Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!killer!vector!nobody From: smb@research.att.com Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Cellular Fraud Message-ID: Date: 28 Jan 89 01:52:51 GMT Sender: chip@vector.UUCP Lines: 14 Approved: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-Submissions-To: telecom@bu-cs.bu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@vector.uucp X-TELECOM-Digest: volume 9, issue 34, message 3 It is not impossible to change ESN in a phone, but is extremely difficult since it is manufactured physically into the unit, and is not generally documented by the manufacturer is public domain documnets for security reasons. Well -- maybe it's harder today, but a couple of years ago the N.Y. Times reported a fairly wide-spread business doctoring the id chips in phones. They said that the oddest thing was not that it was happening, but that it was decentralized -- lots of small-scale stuff, by lots of different folks who knew how to operate PROM burners. They didn't find what they expected: a few centralized shops with sophisticated crooks. --Steve Bellovin