Expert Council under the government proposes to introduce punishment for fake IMEI

In Russia, there may be a penalty for faking IMEI mobile devices. Such a proposal was made by the Expert Council under the Government, submitting amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses (CAO). The amendments provide for liability for forging IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity, International Mobile Equipment Identity) mobile gadgets, as reported by Vedomosti.

Individuals for fake IMEI are invited to be fined for 3000-4000 rubles., Officials - 15000-30000, legal - 60000-100000. Responsibility will be introduced to “balance the interests of citizens and businesses”. So, if after buying a phone a citizen cannot use the device, then someone should be responsible for it.

Currently, the document is only a preliminary version of the amendments. The chairman of the commission, Lyudmila Bokova, said that the mobile phone buyer will be able to check whether IMEI has been falsified or not on a special portal. At the same resource, the phone can be registered, which means the need to create an IMEI database. It is proposed to form it by 2023, which follows from the amendments to the Law "On Communications" from the expert council and the Federation Council. The fee for registering a phone in the database may be about 100 rubles - but this is relevant only for devices imported from abroad. The same users who purchased the phone in the Russian retail will not pay for registration, since the device will be registered on the fact of legal importation.

Levova believes that fines for counterfeiting IMEI and using phones with a modified identifier are a preventive measure. The fact is that stolen or illegally imported into the Russian Federation phones will be blacklisted by IMEI, so they will not be able to work.

According to experts, it is possible to fake IMEI, but this is a complicated technical procedure. But to copy it from the "white" phone, transferring to other phones is much easier. Some phones of famous companies have copy protection IMEI, but a large number of models of such a system do not have. Thus, it is enough to use IMEI of the donor phone to make the “black” phone “white”. If the bill on the creation of the base is implemented, then we can expect an increase in the demand for counterfeit services IMEI.

According to statistics, about 170,000 mobile devices are stolen every day in Russia - every third theft in the country. Interestingly, IMEI blocking reduced the number of smartphone thefts by 95% in Turkey, where the blocking system has been introduced since 2006.