We are continually adding to our distribution network; click here for a current list. You can also buy online or from one of our community wardens. Look out for signs in you housing complex or estate.

We believe a sustainable crime prevention campaign with an integrated phone blocking mechanism will do more to prevent mobile phone theft than the ad-hoc blocking of SIM cards which still allows a stolen phone to function when the SIM card is changed.

It has been proven that visibly marked property will deter a thief. Marking and registering the property with the owner’s details also deters unscrupulous second hand dealers from buying stolen phones and selling them on. For the first time the Police have access to a system whereby they can prove a device is stolen and can therefore prosecute.

Furthermore, our recovery team is actively searching for stolen phones and our crime prevention campaigns throughout entertainment, educational and public places gives you a much higher chance of getting your device returned. No other IMEI registration service offers all this. What’s more if we all get behind this initiative the mobile providers will have to implement universal blocking further deterring theft.

Secure@Phone cannot promise that your phone will be returned. However, we do guarantee that by registering your device you are increasing your chances. People are actively searching for your phone as soon as you register it lost or stolen and if it turns up in police hands you can be sure they have been given access to our system to identify you as the legitimate owner.

When you report your device lost or stolen either through our hotline or online, an email message will be sent to your registered email address, our recovery team, your service provider with a blocking request and also to the police and your insurance company if insured.

A recovery team member will subsequently contact you to determine specific details about when and where you think your device was lost/stolen. This will help them in the search for your device.

We also encourage all customers to make a follow up phone call with their service providers to demand they block your phone. This will help them to recognize that we are all serious in demanding they take action.

Secure@Phone has a strict no junk mail policy. You will receive a confirmation email when you register and the option to sign up for occasional newsletters keeping you up to date with how the campaign is going. It is important to give us these details so that we can verify your identity and contact you should your phone ever go missing.

The providers will block your SIM card only when it suits their interests, i.e. when they do not want to be held accountable for a bill rung up by a thief. When the SIM card is changed in the phone that phone is fully functional on their network or another network. The networks already have the technology to block your actual device, which means that no matter what SIM card is inserted, the phone would be unusable. We are actively trying to force the networks to implement this service. But we need your support.

Currently we cannot force a network to block a device when it’s reported lost or stolen although they are all technically able to do so. However, with consumer support we can ensure that the licensing authority, which governs telecommunications, enforces legislation and licensing requirements for a blocking mechanism. We believe with Secure@Phone acting on the consumer’s behalf, the providers can ignore this demand only so long. We are also naming and shaming the providers who fail to protect their own consumers.

We have also promised the providers that we will provide them with a daily list of IMEI’s to be blocked, so that essentially we would be doing the hard bit for them. Blocking an IMEI for them is as simple as the tap of a button, so we see no reason why they can’t do it.

If a phone is not a Secure@Phone registered device there is nothing to safeguard it from being illegally sold in a second hand shop. In fact most phones in these shops are stolen devices and there is nothing to prove this. This is why we want to deter these premises from buying and selling stolen devices by giving the police a way in which they can prove wrong doing and prosecute unscrupulous businesses.

By marking and registering a device with Secure@Phone that device remains identifiable back to the rightful owner until such a time as the owner informs us that they are legitimately trading it in or selling it, at which time we will un-register it after security checks.

If a shop tries to sell a stolen Secure@Phone device there are three ways that they can be held accountable. Firstly, Secure@Phone personnel are posing as customers to check devices in second hand stores. Secondly when police raid these stores they can check a device’s ownership and thirdly we want to make it standard practice that customers check the history of a handset before they buy from a second hand shop, thus honest people can ensure that they aren’t helping to perpetuate theft.

Trusted outlets will be rewarded with the Secure@Phone zone status but we will still be checking up on these outlets to make sure they comply with the honesty promise.

All Secure@Phone zones have made a pledge to Secure@Phone that phones found on their premises will be handed into Secure@Phone for recovery action to the rightful owner. We cannot guarantee the honesty of every individual who works in these zones but they have all been briefed on the scheme and their phones have been marked and registered to safeguard their property as well.

Simply key in *#06# and ring the hotline. Repeat the number to our hotline staff and they will let you know whether it is a legitimate device. If it is not, they will ask you for your location and law enforcement agents will be sent to confiscate the device. Proof now exists for a successful prosecution to take place and you can rest assured that you have not purchased stolen property.

There have been some reports in the media that IMEI’s can be tampered with. This is true only to a very limited extent. If the device is manufactured before 1990 this is possible, however they cannot be tampered with if the phone was manufactured after that date as manufacturers made the IMEI number a “read only” number imbedded within the chip making it impossible for someone to change the number. Let’s face it; very few of us have phones that are 15 years old so these misleading reports should be ignored. Rest assured that newer phones cannot be tampered with.

We are establishing Secure@Phone as an International crime prevention service. We are kicking off the service initially in Asia in August 2006 with the service available in Hong Kong, Macau, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. If you lose your phone in any of these countries you are protected and if your phone is found in a Secure@Phone Zone overseas we will recover it and return it to you free of charge.

Secure@Phone will be established in more countries shortly. The UK and South Africa are already confirmed….so watch this space!!

If you know it to be stolen then you are “handling stolen goods” contrary to the Theft Ordinance. If you knowingly handle stolen property you are liable to punishment of up to 14 years imprisonment. Let’s face it most of us are aware that when we buy a second hand phone that it is highly likely it is stolen goods. Protect yourself by checking a phone’s status. If you cannot prove it is a legitimate sell, we would strongly advise you not to buy it.

Yes, if you have made no effort to find the owner it is “Theft by Finding”.

You can get arrested on reasonable suspicion of theft. Subsequent investigation would have to show that either –
a) You stole it – Theft
b) You knew it was stolen – Handling Stolen Goods
c) You found it and made no effort to locate the owner – Theft by Finding

We remind participants in the scheme to keep accurate contact records so that in the event that their phone is recovered by us it is easy to return. However from time to time, owners who have not updated their contact details, if these have changed, may be hard to trace. In these rare circumstances our policy is to keep the registered device for a period of six months, after that time if we are still unable to locate the owner then the device will be destroyed and the IMEI number permenantly placed within our black list. Under no circumstances will the registered phone be passed to any third parties or sold.

We do not accept devices that have not been registered with us simply as these phones are untraceable. Instead we encourage people who have found an unregistered device to hand it in to their local police. In the event that an unregistered device does come into our possession, it will also be passed to the police.