Any item can be registered on Immobilise from small pieces of jewellery to plasma screen TVs and it is especially popular with people wishing to register mobile phones and bicycles.  The system records serial numbers and also allows the user to upload a photo and description.

The database is linked directly to police systems, enabling officers to trace the owners of recovered property and to also identify the item as being stolen if found in the possession of a suspected thief.  This ability to link suspects to a crime via the database means that Immobilise acts as a major deterrent to criminals.

Detective Sergeant Richard Myszczyszyn, from Skegness CID, said:

Burglars and thieves know that there will be rich pickings to be had in the post Christmas period and the use of the Immobilise database is a valuable addition to your crime prevention precautions. You can register as many items as you like, and then if they are lost or stolen you simply log back on to register them as such. The police can check any property they recover, whether that be from raids, routine checks on second-hand dealers or items brought into custody and, if they find anything that is listed as stolen, not only will you get your belongings back, but the thieves can be brought to justice.

DS Myszczyszyn ended by saying:

We want to send a clear message to those potential thieves that anything logged on Immobilise is too hot to handle. By registering your property and marking it as such, Lincolnshire residents can take steps to ensure they are much less likely to become a victim of crime.

To read the source article please go to www.lincs.police.uk

According to the BBC between June and August, 837 bikes were taken in the city – a rise of 141 compared to the same period in 2010.

Sgt Matt Sulley from Oxford police station said bike theft was a huge problem and returning cycles to their owners was the biggest issue.

He said if cycles are registered at immobilise.com police can easily identify the original owners.

In Oxford, Thames Valley Police are currently holding hundreds of bikes.

Sgt Sulley said the large number of cycles in Oxford made thefts a particular problem.

He said that also the large portion of old-style houses in the city meant it was difficult for people to access gardens and sheds to properly secure their bikes.

He added:

There are also criminals making a business out of it. Lots of bikes are being stolen and then stripped for parts which makes them very difficult to trace.

We have also seen a number of very expensive bikes, worth thousands of pounds, locked up with cheap locks.

Between 5 and 25 September 2011 neighbourhood policing teams will be at key locations in Oxford advising people about ways to protect their property.

To read the source BBC story please visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-14760978

To visit Thames Valley Police go to: http://www.thamesvalley.police.uk/

The recommendation, published on the South Yorkshire Police website says, Police are urging people to log their expensive property and any other precious belongings on immobilise.com – the world’s largest FREE register of ownership details.

In addition to acting as a major deterrent to criminals, the big difference with Immobilise is that as well as getting your stuff back if it’s lost or stolen, the system helps to catch the thieves as well!

The database is linked directly to police systems, so when officers recover any property, for whatever reason, they can check it against items logged on Immobilise. For example, if someone arrested on suspicion of drunk and disorderly has your stolen mobile phone in their pocket, police will also be able to link the theft to them as well – but only if it’s registered!

Any item can be registered on Immobilise. The easiest items to log are electricals, or anything that has a serial number, but you can even log jewellery or ornamental items using the photo upload and description functions.

You can register as many items as you like, and then if they are lost or stolen you simply log back on to register them as such. The police can check any property they recover, whether that’s when a person is brought into custody for any reason, property recovered from criminals in raids, or even during one of their now routine checks on second-hand dealers. And if they find anything that is listed as stolen, not only will you get your belongings back, but the thieves can be brought to justice.

We want to send a clear message to those potential thieves that anything logged on Immobilise is too hot to handle. As a member of the South Yorkshire public, by registering your property, and marking it as such, you are much less likely to become a victim of crime.

To read the source article  please go to: www.southyorks.police.uk

Officers launched Operation Spoke in January 2010 as a deterrent to combat cycle theft and as a quick and easy way to reunite stolen bikes with their rightful owners.

Since the initiative began, almost 10,000 bikes have been security marked and registered with North Yorkshire Police and the national property register, Immobilise.

All cycle owners are being urged to sign up to the scheme, so that police can identify who stolen bikes belong to when they are recovered.

Officers are currently tying to trace the owners of a cycle which was targeted last month – who could have been easily traced if they had taken advantage of the free security marking offered by Operation Spoke.

At around 8pm on Friday 3 June 2011, police recovered a bike at the cycle racks near the Minster after someone had made an attempt to steal it.

The bike is in police possession but as yet the owner is unknown and police are urging anyone who believes it belongs to them to come forward.

If this is your bike contact North Yorkshire Police on 0845 60 60 24 7, quoting reference number 12110090973.

Officers are also trying to trace the owner of a black or grey Cannondale Bad Boy hybrid cycle which was stolen from the cycle racks on Tanner’s Moat, outside The Maltings at around 1.40pm on Tuesday 28 June 2011.

A 17-year-old youth was arrested in connection with the theft, however officers need the owner of the bike to come forward and report it stolen.

If you believe this was your cycle, contact North Yorkshire Police on 0845 60 60 24 7, quoting reference number 12110106413.

PC Fiona Wilding of York police, said:

Cycles are often a target for thieves and it is important that people take action to protect their property.

It is advisable to buy a good quality bike lock and if possible use two different styles of lock, as thieves are rarely equipped to break both.

Everyone should also consider having their bike ‘spoked’ to make it easier for the police to catch offenders and return your bike if it stolen.

Security tagging involves having a unique mark placed on the frame of your bike which can then be matched to key details stored on the police database such as make, model and frame number.

The process is simple, quick and free and can be done at the Bike Rescue Project under Lendal Bridge or at regular Operation Spoke events held throughout the city.

To view the source story go to: York Police

Glastonbury Festival, one of Europe’s largest music and arts festivals, takes place between June 22 and June 26, 2011. With more than 175,000 people heading to Worthy Farm in rural Somerset, the policing operation to help people stay safe at the festival is the largest in Avon and Somerset Police’s calendar.

Crime at the festival remains low and last year around 99.7% of people were not victims of crime. Police are reminding those people attending the festival about the things they can do to have a fun and crime-free festival.

Inspector Chris Morgan, who will be working at the festival, said:

Glastonbury is less than a month away now and I know the excitement is building for everyone lucky enough to get a ticket. People have paid a lot of money to come and we do not want anyone to have their experience ruined by becoming a victim of crime.

There are some easy things people can do which will help them have a great festival. The safety tips are quick and inexpensive but can make a real difference. The key thing to remember is to bring with you only what you need and keep anything valuable in the free property lock-ups on the site.

Festival-goers are advised to:

• Plan your journey carefully. Check your vehicle is roadworthy, take plenty of food and water with you and be prepared for queues near the site.
• Bring only what you need. Anything you do need should be registered on for free on Immobilise (www.immobilise.com) before you set off and either kept with you or, even better, left in the free property lock-ups.
• If you need to bring a phone, find an old handset and bring that instead.
• Look out for your friends and ask them to look out for you. Try to travel around the site with your friends – particularly at night when it is dark and often disorientating

Festival-goers can stay up to date with news, photos and crime prevention advice online, on social media and through text messages both before and during the festival:

Follow them online at www.glastonburypolice.org
Follow us on Twitter @PoliceatGlasto for regular tweets
Sign up to receive text messages by texting Glasto to 81819

Sergeant Shirley Eden from the Operational Planning team will be taking part in a special webchat. People will be able to log on and ask about crime prevention and what it is like to plan for an enormous event such as the Glastonbury Festival. The webchat takes place between 6.30pm and 8pm on Wednesday June 8, 2011 at www.avonandsomerset.police.uk

For more information and to read the source article please go to: Avon & Somerset Police

As reported by BikeBiz, PCSOs Jaime Page, Matthew Sait and Derek Fletcher from the MPS/TfL (Metropolitan Police Service/Transport for London) run Cycle Task Force reunited a stolen bike with its owner this month. While on patrol in Islington on May 3rd 2011, they noticed an unsecure and unattended silver bike upturned outside a sports shop in Chapel Market, London.

The officers checked the frame number of the bike against the National Mobile Property Register (NMPR) to check if it was registered and reported stolen. The checks revealed the registered bike had been stolen in Tavistock Square, WC1H one month earlier on April 4th.

The PCSOs detained the suspect – a 17 year old boy from Camden – who was inside a nearby shop. He was then arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods and has since been bailed, to return to police on June 30th.

Cycle Task Force Inspector Graham Horwood said:

We are delighted to be able to return this bike to its rightful owner.

This shows that you can increase your chances of having your lost or stolen bike returned to you, by having it registered and reporting any theft to police. We advise any cyclist to do the three R’s’ – record the details of their bike, register them onto online property databases and report any theft to the police.

The cycle-dedicated team of officers are aiming to cut bike crime in London and has made over 130 arrests since its launch in June 2010.

The NMPR is the dedicated on-line property search system for UK Law Enforcement agencies. It allows the police to search any identifiable item of property to view its registered owners details, if it’s been reported stolen to the system by the police anywhere in the UK, by the owner, the insurance company or in the case of a mobile phone, a network.

Virtually all the forces in the UK use the NMPR with nearly a hundred thousand officers with access via their control centres, handheld devices and computer systems. Hundreds of thousands of checks have been run since the system went live with many arrests and charges brought as a result of the information held on the NMPR database.

The public can proactively register property on www.immobilise.com that is instantley searchable via the Police NMPR, mean that the police can on occasion return your property before you even realise or report it stolen!

For more see: www.immobilise.com/about

To read the source story please go to: BikeBiz

The article by Ian Hugh’s writing for Pocket-lint follows and further emphasises the advantages of using the Immobilise service.

Stuff. We love it, you love it. In fact, we just can’t get enough of it. Pocket-Lint probably wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for our love of stuff, so when some thieving little scrote decides to shimmy up your drainpipe and help himself to some of your stuff, it’s a bit of a kick in the teeth.

There are a few things you can do to protect your prized possessions: burglar alarms, decent locks, a starved Rottweiler chained to your 50-inch plasma. But one of the simplest things you can do is to make your stuff less desirable.

We’re not talking about gouging a four-inch scratch across your iPad screen either. What we mean is by registering all your gadgets and gizmos at immobilise, you stand half a chance of getting your stuff back if it does get lifted. More importantly, put a sticker in your window and the shifty little toe-rags will probably give your place a miss anyway – if they get caught with stuff registered on this site, they’re almost certainly looking forward to a long holiday in a very small room with a large sweaty man called Bubba.

Get registered and get your stuff protected at www.immobilise.com. You know it makes sense.

To read the orginal article that was published on Pocket-lint on 18th May 2011 go to:http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/40070/register-your-gadgets-and-gizmos

The police seize hundreds of items each year and many of them cannot be returned, as police do not know where they have come from.

Immobilise.com is a free database whereby residents can register valuable items and record information such as serial numbers and distinguishing marks. All police forces have access to the site and when an item is seized or handed in, officers can check the database and find out who it belongs to.

Inspector Paul Kinrade from the South Manchester Division of Greater Manchester Police said:

Our property store is crammed full of bikes, garden tools, computers, jewellery and clothing but unfortunately a lot of this is never returned to its owners as we are not able to identify where it has come from.

Obviously we hope that residents never have to go through the experience of getting broken into but registering your valuables on immobilise only takes a couple of minutes and it could spell the difference between getting your stolen items back or never seeing them again.

To avoid the chances of being broken into, please remember to shut and lock all of your windows and doors. It sounds really obvious but unfortunately a third of burglaries happen because homes are left insecure.

You can also help to deter burglars by leaving lights on and keeping valuables out of view.

To read the source article please go to: www.gmp.police.uk

Local officers are now offering to register student valuables on free online property database www. immobilise .com as part of the on-going Lock It, Hide It, Keep It Campaign.

The registering initiative was launched this month by student liaison officer PC Tim Davies who visited Cardiff University Students Union on Tuesday, March 1 with a crime prevention and information stand.

Pc Davies said:

The latest Home Office figures show that overall burglary in Cardiff is down 3.1 per cent but Roath and Cathays, both densely populated by students in shared properties, tend to have higher rates of burglary than other areas of the city.

Unfortunately student homes provide rich pickings for criminals who know that most students will have valuables such as laptops, games consoles and IPods that can be easily carried and sold on.

Since Christmas there have been 40 burglaries at student properties in Cardiff and 21 have at insecure properties.

This means doors and windows have been left open which is perfect for burglars as they don’t need to smash glass, risk making a noise and being disturbed, and possibly leave their DNA.

The good news is that this is something students can easily address.
Students are urged to register items such as laptops, IPods and bikes on www. immobilise .com as this means the real owners can be contacted if found.

Stolen items are usually sold or passed on in the Cardiff area.

We find hundreds of bikes every year but they have to be auctioned because we never know who they belong to,” said Pc Davies.

If owners had registered them on Immobilise then they could be easily returned.

I will be in the students union on the first Tuesday of every month with my laptop and would encourage all students to call into see me for this free service and extra crime prevention advice.

To read the source article please go to: http://www.south-wales.police.uk/

In a countywide crackdown on theft and burglary, police are urging people to log their expensive Christmas presents and any other precious belongings on immobilise.com – the world’s largest FREE register of ownership details.

In a time when police resources are getting ever more stretched, the police are looking to focus their efforts on crime prevention, with this campaign aimed at preventing thefts happening in the first place – a more efficient way of protecting the public.

And in addition to acting as a major deterrent to criminals, the big difference with Immobilise is that as well as getting your stuff back if it’s lost or stolen, the system helps to catch the thieves as well!

The database is linked directly to police systems, so when officers recover any property, for whatever reason, they can check it against items logged on Immobilise. For example, if someone arrested on suspicion of drunk and disorderly has your stolen mobile phone in their pocket, police will also be able to link the theft to them as well – but only if it’s registered!

Any item can be registered on immobilise. The easiest items to log are electricals, or anything that has a serial number, but you can even log jewellery or ornamental items using the photo upload and description functions. You can register as many items as you like, and then if they are lost or stolen you simply log back on to register them as such. The police can check any property they recover, whether that’s when a person is brought into custody for any reason, property recovered from criminals in raids, or even during one of their now routine checks on second-hand dealers. And if they find anything that is listed as stolen, not only will you get your belongings back, but the thieves can be brought to justice.

Chief Superintendent Bill Hotchkiss said:

Part of policing involves stopping crime happening in the first place. The public can play a huge part in this by protecting their property with Immobilise, making items easier to identify and less attractive to thieves.

We want to send a clear message to those potential thieves that anything logged on Immobilise is too hot to handle. As a member of the South Yorkshire public, by registering your property, and marking it as such, you are much less likely to become a victim of crime.

To support the campaign, police are distributing packs to the public to make the process even easier. These include a selection of stickers to mark all your items as logged, so as to deter criminals, and an information leaflet to explain the process. The packs are available from your local police stations in South Yorkshire or from South Yorkshire branches of Curries, Dixons and PC World. In addition, safer neighbourhood team officers will be out and about in public places offering packs and advice to members of the public.

Visit www.immobilise.com to get started.

More details can be found at www.southyorks.police.uk

Avon and Somerset Police have transformed an empty shop unit in The Mall Bristol, Broadmead, into a rather unusual information centre.

Experts from Bike UK, the Safer Bristol Partnership and the police will be on hand to advise members of the public on all safety issues, from bike locks and seasonal burglary to late night transport and drink and drug awareness.

One of two large window displays will contain a crime scene for members of the public to investigate. The other will be have a bike security theme. Police will be urging shoppers to register presents like laptops and bikes on the national property database, Immobilise.

The database is used by police to trace the owners of suspected stolen property.

If the items are ever stolen the account holder logs on and marks them as stolen. They will then be flagged up on the national database as stolen when checked by retailers or police forces.

There will also be the chance to win a Saracen mountain bike, free T-Shirt printing with the police’s Streetwise team after school on December 9 and 16, and balloons to fingerprint and take home.

PCSO Warren Vincent-Rodgers from the Broadmead and Cabot Circus police team came up with the idea for the shop.

He said:

We tested the shop in The Mall last year with great success, speaking to more than 1,000 Bristol residents about all sorts of security and safety issues.

You can’t really have a more striking window display than a crime scene, and with so many TV programmes getting children and adults interested in this area of work, it’s a fantastic opportunity to see at first hand the techniques CSIs use to find clues and help solve cases.

Everyone is invited to note down their theory of what happened and will be entered into a prize draw.

It should make a welcome distraction from Christmas shopping.

The shop will open Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm, on Thursdays until 7pm, and on Saturdays until 3pm. For more on immobilise go to www.immobilise.com.

To read the source article please go to: www.thisisbristol.co.uk

One of the key messages that comes across is the importance of marking your possessions and registering them on the Immobilise Property Register.

The police recover many items that have been lost or stolen.  By security marking items that have financial or sentimental value, it is easier for the police to identify them and return them to you.

Marking your property may also act as a deterrent to thieves, who do not want to be caught holding or passing on stolen items.

Always include information that will help identify you as the owner of the property, for example, a postcode.

For more information please see the following links:

Kent Police: www.kent.police.uk/advice/advice.html

One of the key crime prevention messages that the digi-bike is promoting is the registration of your valued property on the Immobilise National Property Register (www.immobilise.com).

To view the BBC video go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10947119

To read the expanded BBC news story go to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-black-country-10944247

The signing of the new code of practice by over 90% of the mobile phone recycling industry means that for the first time there are agreed guidelines for the checking of handsets offered for sale to the industry and this includes using the CheckMEND service to check the National Mobile Phone/Property Register.

Adrian Portlock CEO of Recipero the operator of CheckMEND said:

This is a major step forward for the industry and CheckMEND and we are really pleased the industry has recognised their responsibilities in checking products they are buying, this model needs to be extended to all handlers of used goods and retailers taking trade ins and we will be pushing for this to be the case, but this is an excellent start.

For more information please see the following sites:

• CheckMEND – www.checkmend.com
• Phone Recycling Code of Practice site – www.stoprecycledstolenphones.com
• Home Office Press Release – www.homeoffice.gov.uk/media-centre/press-releases/code-practice-stolen-mobiles
• The Police NMPR (National Mobile Phone/Property Register) – www.thenmpr.com
• Immobilise National Property Register – www.immobilise.com
• Recipero – www.recipero.com

On the 14th May, a man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for handling stolen goods. Alexander Smith, aged 40, was sentenced at Bristol Crown Court after a two year investigation conducted by Avon and Somerset Police’s burglary team and crime reduction unit in Bristol.

Officers were able to prove that Smith had been knowingly buying stolen mobile phones by utilising an online system known as CheckMEND. This system allows members of the public to check if a mobile phone is stolen before buying it.

Police searched a shop in East Street, Bedminster and identified more than 20 phones that were stolen from victims in both burglaries and robberies, many of which had occurred in the South Bristol area. A stolen pedal cycle was also found at Smith’s home address.

During one of these incidents, a female victim positively identified her stolen phone in Smith’s shop. Smith then demanded £40 from the victim before he would return her phone.
PC Frank Simonds, from Bristol Crime Reduction Unit, said:

The use of CheckMEND technology now allows the police to prove if stolen phones are being bought and sold by second hand retailers.

We will be relentless in our pursuit of those dealing in stolen goods.

Many phones that were proven to be stolen had been registered by owners on the Immobilise database. Registering phones enables the police to return them to their rightful owners.
Members of the public can register their phone for free by visiting www.immobilise.com

Members of the public can check if a mobile phone is stolen by visiting www.checkmend.com.

Retailers can receive advice on protecting their business from handling stolen goods as part of Operation Recover run by Avon and Somerset Police.

To read the source release in full please go to: Avon & Somerset Police

The pocket spy: Will your smartphone rat you out? – tech – 14 October 2009 – New Scientist.

THERE are certain things you do not want to share with strangers. In my case it was a stream of highly personal text messages from my husband, sent during the early days of our relationship. Etched on my phone’s SIM card – but invisible on my current handset and thus forgotten – here they now are, displayed in all their brazen glory on a stranger’s computer screen.

I’ve just walked into a windowless room on an industrial estate in Tamworth, UK, where three cellphone analysts in blue shirts sit at their terminals, scrutinising the contents of my phone and smirking. “If it’s any consolation, we would have found them even if you had deleted them,” says one.

Worse, it seems embarrassing text messages aren’t the only thing I have to worry about: “Is this a photo of your office?” another asks (the answer is yes). “And did you enjoy your pizza on Monday night? And why did you divert from your normal route to work to visit this address in Camberwell, London, on Saturday?”

I’m at DiskLabs, a company that handles cellphone forensic analysis for UK police forces, but also for private companies and individuals snooping on suspect employees or wayward spouses. Armed with four cellphones, which I have begged, borrowed and bought off friends and strangers, I’m curious to know just how much personal information can be gleaned from our used handsets and SIM cards.

A decade ago, our phones’ memories could just about handle text messages and a contacts book. These days, the latest smartphones incorporate GPS, Wi-Fi connectivity and motion sensors. They automatically download your emails and appointments from your office computer, and come with the ability to track other individuals in your immediate vicinity. And there’s a lot more to come. Among other things, you could be using the next generation of phones to keep tabs on your health, store cash and make small transactions – something that’s already happening in east Asia (see “Future phones“).

Gone phishing

These changes could well be exploited in much the same way that email and the internet can be used to “phish” for personal information such as bank details. Indeed, some phone-related scams are already emerging, including one that uses reprogrammed cellphones to intercept passwords for other people’s online bank accounts. “Mobile phones are becoming a bigger part of our lives,” says Andy Jones, head of information security research at British Telecommunications. “We trust and rely on them more. And as we rely on them more, the potential for fraud has got to increase.”

So just how secure is the data we store on our phones? If we are starting to use them as combined diaries and wallets, what happens if we lose them or they are stolen? And what if we simply trade in our phones for recycling?

According to the UK government’s Design and Technology Alliance Against Crime (DTAAC), 80 per cent of us carry information on our handsets that could be used to commit fraud – and about 16 per cent of us keep our bank details on our phones. I thought my Nokia N96 would hold few surprises, though, since I had only been using it for a few weeks when I submitted it to DiskLabs. Yet their analysts proved me wrong.

Aside from the text messages stored on my SIM card, the most detailed personal information that could be gleaned from my handset came from an application called Sports Tracker. It allows users to measure their athletic performance over time and I had been using it to measure how fast I could cycle to work across London. It records distance travelled, fastest speed at different points along the route, changes in altitude, and roughly how many calories I burn off. But when DiskLabs uploaded this data to their computer and ran it through Google Maps and Street View, they were able to pull up images of the front of my office and my home – with the house number clearly displayed. Sports Tracker also recorded what time I normally leave the house in the morning and when I return from work. “If I wanted more information, then I could just stalk you,” says Neil Buck, a senior analyst at DiskLabs.

I had deliberately chosen to turn Sports Tracker on, and many people might not stop to consider how such programs could be used against them. In February, Google launched Latitude, networking software for smartphones that shares your location with friends. It can be turned off, but campaign group Privacy International is concerned by Latitude’s complex settings and says it is possible the program could broadcast your location to others without your knowledge. “Latitude could be a gift to stalkers, prying employers, jealous partners and obsessive friends,” the organisation warns.

It is possible your phone could broadcast your location to others without your knowledge

A phone-based calendar could also leave you vulnerable. Police in the UK have already identified burglaries that were committed after the thief stole a phone and then targeted the individual’s home because their calendar said they were away on holiday, says Joe McGeehan, head of Toshiba’s research lab in Europe and leader of DTAAC’s Design Out Crime project, which recently set UK designers the challenge of trying to make cellphones less attractive to people like hackers and identity thieves. “It’s largely opportunistic, but if you’ve got all your personal information on there, like bank details, social security details and credit card information, then you’re really asking for someone to ‘become’ you, or rob you, or invade your corporate life,” McGeehan says.

Code cracker

When Buck looked at my colleague’s iPhone, he found two 4-digit numbers stored in his address book under the names “M” and “V”. A search through his text messages revealed a few from Virgin informing him that a new credit card, ending in a specific number, had just been mailed to him. Buck guessed that “M” and “V” were PIN codes for the Virgin credit card and a Mastercard – and he proved to be correct on both counts.

“Out of context, an individual piece of information such as an SMS is almost meaningless,” says Jones. “But when you have a large volume of information – a person’s diary for the year, his emails, the plans he’s building – and you start to put them together, you can make some interesting discoveries.”

In this way the DiskLabs team also identified my colleague’s wife’s name, her passport number and its expiry date, and that she banks with Barclays. Ironically, Barclays had contacted her regarding fraud on her card and she had texted this to her husband. Buck’s team also discovered my colleague’s email address, his Facebook contacts, and their email addresses.

This kind of personal data is valuable and can fetch a high price online. It’s ideal for so-called 419 scams, for instance, in which you receive an email asking for help in exporting cash from a foreign country via your bank account, in exchange for a share of the profits. “What they need to launch a successful 419 scam is personal information,” says Jones.

A growing awareness of identity theft means that many people now destroy or wipe computer hard drives before throwing them away, but the same thing isn’t yet happening with cellphones, says Jones. At the same time, we are recycling ever greater numbers of handsets. According to market analysts ABI Research, by 2012 over 100 million cellphones will be recycled for reuse each year.

As part of a study to find better ways to protect cellphone data, Jones recently acquired 135 cellphones and 26 BlackBerry devices from volunteers, cellphone recycling companies and online auctioneers eBay. Around half of the devices couldn’t be accessed because they were faulty. In our own smartphone experiment, we were unable to retrieve any data from a BlackBerry, or the Samsung E590.

However, Jones’s team found 10 phones that contained enough personal data to identify previous users, and 12 had enough information for their owner’s employer to be identified – even though just three of the phones contained SIM cards.

Of the 26 BlackBerrys, four contained information from which the owner could be identified and seven contained enough to identify the owner’s employer. “The big surprise was the amount we got off the BlackBerry devices, which we had expected to be much more secure,” says Jones. While BlackBerry users have the option of encrypting their data or sending a message to purge data from their phones should it be sold or stolen, many had not done this. “Security is only any good if you turn the damned thing on,” says Jones.

Security is only any good if you turn the damned thing on

His team managed to trace one BlackBerry back to a senior sales director of a Japanese corporation. They recovered his call history, 249 address book entries, his diary, 90 email addresses and 291 emails. This enabled them to determine the structure of his organisation and responsibilities of individuals working within it; the organisation’s business plans for the next period; its main customers and the state of its relationships with them; travel and accommodation arrangements of the individual; his family details – including children, their occupations and movements, marital status, addresses, domestic arrangements, appointments and addresses for medical and dental care; his bank account numbers and sort codes, and his car registration index. Two further BlackBerrys “contained details of a personal nature about the owner and other individuals that would have caused embarrassment or distress if it had become publicly known”, says Jones.

Although his team used specialist forensic software to retrieve data from the phones, much of it could be obtained directly from the handsets themselves, or by using simple software of the kind that is sold with a phone. “This was not designed to be a sophisticated attack, it used simple techniques that anyone would have access to,” Jones says.

That’s bad news, considering that around 20 millions handsets were lost or stolen worldwide in 2008, according to UK data-security specialists Recipero. So how can people go about making their phones more secure? Turning on the security settings is an important first step, says McGeehan, as this may dissuade potential thieves from going to the effort of trying to crack the codes. Then make sure you delete anything you want to keep secret, while bearing in mind that it is often possible to recover it (see “Phone security Q & A“). “I work on the basis that anything I put on there I’ve got to be prepared for people to see,” says McGeehan.

As for me, I’ve taken to deleting potentially incriminating messages as soon as they arrive in my inbox – and reproving the sender in return. I have also passed my old handset to my husband for safekeeping. If those brazen messages must fall into someone else’s hands, I’d rather they were the hands of the Don Juan who composed them than a smirking IT geek in a distant windowless room.

To read the rest of this article please go to: New Scientist

Within 24 hours the bag was handed in and a simple search of her name from one of the cards in the bag found her report in seconds and she was quickly contacted and the bag returned intact. Another great result for reportMyloss.com

I have read about reportmyloss.com said Liz and thought I would run a check on the phone even though the only details I had were the make, color and place it was found. It was only trial and error, but I was amazed to see that someone had lost a similar phone nearby. I thought it might be hers so I rang her and asked her to come down to the station to identify it. She was able to identify it by the photographs which is wonderful for her.

Nicola Spencer was naturally delighted to have her phone back;

I never thought I would see it again and now it’s turned up. The most upsetting thing about losing it was the photographs and personal stuff on the phone. I am really impressed with reportmyloss.com and will tell my friends about it. Thank you.

reportMyloss.com is so powerful it is able to match any searched field of information meaning the chances of matching lost and found reports is greatly increased as shown in this first case of recovery.