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Sell your old Nokia Phone for $32,00??

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posted on Jul, 21 2009 @ 01:42 PM
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Nokia: We don't know why criminals want our old phones


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The mystery why cybercriminals want a discontinued Nokia phone isn't getting any clearer. Hackers have been offering up to €25,000 (US$32,413) in undergrounds forums for Nokia 1100 phones made in the company's former factory in Bochum, Germany. The phone can allegedly be hacked so as to facilitate illegal online banking transfers, according to the Dutch company Ultrascan Advanced Global Investigations.



Nokia said on Tuesday it is not aware that resale prices for a phone that retailed for less than €100 when it debuted in 2003 have risen so high. Further, Nokia maintains the phone's software isn't flawed. "We have not identified any phone software problem that would allow alleged use cases," the company said in an e-mailed statement. The 1100 can apparently be reprogrammed to use someone else's phone number, which would also let the device receive text messages. That capability opens up an opportunity for online banking fraud. In countries such as Germany, banks send an mTAN (mobile Transaction Authentication Number) to a person's mobile phone that must be entered into a Web-based form in order to, for example, transfer money into another account. A TAN can only be used once, a security feature known as a one-time passcode.



"So if this particular Nokia 1100 can be modified to spoof the victims phone number, it should be possible to become the primary handset -- at least long enough to receive the TAN," Sullivan said.



Meanwhile, a Dutch technology site, portablegear.nl, wrote that it placed a fake advertisement for the particular Nokia 1100 on an online marketplace. People offered as much as €500, offering to immediately come pick up the device.


Ok. I am certainly NOT advocating that you sell your old Nokia phone. It would probably be better for the world, if you have one of these old models, to just destroy it.

I think if you folks are using the type of banking transactions mentioned in the article, you should probably change your ways.



 
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