{"id":4725,"date":"2012-04-11T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T15:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/evssolutions.com\/smartphone-theft-consortium-falls-short\/"},"modified":"2012-04-11T15:41:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T15:41:00","slug":"smartphone-theft-consortium-falls-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evssolutions.com\/insights\/smartphone-theft-consortium-falls-short\/","title":{"rendered":"Smartphone Theft Consortium Falls Short"},"content":{"rendered":"

News rocked the wireless world
\nthis week when the big four wireless
\ncarriers<\/a> agreed to share phone data to prevent stolen phones from being
\nused with other carriers. As those on the inside are well aware, its a highly
\ncompetitive market and getting any carrier to share any information with
\nanother is monumental. Flip phones 10 years ago morphed into todays Smartphones
\nthat literally rule our lives, which reflect that value in cost. Having spent a
\nchunk of my career in wireless, including working with the first Blackberry (I
\nmiss the 957), and later working for and with the industrys largest cellular
\ninsurance providers, Ive witnessed firsthand the rise in fraud surrounding
\ncellular and the lucrative black market thats emerged. Insurance companies
\nhave pushed carriers for years to share data and create blacklists for stolen
\nor fraudulently acquired phones. The insurance carriers have incentive to
\nprevent fraudulent claims, but the same economic drivers dont apply to
\ncarriers. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Carriers heavily subsidize the
\nprice of a device and recoup their cost in monthly fees. Lets be honest, the
\nmost profitable customer a carrier can have is an unsubsidized phone from
\nanother carrier and a long-term contract. Profit margins skyrocket when youre
\nnot subsidizing the latest gadget by $400.
\n<\/span>Mysteriously missing from the consortium news are the tier 2 providers,
\nlike Cricket and Metro PCS. The few remaining tier 2 providers cater to prepaid
\nand subprime customers, who may be more likely to buy a black market device. And
\nwhat about international carriers? The consortium fails to address the entire
\nproblem.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coincidentally weve been recently
\nworking with a Sprint wireless agent to help prevent fraud<\/a>
\nat the point of sale. This agent runs a small business with 18 stores in one
\nstate. In a normal sale with a new customer he purchases Smartphones from the
\ncarrier for $700, sells one to the customer for the subsidized price (say $300
\nfor our example), then is cut a check back from the carrier for $400 (carrier
\nsubsidy) when the client pays the first bill. Hes having a rash of people
\nusing fake IDs to establish the account and never pay for service, and then selling
\nthe phone on the black-market for more than the subsidized price. Sprint will
\nblacklist the phone, but other carriers will gladly accept service while our
\nagent client is out $400. Weve given him a cheap and effective tool with KBA<\/a>
\nto verify and authenticate his customers while preventing fraud and chargebacks.
\nWhile the consortium is a great tool to help eliminate fraud from stolen
\ndevices, we believe Identity
\nVerification<\/a> is the answer to prevent fraud at the POS. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

[Contributed by Jeff Davis, President & CEO]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News rocked the wireless world this week when the big four wireless carriers agreed to share phone data to prevent stolen phones from being used with other carriers. As those on the inside are well aware, its a highly competitive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fraud-prevention","category-identity-fraud"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evssolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evssolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evssolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evssolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evssolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/evssolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evssolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evssolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evssolutions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}