News 2002
Virgin Mobile continues the battle against street crime with new security initiative
03/05/2002
Hot on the heels of today’s Government announcement that the reprogramming of mobile phones is soon to be made a criminal offence, Virgin Mobile has announced that it is to help customers prevent the rising tide of mobile phone theft further with by launching the Alphadot mobile phone anti-theft system to Britain’s mobile phone users.
The mobile phone security packs contain a specially formulated glue-like substance which cleverly houses a whole host of tiny microdots, each about the size of a pinhead. These security dots are individually printed with a unique personal identification number - or PIN code. Having purchased the security pack from Virgin Mobile, the mobile phone owner paints the security “dotting glue” on each of the separate parts of their phone – phone, battery and phone case. They then register their PIN code with Alphadot.
In the event of their mobile phone being stolen and then recovered by the police, a special magnifying viewer issued to and used by the police can identify the rightful owner. And, although the security dots can be seen by the naked eye, it is impossible for mobile phone thieves to know they have found and removed them all. Just one dot identifies the rightful owner - a strong deterrent against theft in the first place!
Virgin Mobile’s security packs, priced at £5.99 will be available from mid May directly from Virgin Mobile on tel: 0845 6000 600 or www.virgin.com/mobile or by popping in to any one of the 89 Virgin Megastores in the UK.
Steven Day, corporate affairs director at Virgin Mobile said: ”Virgin Mobile is keen to put into the marketplace as many deterrents to the thieves who might be tempted to steal a mobile phone as possible. We have an ongoing working relationship with the other networks and the Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum (MICAF) to continue to fight the battle against mobile phone theft and street crime. The launch of the Alphadot phone security packs is another step in the right direction.”
Virgin Mobile, as a member of MICAF, also welcomes the introduction of the Mobile Telephone (Re-programming) Bill. Together with other crime initiatives taken recently by the industry, such as all Operators using an EIR (Equipment Identity Register), and the ability to share blacklisted handsets across all networks as well as programmes by fellow MICAF members, positive steps are being taken by both government and industry to tackle street crime, and to increase customers' awareness of the safe use of mobile phones.
