[ISN] Trade in secondhand BlackBerries booming in Nigeria

From: InfoSec News <alerts_at_private>
Date: Tue, 5 May 2009 02:13:35 -0500 (CDT)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/05/04/blackberry_data_trade_nigeria/

By John Leyden
The Register
4th May 2009 

A TV investigation has revealed that secondhand BlackBerries on Nigerian 
markets are priced according to the data held on them, not the age or 
the model of a phone.

Jon Godfrey, director of Sims LifeCycle Services, who is advising on a 
TV investigation into the trade due to screen later this year, said that 
BlackBerries sell for between $25 to $65 on Lagos markets. Details of 
the trade come from an agent in Nigeria unaffiliated to Sims' technology 
recycling business.

Godfrey explained that the smart phones offered for sale come from the 
US, continental Europe and the UK. "It's unclear as yet whether the 
phones are either sold, thrown away, lost or stolen," Godfrey explained.

Other type of smartphone are also of potential interest to data thieves, 
but it is the trade in BlackBerries that seems to be the most active. 
Data retrieved from smartphones is itraded by crooks in Nigeria.

[...]


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Received on Tue May 05 2009 - 00:13:35 PDT

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