Stolen Phone? Check Your Mailboxes, Couriers Are Returning Old Phones

A few weeks ago, Priya's phone was stolen from her hand while on her way to work in Delhi. Like many others, she informed the police, blocked the SIM card, and bought a new phone, thinking that was the end of it. Until a month later, when a courier knocked on her door.  What is in the package?  The same phone that had been taken before.  Doesn't it sound strange?  It is not only Priya, though. Similar cases are coming up from various parts of the country.

What is happening?

This is possible because the government is trying harder to find and get back stolen smartphones. The Central Equipment Identity Register, or CEIR, is something that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has rolled out to tackle the phone theft and misuse in India.

It is a nationwide database that keeps track of mobile phones by their unique IMEI numbers, which are like fingerprints for phones.  If your phone is recorded as stolen in the system, it can be restricted from being used on all mobile networks. This means that the stolen items can neither be used by the thieves nor sold in any market. A lot of times, snatchers just throw it away. And now, thanks to the government’s efforts, these phones are sometimes finding their way back to their owners via courier. 

The government describes CEIR as “a centralised database of mobile equipment identifiers (i.e. IMEI for networks of GSM standard). Such an identifier is assigned to each SIM slot of the mobile device.”  It includes white list devices that are allowed to register in a cellular network, black list devices that are prohibited from registering in a cellular network, and grey devices that are in an intermediate status. 

How does the CEIR work?

The CEIR acts as a centralised database for all network operated to their EIRs to share blacklisted mobile devices so that devices blacklisted in one network will not work on other networks even if the SIM card in the device is swapped. So, if your phone is stolen and it is registered as stolen on CEIR, it will be blocked from pairing with any other mobile network. 

If you have ever reported a phone as lost or stolen, don't be surprised if it shows up in the mail one day.  This is not happening in every case, of course, but it's a major step forward. Before CEIR, if you lost your phone, it was usually gone for good. Now, there is a method that makes it much less profitable to steal phones.  So, keep a lookout if your smartphone was taken, even if it was months ago.  It looks like your old phone might be on its way back to you.

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