Karachi: Software expert involved in theft, forgery arrested

KARACHI: Police has arrested a software expert involved in mobile phone theft and changing the IMEIs of the cellular devices, ARY News reported on Thursday.

An IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) and it is like a phone’s fingerprint — a 15-digit number unique to each device.

A special party of the Joharabad investigation police formed on the directives of DIG West Asim Qaimkhani, conducted raid and arrested accused Ameer Mohammad alias Amir, who was involved in scores of crimes. “Accused is expert in phone cloning,” an investigation officer said.

“He was used to commit mobile phone snatching himself and then change the IMEI of the phone, thus changing the identity of the device”, SIO Irfan Asif said.

He was an expert in changing mobile data of a brand of mobile phone to another conveniently thus cheating millions of rupees to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) with software change, the officer disclosed.

“The accused was working at a shop in Sohrab Goth with two other accomplices,’ police official said.

Changing of IMEI of a snatched phone, changes the identity of the mobile device, which could not be traced by the investigation officials.

The police recovered a laptop, different softwares and 10 mobile devices, the official added.