6 Valley Men Accused of Cell Phone Fraud

Six San Fernando Valley men have been arrested in a cellular phone cloning ring that is believed responsible for $1.5 million worth of fraudulent phone calls in the past two years, authorities said Friday.

Glendale police served a search warrant Wednesday at Universal Paging at 4838 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood, a store that rented pagers and sold and repaired cellular telephones. The business owner, Hamid Esmaili, 31, of Encino, and five other men were arrested after police seized 38 cellular phones and 11 computers allegedly used in the illegal programming, or “cloning,” of the phones.

“We believe they were selling 25 to 30 cloned phones per week for the past two years,” said Sgt. Matt Wojnarowski of the Glendale Police Dept., which began its investigation one month ago after several cloned phones were confiscated in Glendale.

Cell phone cloning involves obtaining the phone number and electronic serial number for a valid cellular phone account, then inputting that information into another cellular phone, which is often a stolen phone.

Cloned phones, which sell on the street for $45 to $60, can be used to make unlimited calls until the fraud is detected. Cellular phone companies are now using PIN numbers and other measures to help prevent fraud, but illegal calls often continue until they show up on the account holder’s monthly bill and are reported, Wojnarowski said.

“It used to be something you needed technical sophistication to do, but unfortunately the devices that are out there now are making it very easy,” said Jim Goode, manager of fraud control for L.A. Cellular.

Goode said cell phone fraud is rampant in the Los Angeles area and throughout North America. Cellular phone companies in the U.S. and Canada lose about $500 million a year due to fraud, he said.