Korea says send out the (phone) clones

It might be an enjoyable gag for us, but Korea sees phone clones as a big threat, and are offering up to a $10,000 reward for those who report cloned phones. That's just in special cases, and the regular reward is around $100, but it does show that the Korean government isn't just going to take it. They do define a cloned handset as one illegally programmed with the electronic serial number of its target, so mere look-alikes don't count. As you can see in the chart, this is definitely an emerging problem, and by the looks of things 2006 won't be an off year for the cloners. Korea's carriers also have launched a new verification system for checking phones, but we're sure there will be plenty of bounties to be had.

[Via textually.org]