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Fraud can be a big hassle for both customers and service providers. A cloned phone not only will cause phone-bill disputes, but for most customers it will involve making numerous calls to provide contacts with a newly assigned number so calls aren't missed.

BellSouth Mobility
Total Hold Time: 5 minutes
Transfers/IVR Layers: 2
CSR: Thank you for calling BellSouth Mobility. This is (name). How can I help you?
WR: I want to sign up for service, but I'm a little concerned about the possibility of fraud. Is there anything to worry about?
CSR: I mean it's something I think about occasionally, but I don't worry about it.
WR: Do you know of anyone it has happened to?
CSR: Yes, but most of those customers, I find, are ones that travel to New York or Los Angeles.
WR: Are there ways to prevent it?
CSR: I would have to say no. With the new digital phones, we could advertise them as "can't be cloned," and that was true. But then someone found a way to clone those. When we come up with preventative measures, someone always comes up with a counter measure.
WR: Would I know if it happens to me?
CSR: Our service does have a monitoring system. Say I use my phone here at 6:15 and then say that my phone was cloned and sold to someone in San Francisco. That guy whips out his phone at 6:30, has it programmed to my number, but when he makes a call, the system pulls it up and says, "Wow, there's no way (name) could have traveled to San Francisco in 15 minutes." That triggers a little red flag so the company would shut my number down. It's possible that if they wait eight to 10 hours to use it, you could run up some bills. If that happens, we'll issue you a different phone number and adjust the cloning charges.

Omnipoint
Total Hold Time: 6 minutes
Transfers/IVR Layers: 2
CSR: Thank you for calling Omnipoint. My name is (name). How can I help you?
WR: I would like to have a wireless phone, but I'm concerned about the possiblity of my phone being cloned. Is that anything to worry about?
CSR: Actually you would not have anything to worry about because we have a system where they don't clone phones. It's impossible. Our system is 100% digital, and we work off the GSM system and SIM cards. Inside your phone is a little chip, and nobody else has that same chip. It has a long 18-digit number.
WR: And no one can figure out what the number is?
CSR: The only way to clone it is if one of our factory employees would mess up a customer by cloning the phone. If you try duplicating the chip, the phone won't work. That's why when customers call about their bills and say, "Oh, I didn't make those calls," we have to say, "Well, yes you did," because they really did. There's no way you can get bothered with cloning.
WR: Is that just how your system works?
CSR: With Omnipoint, and with any company that has GSM. With AT&T, they say it's 100% digital, but in fact it's part analog and part digital.
WR: So they can be cloned?
CSR: Yes, because they can get taken right off the airwaves. You want a GSM system with the SIM cards. It just came out for the United States. As far as security goes, that is very secure.

Verizon Wireless
Total Hold Time: 2 minutes
Transfers/IVR Layers: 1
CSR: Thank you for calling Verizon Wireless. This is (name). How can I help you?
WR: I want to sign up for service, but I am concerned about the possibility of fraud.
CSR: Ummm ... fraud is virtually nothing anymore.
WR: Well, I have heard about phones being cloned, and I didn't know if I should worry.
CSR: No, not at all.
WR: So it can't happen at all?
CSR: No. What area are you in?
WR: (Gives city.)
CSR: I would get a digital phone. Digital phones convert that service into a Morse code. Our fraud department has gone from being huge to like two people. Fraud doesn't really happen anymore.
WR: And that's because customers use digital phones?
CSR: Yes, that's right.

Mystery Caller is Wireless Review's ongoing series of random calls to service providers to determine how a customer might be treated and the accuracy of distributed information.