back to article Trade in secondhand BlackBerries booming in Nigeria

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 …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Cool

    So the fact that I am to cheap to buy one of those phones is a huge plus!

  2. Herby

    We need a new business...

    Just create a "personality" on an obsolete device and offer it for sale. Sounds like a BOFH idea if I ever saw one. Random number generators and large account balances ought to make for a tidy profit. Of course they could be pointed to honeypot devices to catch the crooks, but I doubt that banks would go that far. Way too costly for them, being easier to pay off the suckers that got taken.

  3. /dev/me
    Pirate

    So basically...

    ...next time I am informed of a rich remote family members death, I should really casually mention that I am Chief Executive Director of a large International Electronic Equipment Recycling Center.

    Nigeria you say? Yes we love to do business there. And for you my friend, I will make a special price. I will ship out 50k worth of second hand (but in very good condition) Blackberries upon receiving payment.

  4. EvilJason
    Coat

    Why is it....

    When you ever hear of criminal actions on the net its mainly Nigeria or a Nigerian doing it?

    I know that a lot of the gangs in other countries does illegal online stuff but they usually go after business rather than individuals.

    And btw if airports are selling potentially private and personal sources of data i.e. lost data sticks and who knows what else cant they be held as accessories to any crimes committed with that data?

    I mean if i found a set of car keys and after a time to one claimed them and i sold them on and someone used them to steal a car i could be held accountable as an accessory, and i know that physical keys are different than data but memory sticks do contain electronic keys sometimes and can be used to steal as well

    Wonder if anyone has ever figured out that data lost at an airport and sold on was used in a crime against them.

    -Jacket because because I'm looking for my memory sticks where did i put them

    -Jason

  5. Jerome

    Airports

    Airports auction off lost memory sticks with the data intact? I suppose you could argue that people shouldn't lose their stuff in the first place, and we all know that airports aren't famed for safeguarding people's property, but this seems beyond the pale.

  6. Charles Manning

    Please help a Nigerian child

    http://www.steppingstonesnigeria.org/howtohelp

    Wonder if this crowd are getting their funding from selling phone to crims?

    Or maybe it is just a straight forward scam.

  7. Moss Icely Spaceport
    Thumb Up

    Data Deletion

    Easy.

    Old phone or blackberry?

    No longer needed or working?

    1 x Ball peen hammer

    5 x minutes

    Apply force

    Repeat until finely diced

    Season to taste

    Dispose.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Mmmmmm...

    This was commuters at London...yet...

    "One in 10 (11 per cent) keep social security..... "

    as the only people I can think would keep these numbers in the UK are scroungers, so WTF are they doing with cackberrys?

    I don't even know if I have a SS number....

    Or am I being a tad cynical in presuming this info has been reworded for the US market?

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