Detecting a fraudulent mobile station in a mobile communication system using location information of mobile station

• US 20040038666A1
• Filed: 06/03/2003
• Published: 02/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/13/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WSOU Investments, LLC (WSOU Holdings, LLC)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Corporation
• Inventors: Lohtaja, Jarkko, Paldan, Esko
• Granted Patent: US 8,442,487 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/410
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/126 Anti-theft arrangements, e.g. protection against subscriber identity module [SIM] cloning
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 12/63 Location-dependent; Proximity-dependent

Abstract

The invention relates to a mobile communication system comprising: mobile stations (MS, MS′), a mobile switching center (MSC1), and a subscriber register (VLR1) containing subscriber data, which includes location information indicating the location of mobile stations. In order to detect the presence of a fraudulent mobile station the system comprises: monitoring means (1) for monitoring the processes which trigger location information changes in said subscriber register (VLR1), and detecting means (2) for detecting and indicating the presence of a fraudulent mobile station (MS′) if a location information change has been triggered by a process which should not trigger a change of location information in said subscriber register (VLR1).

Claims

1. A method of detecting a fraudulent mobile station in a mobile communication system comprising a mobile switching center and a subscriber register including location information indicating the location of mobile stations, characterized in that said method comprises the steps of:

monitoring the processes which trigger location information changes in said subscriber register, and

indicating the presence of a fraudulent mobile station if a location information change has been triggered by a process which should not trigger a change of location information in said subscriber register.

2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the presence of a fraudulent mobile station is indicated if a change of location information is triggered by:

a mobile originated call, a mobile originated short message, mobile originated unstructured supplementary service data, a mobile originated supplementary service, or a periodic location update.

3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said subscriber register is a register containing data about mobile stations currently located within the coverage area of said mobile switching center.

4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the presence of a fraudulent mobile station is indicated by transmitting a message from said subscriber register to a network management system of said mobile communication system.

10. A mobile communication system according to any one of claims 4 to 7, characterized in that said mobile communication system is a GSM-system.

5. A mobile communication system comprising:

mobile stations (MS, MS′

),

a mobile switching center (MSC1), and

a subscriber register (VLR1) containing subscriber data, which includes location information indicating the location of mobile stations, characterized in that said system comprises;

monitoring means (1) for monitoring the processes which trigger location information changes in said subscriber register (VLR1), and

detecting means (2) for detecting and indicating the presence of a fraudulent mobile station (MS′

) if a location information change has been triggered by a process which should not trigger a change of location information in said subscriber register (VLR1).

6. A mobile communication system of claim 5, characterized in that the detecting means (2) indicate the presence of a fraudulent mobile station if a change of location information is triggered by:

a mobile originated call, a mobile originated short message, mobile originated unstructured supplementary service data, a mobile originated supplementary service, or a periodic location update.

7. A mobile communication system of claim 5 or 6, characterized in that said detection means are arranged in said subscriber register (VLR1).

8. A mobile communication system according to any one of claims 5 to 7, characterized in that said subscriber register (VLR1) is a register containing data about mobile stations currently located within the coverage area of said mobile switching center (MSC1).

9. A mobile communication system according to any one of claims 5 to 8, characterized in that said mobile communication system comprises a network management system (NMS1), and said detection means (2) are arranged to indicate the presence of a fraudulent mobile station (MS′

) by transmitting a predetermined message to said network management system (NMS1).