EcoATMs boost cell phone theft

[Hum]

Here?s an easy way to get some cash: Drop a used smartphone in any of the 13 ATM-like kiosks at shopping malls around the Washington region and, within minutes, the machine will spit out as much as a few hundred dollars.

The process is so simple that local police fear these ecoATMs are fueling one of the nation?s most pervasive criminal trends ? cellphone theft.

The kiosks have become a particular thorn for police in the District, where 40 percent of all forced robberies last year involved a cellphone, the highest percentage in the nation.

In a recent investigation, D.C. police found six cellphones stolen from city residents in ecoATMs located in the suburbs. Police in Arlington say they are investigating whether stolen phones have made it into an ecoATM at the Pentagon City mall. Authorities shut the machine down this month, citing a lack of a proper merchant license.

?This is a huge problem. The opportunity for quick cash is driving robberies of smartphones,? said Gwendolyn Crump, a spokeswoman for D.C. police.

The stolen smartphone market is thriving largely due to an unregulated trade that spans the globe, authorities say. Used Apple devices are in strong demand overseas, where an iPhone 5 can sell for $500 or more. (It costs as little as $200 in the United States, because it is subsidized by cellular carriers.)

Sales of used smartphones are expected to reach $5 billion by 2015, according to Gazelle, a Boston firm that offers money for smartphones online. The company expects revenue of $100 million this year.

EcoATM said it is being unfairly blamed for phone thefts, adding that it tries to filter out stolen phones. Consumers must plug their cellphones into an ecoATM to get cash, and when they do so, the company checks the devices? unique ID against police databases that list stolen phones.

Matches are extremely rare, the company said. But those databases aren?t always comprehensive. So a report about a stolen phone in the District won?t necessarily be included in the database run by police in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs, said ecoATM, which operates about 340 kiosks across the country.

Smartphones have become the target of too many violent robberies, police say. In the summer of 2011, a Capitol Hill father was brutally beaten with a baseball bat for his iPhone and suffered permanent brain damage. Local police last year set up fencing operations that recovered nearly 500 stolen phones from stores and individual dealers. Law enforcement officials in Los Angeles and Atlanta have also singled out ecoATMs, saying the promises of ?instant cash for phones? may be encouraging thieves.

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[Torolol]

they can for example to sell phone on Ecos, seller must register their finger print first, and the ATM must keep record which fingerprints sold which phone.

No Annonymous transactions.

[The Evil Overlord]

I quite like the UK approach, sell to envirophone, they check the phone's condition and if it has been registered as stolen or lost before they pay out, if it is stolen they call the police.

But even this method isn't foolproof I know.

[Hum]

I wouldn't think Eco would be making much money, if only genuine owners were disposing of unwanted phones.

How often do people change phones -- once in 2 or 3 years ... ?

Something does not sound on the up & up here ....

[n_K]

I wouldn't think Eco would be making much money, if only genuine owners were disposing of unwanted phones.

How often do people change phones -- once in 2 or 3 years ... ?

Something does not sound on the up & up here ....

Recycle previous metal in the phones and make money, can probably sell the RAM/ROM chips on, sell other parts for replacements. Any decent recent phone is sold on complete and 2nd hand and anything that won't make money is burnt for electricity.