A national database for lost and stolen handphones will be set up and any handphone reported lost will be completely disabled. This means a stolen handphone cannot be sold to anyone to be used even with a new SIM card.
Last year, some 100,000 handphones were reported lost; the actual figure could be much higher than that as most Malaysians are reluctant to report the loss of items like handphones.
Similar schemes launched in Britain and Australia had proven to be successful. Statistics in Britain had shown that in the first six months following the launch of the programme in November 2002, almost 500,000 lost or stolen mobile phones were blocked.
In Australia, there was a 23% drop in mobile phone thefts within 12 weeks of the launch of the scheme.
The move will also incorporate a nationwide handset blocking service, meaning that those who lose their handphones will be able to render the devices useless upon reporting their loss to the database operators.
This includes barring the PIN Unblocking Key (PUK), which provides access to the SIM card.
With the system, consumers and handphone traders can also check if a handphone offered to them is stolen.
The service, however, will not be compulsory and it will not be free. There will be an affordable one-time registration fee.
The entire system sound so complicated, block this and that. But it sounds very cool !!
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