In a stunning turn of events, thousands of smartphones have had same IMEI leading to a new fraud. Recently, Meerut Police confirmed that 13,500 phones were having the same IMEI number. These phones are from the Chinese manufacturer Vivo, which is among the top five smartphone brands in the country. The cases have been registered under the Section 420 of IPC.
Vivo IMEI Fraud Incident Details
Notably, the police have conducted an investigation for five months and found 13,500 Vivo smartphones to have the same IMEI number. The incident got uncovered when a sub-inspector in charge of the case noticed that the IMEI number on his phone and its box were different. The inspector had replaced his phone at a Vivo service center as it wasn’t working properly even after repair.
As per PTI, the Meerut Cyber cell has issued a notice to Harmanjith Singh, Vivo India’s nodal officer under Section 91 of CrPC and the company is yet to comment on the same. It has been accused that this incident is due to the negligence of the mobile phone company.
How Is IMEI Important?
IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number was developed to keep track of mobile hardware. While SIM cards can be swapped, IMEI number is unique to each device and is used during instances such as crimes. And, it also curbs the growth of black market mobile phones and was used for the same years back.
Moreover, there were reports that criminals can flash a device to change the IMEI of a device and use it for crimes or sell it in the black market as flashing will render it impossible to track the device. Also, some YouTube videos claim that you can change the IMEI of your phone though these are not verified. Whatever it is, tampering the IMEI number is an offense and is punishable by law. One can get up to three years of imprisonment on doing so.
If you use a Vivo smartphone, do check if your phone’s IMEI number is the same as that on the box and check if it is unique to your device. In the meantime, we can get further details from Vivo.
