GEORGE R. TURNER, 55, of S. Prospect St., Nanticoke, and formerly of E. Church St., Nanticoke, died unexpectedly Tuesday, April 3, 2012, at home. Born March 27, 1957 in Nanticoke, he was a son of the late Elmer and Elsie Cooper Turner. He was currently em

Shockers emotional after loss to VCU

First Posted: 4/19/2012 THE DAYS OF easy cash for stolen smartphones might be coming to an end. In six months, the mobile service companies that provide service to 90 percent of all smartphones will have a national database that will be used to disconnect phones that have been reported stolen.
With consumers increasingly targeted for snatch-and-grabs by thieves who fence stolen smartphones to crooked dealers and individuals, rendering a phone useless before it goes on the black market removes the profit motive. If the phones aren't active, they're just attractive paperweights.
Because of a voluntary agreement between the Federal Communications Commission and AT&amp;amp;T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint, criminals soon will face a united front of service providers eager to thwart their felonious business model.
The carriers are assembling a database of identification numbers that will be embedded in all smartphones. Once the phones are reported lost or stolen, they will be sent a shutdown command that denies service use. Similar systems already are in use in Britain and Australia.
As with many technological solutions, clever criminals eventually might figure how to make the stolen phones work again, but the vast majority of thieves will be out of luck. Congress should make activating a disabled smartphone a federal crime.
Raising the stakes on smartphone thieves is the only way to make stealing them a dumb proposition.

A smart move to thwart thieves