Senate OKs bill to make cloning of cellular

Tuesday, May 20, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Under SB265, approved Monday, people who commit cellular phone fraud will be subject to at least one year in prison.

During an April 25 hearing, a Secret Service agent testified that criminals acquire electronic boxes that pick up cellular phone calls and allow them to clone or copy the frequencies onto their own phones. Then the legitimate phone owners are billed for calls they never made.

Cloning of cellular phones allowed thieves to cheat the cellular phone industry out of $650 million in charges last year. Sponsoring Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said the technology to clone phones is becoming easier to acquire.

Titus introduced the bill after receiving a $1,320 phone bill last summer for cellular calls she did not make. The calls were made from California by someone who had cloned her cellular phone.

Sen. Mark James, R-Las Vegas, and Jon Porter, R-Boulder City, were victims of similar scams.

Titus said the felony provision, in effect in California and most states in the East, is necessary because one-third of Las Vegans use cellular phones.

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