Mobile-phone repair may lead to a call from police

The Consumers' Foundation (消基會) yesterday urged mobile-phone users to record their handset serial numbers before seeking repair services to prevent unauthorized component replacement.

The announcement comes after a mobile-phone user surnamed Hsu was questioned by police last year who suspected that he stole his handset. Hsu's phone had been repaired just prior to the incident.

During the repair process -- conducted at Aurora Corp (震旦行) -- the phone's circuit board was apparently replaced with a stolen board.

"To prevent unauthorized component replacement, users should check their handset identification number before and after the repair," said Jason Lee (李鳳翱), vice chairman of the foundation.

The number -- the international mobile-equipment identity (IMEI) -- is a 15-digit code that is unique to each handset.

The number identifies the manufacturer's name and location and the connection record, and was used by police to track down the stolen circuit board in Hsu's handset.

Dialing *#06# on most cellphones will automatically display the unit's IMEI number.

Since the IMEI is also on the chip attached to handset circuit board, the handset's ID number will also change if the circuit board is changed.

Circuit-board replacement is fairly common since it acts as a handset's control center and is often the cause of malfunctions.

Police said that cases similar to Hsu's are reported every month.

"Late last year an increasing number of cellphone users reported that their circuit boards were replaced without notification during repairs," said Huang Wan-Fa (黃萬發), a section chief at the National Police Administration under the Ministry of the Interior.

Huang urged the public to be aware of repair services, which often use second-hand parts.

"Any retailer promoting repairs in less than two hours may be risky," Huang said.

The foundation also urged retailers to improve their record-keeping on repairs.

"Retailers should write down the IMEI numbers -- and when handsets are returned, the numbers should be checked," Lee said.

An official from Aurora said that some improvements have already been made.

"In October, we began to ask retailers to record IMEI codes, the owners' personal information and the exchanged components," said Wang Tsu-Chi (王子奇), a manager at Aurora.

He also suggested that the government maintain a database on stolen cellphones so that retailers can double-check used handset components before employing them as replacement parts.