Protect Your Phone! Know Your Imei (s)!

Nigerian mobile telephony offices are still besieged by huge crowds of victim of phone theft.

Such companies are capable of liaising with government to ensure policies that mirror say, A&T or Sprint in the US that sell phones and lines in combined packages.

While such companies and their government collaborators still luxuriate in slumber, more citizens need to awake from criminal ignorance by embracing the IMEI option!

I would not bother you with needless technicalities but emphasize that the IMEI is the number, or numbers that uniquely identify the phone. One for each SIM slot!

You will find such number(s) on stickers affixed to the carton and the internal or external surface of the back cover...inner surface of phone covers of phones with removable batteries... and outer surface for non-removable batteries!

The carton usually carries three to four of such stickers...a big one at the top and smaller ones at the lower side of a common base.

In addition, retail outlets and other phone vendors now peel off one of the carton stickers....with a full complement of the serial number and bar code...and affix this to the purchase receipt rather than just write it on the receipt!

More succinctly, generate your IMEI(s) by dialing *#06# on any line of the phone. This latter option is even more reliable for used phones than the back cover sticker option...as phone thieves and collaborating "engineers" dubiously affix stickers bearing false IMEIs on used phones to render them untraceable after theft!

Quoting these numbers accurately or merely showing your IMEI-bearing receipts or carton to law enforcement agencies is your only hope of retrieving your stolen phone...

Dr Tosin Akindele is a medical doctor and public affairs analyst.