Pay as you go mobiles

USER1999

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I needed a disposable mobile for a couple of months, so I dropped into Carphone warehouse last night.

For the princely sum of £17.50 I have got a new phone and £10 credit.

All I had to do was give a valid address (needn't be mine, I just need a valid name and address). No ID, no bank details, no proof of anything. Pay your cash, and walk out with your phone. They were more concerned about whether I wanted a black or silver one. (I don't care, it isn't like I'm keeping it for long. It might be gone by Friday).

And then I can use it for drug dealing, making a bomb, what ever, and it is untraceable to me.

Not sure this is a good thing.
 

19th

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Don't be too concerned.

Big Brother can trace every call you make and your location if they need to, so it is not as easy for the bombers as you infer. I would hazard a guess that bomb phones are bought in a pub car park well away from any shop CCTV.

Now buying ice??? That could be used for bomb making and location lost when you walk out of the shop!
 

USER1999

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They can trace your location, and listen to your call, but they won't know who it is, especially if you regularly changed phones.
 

surefire

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They can trace your location, and listen to your call, but they won't know who it is, especially if you regularly changed phones.

You don't think they would be able to work this out from the data that they do have?

Locations, voice - dialect and speech patterns, call patterns - time of calls, frequency, duration etc...
 

vig

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Don't be too concerned.

Big Brother can trace every call you make and your location if they need to, so it is not as easy for the bombers as you infer. I would hazard a guess that bomb phones are bought in a pub car park well away from any shop CCTV.

Now buying ice??? That could be used for bomb making and location lost when you walk out of the shop!

Do you think the average terrorist makes calls from their home. believe me....
 

StrangelyBrown

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So you'd rather have your details kept on a Government database and have to provide your details every time you bought anything..?

I bet you were in favour of ID cards too.

Anyway, i'm off to buy some diesel and fertiliser.
 

USER1999

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So you'd rather have your details kept on a Government database and have to provide your details every time you bought anything..?

Whether you like it or not, you are probably on about 50 government data bases already, what difference does one more make.

It isn't buying anything though is it. Phones are used alot by criminals and other ne'er do wells. Surely it would be easier keeping tabs on them if sim cards were slightly harder to get hold of. If I was arrested for terrorism, then if they knew I had 20 sim cards, surely it would be easier to trace who else I had been talking to.

Oddly, there is more traceability when buying a golf club with a credit card.
 

bozza

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It's only a phone at the end of the day, i don't see why you should have to provide a mountain of ID just to buy one.

Why should the majority of law abiding public suffer for a small section of idiots.
 

USER1999

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Oh yeah, I am in favour of ID cards.

You have obviously never had a car accident with someone with no id, no insurance and a fake number plate. Call the police? You don't live near London, they don't give a stuff.

That said, the id card I want combines the drivers license, credit cards, bank cards, oyster cards and any other naff bit of plastic in my wallet. It also wouldn't come with a sheet of A4 paper, which had to be carried too, and without which the card would be invalid.

The joke is, once you have an id card, you don't need to carry it any way. One iris scan, the the police can tell me who I am. What's the card for?
 

bozza

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So you'd rather have your details kept on a Government database and have to provide your details every time you bought anything..?



It isn't buying anything though is it. Phones are used alot by criminals and other ne'er do wells.
.

So are knives, should you have to provide ID and the serial number/make and model of the knife taken just incase that in the off chance you may use it to stab someone with and it makes it easier to trace back?
 

lee_leggett

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Well I am sure this post has popped upon the goverments web site a few time now with the above words.

Even a normal txt to a friend with the wrong word in it can be filtered and screened.

Big Brother is always watching....
 

surefire

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Most web and voice data would get scanned, but I would expect it has to contain more than this to actually get flagged up to another level.

Just in case it's not though, hope everyone up at Menwith is having fun!

Maybe if we throw in Barack Obama and ECHELON, it will get picked up! ;)
 
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