[Cryptography] OTP phones - arrested for buying phones.

Henry Baker hbaker1 at pipeline.com
Thu Mar 24 17:48:17 EDT 2016


At 10:11 AM 3/24/2016, Peter Trei wrote:
>On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 12:00 PM, <cryptography-request at metzdowd.com> wrote:
>
>From: dan at geer.org
>
>| I also don't recall hearing about terrorists buying iPhones a dozen at a time.
>
>Are you suggesting that having a crate of phones in the boot
>of your car well be seen as damning the way having a collection
>of lockpicks and prybars there is?
>
>You're not up on the news, I take it.
>
>2006, 2 cases
>http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1681955/posts
>Three Middle Eastern Men Found With 1000 Cell Phones  
>
>http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2006-08-16/police-investigate-suspicious-purchase-cell-phones.html
>Police investigate suspicious purchase of cell phones
>
>2015
>
>Police, FBI called after men purchase hundreds of phones from Missouri Walmart stores
>
>http://kfor.com/2015/12/10/police-fbi-called-after-men-purchase-hundreds-of-phones-from-walmart-stores/

I checked the prices of prepaid phones at the grocery store today: $4.99.

Amazon search: "burner phone" yielded 22 results: TracFone seems to be cheapest at $9.99.

PC Magazine had an article 7/28/2015: "Need a burner?  Got $25"

It would seem the Dollar General may have some of the lowest price prepaid phones, but they don't have prices on the Internet that I could find.

At $5, it would be difficult NOT to buy a dozen at a time -- just by mistake!  (Hi, I'm taking my Boy Scout troop on a trip to the big city, and I need to be able to contact them when they're out of sight -- sounds almost quaint in 2016.)

The word "burner" has prepaid phone as its second meaning, so it has now officially entered the English language.



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