Stupid Cell Phone law going into effect....

[RiverGirl]

if this effort were really about catching kidnappers and such why couldn't the law just require that cell phone companies turn over their user data upon request, if they didn't already...?

Good point, I've been wondering about this. It may be that the various cell phone providers each collect different data about who they sell phones to, and the govt wants a uniform set of data.

Lots of Mexicans don't have CURPs partly because lots of Mexicans don't have birth certificates. City of Joy provides legal aid to the poor and a huge amount of that work is just helping people get the right docs so they can get Electoral cards or other ID, or enroll their kids in school. When you are dealing with people who are really poor and commonly illiterate they often don't do simple things like register their babies births correctly.

[mixz1]

You can find a recap on the cellular/CURP situations at Registro de celulares deja rezago - Grupo SIPSE, sipse.com

In brief, Telcel and Moviestar are moving ahead in their compliance with the law and are terminating unregistered cells.

Both companies will allow SMS texts to the CURP registration number and will re-enable phones that have been registered after the cutoof deadline.

FM holders can only register their phones at the Telcel office. Phones thus registered will be re-enabled. Bring your passport.

Credit balances will be maintained so that there will be no financial loss if/when phones are re-enabled.

Has anyone here had their service terminated?

[RiverGirl]

Here's a current article in English:
Mexico Mobile Carriers Get More Time to Confirm Users (Update1) - BusinessWeek

I don't know of anyone whose phone has been turned off, but them I only know two people who admit to not registering their phones.

[Life_N_Cancun]

Well... so now it will be a "gradual" cutoff of services... I guess they could suspend 100 people a day and say they are complying with the law...

I had it in my head that they were going to press a key and the computers would instantly kill service to anyone not in the system at midnight Saturday since they made such a fuss about it.... but then again.. everything takes longer in Mexico...

[RiverGirl]

Seems like the system is backed up, they haven't yet finished processing the registrations they do have.

[Jim in Cancun]

They are saying the phones should be turned off by Wednesday. There are still hundreds of thousands of text messages to be confirmed and it seems won't turn off lines until they have finished confirming what they have awaiting confirmation.

[Jim in Cancun]

I was listening to an interview yesterday and here is the general gist of it: Untitled Document

Basically:

1.- 58,297,065 phones were registered.

2.- This is from an interview with the President of Cofetel, Héctor Osuna, where he admitted that the registration process permitted the use of false information.

3.- I heard that around 5 million of the registrations were false and they will have to do a lot of cleaning up of the information received since many phones were registered under both ficticious and real names such as Carlos Slim Helú, Carlos Salinas de Gortari, Vicente Fox, Elba Esther Gordillo, Marcelo Ebrard and even Héctor Guillermo Osuna, the President of Cofetel and Felipe Calder´n, the President of Mexico.

4.- Eliminating the fake registrations will not be easy and will take time but they will figure out a way to do it

5.- In the radio interview he said that anyone who registered before 12:59 on Saturday (sic) will not have any problems with cancellation or suspension of service.

6.- He foresees that Wednesday they will begin massive cancellations of unregistered lines.

7. 24,702,935 were not registered within the legal time limit.

[Life_N_Cancun]

I'm betting a hellofalot' more than 5 million have been setup with false data. Those 5 million are probably just the ones setup using famous (infamous?) people's data.

This system certainly is a good way to set people up.. for example that boss you don't like could find himself on the defensive after the threating calls he (you) made on the cell phone you registered him on.... and left in his desk.. or if you're already in the crime game you can use your favorite adversaries info for those important business calls.. just be sure you don't hang on to the phone for too long... ( you never know the police here might even learn how to triangulate a phone one of these days....)

[mixz1]

Telcel informs its clients and the general public thet during the past year it has promoted the implementation of the National Register of Mobile Phone Users - RENAUT. The deadline for registration according to the law has been inadequate under the existing large customer base when the registry was implemented.

Telcel has recorded more than 100 thousand customers a day since the registery was opened 11 months ago.

Telcel, has obtained from a federal judge a temporary suspension and shall not terminate service to any of its customers and invites those who have not yet registered to carry out registration.

Telcel empahsises to its customers not registered so far the importance of doing so through various means available to them:

1 -) Sending an SMS to 2877 with the message dial ALTA.(insert the 18 DIGITS OF THE CURP.)

2 -) Sending an SMS to 2877 with the message ALTA.FIRST NAME.FAMILY NAME.PRIMARY NAME.BIRTHDAY (DDMMYYY)

3 -) Calling from our Telcel Telcel Care Center (264 * if * Prepaid and Postpaid 111 if it is)

4 -) Come to our Customer Service Centers and Authorized Dealers throughout the Republic, or

5 -) www.telcel.com Via Internet / registrocelular.

[Jim in Cancun]

yep--read that. Supposedly there are still like 12 million registrations "pending" that were sent in in time but have not been confirmed. They are still saying they will start cancelling lines as soon as they finish processing the ones "in line."

Is anyone surprised that deadlines are not taken seriously or respected? If you are, you haven't lived here very long!

[mixz1]

Originally Posted by Jim in Cancun

yep--read that. Supposedly there are still like 12 million registrations "pending" that were sent in in time but have not been confirmed. They are still saying they will start cancelling lines as soon as they finish processing the ones "in line."

Is anyone surprised that deadlines are not taken seriously or respected? If you are, you haven't lived here very long!

One of the lessons I've learned in living here is that mañana does not mean "tomorrow". Mañana means "not today". The conceptual content of mañana is infinite.

[RiverGirl]

People and systems here seem to be pretty much rotten at estimating how long things will take to accomplish. It may not be their fault however, I suspect it's environmental since I've gotten much worse at it myself since moving here.

[mixz1]

With regard to today's arrest of the Times Square car bombing suspect:

Cellphone led FBI to Times Square car bomb suspect arrest - Mike Allen - POLITICO.com

The website Politico, citing an unnamed senior official, reported that a number from a disposable cell phone used by the buyer of the SUV had led to the suspect's arrest.

“They were able to basically get one phone number and by running it through a number of databases, figure out who they thought the guy was,” the official told Politico.

The suspect no longer had the phone, the website reported.

So it would seem that with correct database management, even disposables are subject to back tracing.

[Life_N_Cancun]

Just because I enjoy arguing with you...

Originally Posted by mixz1

So it would seem that with correct database management, even disposables are subject to back tracing.

Yeah, if you're dumb enough to use your real info, as apparently this guy did. You can still by a prepaid phone with cash, call the free number and tell them you're Donald Duck living at 1600 Penn ave.. and not ever have to show ID to anyone last I checked in the US... this guy either wanted to be known (to gain notoriety) or was just really clueless... (as evidenced by the bomb not going off, as if there are not plenty of websites that will show you how to make a proper bomb if you really want to) if all else fails a good fake ID will get you just about anything in the US....


so let's not play up the benefits of giant big brother databases just yet...

Thanks btw Mixz1, got Nancy setup yesterday...

[Life_N_Cancun]

Speaking of the cell phone law.. does anyone know if anyone has actually been cut-off... no one I know has, as of yet....

[mixz1]

Originally Posted by Life_N_Cancun

Just because I enjoy arguing with you...



Yeah, if you're dumb enough to use your real info, as apparently this guy did. You can still by a prepaid phone with cash, call the free number and tell them you're Donald Duck living at 1600 Penn ave.. and not ever have to show ID to anyone last I checked in the US... this guy either wanted to be known (to gain notoriety) or was just really clueless... (as evidenced by the bomb not going off, as if there are not plenty of websites that will show you how to make a proper bomb if you really want to) if all else fails a good fake ID will get you just about anything in the US....


so let's not play up the benefits of giant big brother databases just yet...

Thanks btw Mixz1, got Nancy setup yesterday...

First, you're welcome. Nancy deserves the best and I'm glad we could help her.

Second, I think you'll find that the purchaser's identity or false identity used to procure the cell phone had nothing to do with his discovery and capture. I think you'll find that the call records, both inbound and outbound had more to do with it. And before you bang off an instant WTF, think hard about how this can be done.

Remember he was shopping for a car, relying on the anonymity of the phone, but the car sellers phone carrier now has a record of the caller's IME. Correlate the IME with international calls. Develop a short table of recipients and go back to who sold the Nissan, whose VIN you already have.

As it turns out there was email involved in the purchase of the Nissan. At the same time, you know the recipients of calls from that IME who are in nations where constitutional guarantees aren't as strong as the US, and foreign intelligence service are freer to "sweat" details from interrogation subjects and you can see how you develop a weave that you can very quickly tighten into a noose.

You have the caller's recipients and you have the callers email address with its associated geographically significant IP address. By this time the phone could be flushed into the Atlantic. It wouldn't matter.

Most people don't fully understand the capabilities of Echelon, the sigintel program operated by Australia, Canada, New Zealand, The UK and the US. I can guarantee you that Echelon played a key part in finding this guy and the 4 who were arrested in Pakistan as well.

[Life_N_Cancun]

WTF???


No, really, I understand how it could be done, but that would depend greatly on the person doing the crime being rather stupid and using the same phones and emails for all of his "work"... as opposed to one 24 hour phone per task, never used near his actual place of residence, and certainly not used to make calls to associates... likewise not having emails that you've used to talk with other criminals be the same or connected to the ones used for purchases... don't get me wrong, there are plenty of stupid criminals out there who have very little understanding of such things, but I tend to think they aren't the ones we should be most worried about.. or give up our privacy and freedom to catch.... You know as well as anyone that someone with a bit of technical knowledge and intelligence could make it very difficult to be tracked by technological means. I am aware that there is a good chance everything I say on the phone or write in an email (or message forum) is being processed by a spy computer somewhere, but if I wanted to be more covert I think I could do a pretty good job of thwarting most systems and databases... just like 007

[RiverGirl]

You guys are better than the trashy spy novel I'm reading right now.

I, too, have yet to hear of anyone whose phone was turned off. But then even the people I knew who were holding out and not registering for political reasons have now done so. I'm not sure I know anyone who didn't register.

[e.b.]

So, now that we've registered our cell phones what should one do if it is stolen/lost? In the past I would have just written it off and bought a new one. If it could be used for something illegal it would stand to reason that we'd have to report it. But, to who?

[Life_N_Cancun]

I assume you report it to the cell phone company as you have to have the phone to remove or change the government registration info. Makes selling phones a bit more interesting too...

[RiverGirl]

Jon Stewart has the inside story on how the Times Square bomber was arrested. And, no offense, it's much more exciting that Mixz1 made it out to be:
Stewart: Glenn Beck More Reasonable Than McCain (VIDEO)