willing to purchase “second hand” mobile phones in the black markets, there will surely be others willing to steal them, regardless of the fact that human lives are being affected.
We need to think about this issue in order to search for effective alternatives that can truly put a stop to this “cancer” that is quickly taking the lives of many people. Otherwise, the world will keep on suffering from the same chaos and newspaper pages will have to keep reporting the same news without there being a real reaction on behalf of mobile phone manufacturers and international authorities.
Adriana Camargo Gantiva
Journalist
Digital Colombia Corporation
www.colombiadigital.net
