Truth or Hoax? The Nokia 1100 Affair.

Posted April 22nd, 2009 by Andrew Boxall in Society, Research, Mobile News

Here’s the story: Ultrascan Research Services, a website which gathers information on such subjects as online fraud and the notorious 419 scams, claim that demand for the Nokia 1100 mobile phone has increased considerably among high-tech cyber-crime gangs, to the point where they change hands for as much as £22,000 each!  The reason behind this is the apparent ease with which this phone can be ‘cloned’ and used to intercept SMS’s with individual bank codes.  These are used in conjunciton with stolen bank details to access accounts thoughout Europe.

It’s not just any Nokia 1100 though, it has to have been produced by a factory in Bochum, Germany around 2002 for the software to be used for nefarious purposes - making them among the very first models released.  Ultrascan has said they are working on obtaining one of the 1100’s to confirm the exploit and Techworld have contacted Nokia themselves on the subject, but have no reply at the time of writing.  Even web security specialists F-Secure have an article on the implications of such a problem.

For one of the most basic mobile phones, originally costing less than £100 unconnected, to be ‘worth’ the price of a brand-new VW Golf GTi is a great story, however, there is at least one voice claiming this is a hoax and the world has nothing to fear.  Take a look at the comments on various sites and even a Twitter stream running the story, and you’ll see what we mean.  Spoofing a GSM mobile phone number borders on the impossibly hard, so if the 1100 in question really does make it easier, then we can see why it has such a value attached!  Ultimately, we hope this isn’t accurate, as it could prove very costly indeed.

So, truth or hoax?  Let us know what you think!