New Moves to Prevent Fraudulent Use of Stolen Cell Phones

On November 1st some mobile carriers implemented new policies that will make it tougher for people to reactivate stolen or lost cell phones. The policy is a new "blacklist" of lost or stolen phones. Once a phone is lost or stolen from the owner, the companies will not just deactivate it, but report it to the blacklist, to ensure that the phone can't be reactivated by another carrier. CNN reports that the moves come as a result of an FCC policy implemented earlier this year. The first carriers to do it are the ones that use GMA technology (AT&T and T-Mobile). Carriers that use CDMA technology (Verizon and Sprint) will have until November 30, 2013 to fully integrate with the national database