Cell Phone Fraud

An act of fraud is essentially an intentional act done with deceit that causes the victim to suffer a financial loss.

One of the most common types of cell phone fraud is subscriber fraud.  If you use false information to acquire a cell phone or enroll in a service plan, or, alternately, you use the information of a third party without their authorization, you may be guilty of cell phone fraud.

A second common form of cell phone fraud is the cloning of cell phones.  By FCC regulations, each cell phone must have a unique serial number and a unique phone number.  It is possible to monitor radio wave transmissions to gain the serial number and phone number of a legitimate, active cell phone.  However, as an experienced San Francisco white collar criminal attorney relates, such monitoring is illegal.  The act of fraud occurs if you then program those numbers into a “cloned” phone.  The result is both phones then have the same numbers and it is impossible for the cell phone company to tell the difference.

As an experienced San Francisco white collar criminal attorney indicates, other forms of cell phone fraud include installing a listening device on a cell phone to monitor another’s calls or perhaps even such a simple act as using a found cell phone.

The penalties for cell fraud crime vary upon circumstances, but the primary issue is how the accused individual may have profited from the alleged cell phone fraud.  It is important to realize you may be facing federal as well as state charges.  Penalties have ranged up to $20 million dollars, seizure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in assets, and, perhaps most significantly, serious prison time.

If you have been accused of cell phone fraud, do not hesitate to contact experienced San Francisco white collar criminal attorney Christopher Morales today to schedule a free initial consultation.