Reducing mobile-phone fraud

• US 8,483,663 B1
• Filed: 09/05/2012
• Issued: 07/09/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: T-Mobile Innovations LLC (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Original Assignee: Sprint Communications Company LP (Deutsche Telekom AG)
• Inventors: Jones, Bryce A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hu, Jinsong
• Assistant Examiner(s): TAYLOR, NATHAN SCOTT
• Application Number:
  US13/604,185
• Time in Patent Office: 307 Days
• Field of Search: 455410-411, 455418-420, 726/26, 726/34, 726/36, 709/225
• US Class Current: 455/411
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72463 to restrict the functionality of the device
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/082 using revocation of authorisation
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/126 Anti-theft arrangements, e.g. protection against subscriber identity module [SIM] cloning

Abstract

Methods and products for facilitating a method of reducing mobile-phone fraud are provided. One method includes receiving a request to activate a mobile device, determining that it is identified as lost or stolen, communicating to the mobile device activation data that enables the mobile device to communicate via a wireless-telecommunications network despite the fact that the mobile device was determined to be identified as lost or stolen, and communicating to the mobile device functionality-impairment instructions that deliberately disable a set of functional aspects of the mobile device, thereby transforming it from a first state to a second state that is functionally impaired compared to the first state.

Claims

1. Non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, that, when executed by a computing device, facilitate a method of reducing mobile-phone fraud, the method comprising:

determining that a mobile device is lost or stolen;

deactivating the determined lost or stolen mobile device, wherein deactivating prevents the determined lost or stolen mobile device from communicating via a wireless-telecommunications network;

receiving a request to activate the determined lost or stolen mobile device from the determined lost or stolen mobile device;

upon receiving the request to activate from the determined lost or stolen mobile device, communicating to the determined lost or stolen mobile device activation data, which enables the mobile device to communicate via a wireless-telecommunications network; and

communicating to the mobile device functionality-impairment instructions, which, when run on the mobile device, deliberately disable a set of functional aspects of the mobile device thereby transforming the mobile device from a first state to a second state and wherein the second state is functionally impaired as compared to the first state.

2. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the determining that the mobile device is lost or stolen is incident to submitting an inquiry to a database that stores information about mobile devices that are reported as being lost or stolen.

3. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the request to activate the determined lost or stolen mobile device is received via one or more of the following:

the Internet;

the mobile device.

4. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein the determining that the mobile device is lost or stolen includes receiving a response from a database that stores information about mobile devices that are reported as being lost or stolen.

5. The computer-readable media of claim 4, where the response is received incident to an inquiry regarding a status of the determined lost or stolen mobile device, wherein the status includes new or preowned and wherein the preowned status could be further characterized legitimate or illegitimate.

6. The computer-readable media of claim 5, wherein the illegitimate characterization indicates one or more of stolen, lost, broken, or unusable.

7. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein communicating the activation data includes instructing a first communications device to send the activation data to the determined lost or stolen mobile device.

8. The computer-readable media of claim 1, wherein communicating the functionality-impairment instructions includes instructing the first or a second communications device to send the functionality-impairment instructions to the determined lost or stolen mobile device.

9. The computer-readable media of claim 8, wherein the functionality-impairment instructions impair various functional aspects of the determined lost or stolen mobile device, including one or more of the following aspects:

data-input functionality; and

data-output functionality.

10. The computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein data-input functionality includes one or more of:

keyboard functionality such that certain keys are not responsive to inputting data; and

voice-input functionality.

11. The computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein data-output functionality includes one or more of:

display functionality such that a display of the determined lost or stolen mobile device presents data in an undesirable manner; and

audio functionality such that sound outputted from the determined lost or stolen mobile device is outputted in an undesirable manner.

12. The media of claim 1, in connection with a request for service, further comprising:

receiving an indication that the determined lost or stolen mobile device is experiencing issues that stem from the functionality-impairment instructions;

confirming that the determined lost or stolen mobile device is reported as lost or stolen; and

presenting a notification that the determined lost or stolen mobile device is reported as lost or stolen.

13. The media of claim 1, further comprising storing a description of the functional aspects that were disabled, thereby enabling an indication of the description to be presented incident to troubleshooting the determined lost or stolen mobile device.

14. The media of claim 1, further comprising communicating to a second determined lost or stolen mobile device a second set of functionality-impairment instructions that deliberately disable a different set of functional aspects as compared to those associated with the determined lost or stolen mobile device.

15. A method of recovering a lost or stolen mobile device, comprising:

incident to receiving input from a technician who has obtained the mobile device in connection with addressing a problem associated with the mobile device, submitting a query to determine whether the mobile device has been reported as being lost or stolen, wherein the problem was deliberately caused by instructions received from a wireless-telecommunications-network provider when activating the mobile device and wherein a description of the functional aspects that were disabled by the instructions is stored, thereby enabling an indication of the description to be presented incident to troubleshooting the lost or stolen mobile device; and

receiving a response to the query;

presenting a visual indication that the mobile device is reported as being lost or stolen when the mobile device is identified as being lost or stolen.

16. The method of claim 15 wherein the input from the technician includes an identifier that uniquely identifies the mobile device.

17. The method of claim 15,

wherein the instructions received from the wireless-telecommunications-network provider transition the mobile device from a first state to an impaired state,

wherein the impaired state is characterized as being impaired with respect to the first state, and

wherein the impaired state is further characterized as deliberately disabling functional aspects of one or more of the following,

(1) a keyboard of the mobile device,

(2) a microphone of the mobile device, on

(3) a display of the mobile device.

18. Non-transitory computer-readable media having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, that, when executed by a computing device, facilitate a method of receiving activation data that is usable to enable a determined lost or stolen mobile device to be used on a wireless-telecommunications network, the method comprising:

providing activation data to the determined lost or stolen mobile device enabling the determined lost or stolen mobile device to communicate with other mobile devices by way of the wireless-telecommunications network;

providing functionality-impairment instructions to the determined lost or stolen mobile device that, when executed by the determined lost or stolen mobile device, transition it to an impaired state, wherein the functionality-impairment instructions are activated after a determination that the determined lost or stolen mobile device is reported as lost or stolen;

automatically executing the functionality-impairment instructions, thereby placing the determined lost or stolen mobile device into the impaired state, which is characterized by one or more of the following,

(1) keyboard impairment, wherein a selection of buttons no longer input data correctly into the determined lost or stolen mobile device;

(2) display impairment, wherein a display of the determined lost or stolen mobile device does not present data correctly;

(3) power impairment, wherein a power supply of the determined lost or stolen mobile device does not function correctly;

(4) operational impairment, wherein the determined lost or stolen mobile device does not operate as it should but for being in the impaired state.

19. The computer-readable media of claim 18, wherein communication ability of the determined lost or stolen mobile device with the other wireless mobile devices is impeded as a result of the functionality-impairment instructions.