HARRISBURG, Pa.-A new Pennsylvania training program designed to help police officers crack down on illegal duplication and use of cellular phones drew praise from state Sen. Christine Tartaglione last week.
Tartaglione has first-hand knowledge of cellular fraud. She twice has been the victim of cellular cloning, and became involved in the fight against fraud last year when someone ran up hundreds of dollars in fraudulent charges to her number.
“When it became apparent that the criminals most likely would not be caught and that my cellular carrier would have to absorb yet another financial loss, I decided that we needed to take a closer look at this problem,” she said.
The program, which Tartaglione helped inspire, is a joint effort of the state police and members of the cellular telephone industry including AT&T Wireless Services Inc. The training sessions offered under the program will teach officers how to recognize cloned phones and cloning equipment, how to investigate cloning cases and how to obtain assistance from phone carriers during such investigations.
AT&T noted that cellular cloning is a federal felony carrying a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The company estimated counterfeiting costs the industry approximately $650 million each year in stolen airtime.
