Identify your stolen mobile with CheckMEND

29 May 2008

Online stolen property checking service matches phones against a huge police database.

CheckMEND, the online property checking service  has announced that, of the estimated £5 billion worth of stolen goods that are on sale over the internet at any time in the UK, around £2.6 billion can be attributed to mobile phones.

When a search is carried out through the CheckMEND website the information is compared with the largest database of stolen goods and disabled mobile phones in the world, where over 30 million items of stolen property are listed. CheckMEND says that the most common items checked are mobile phones, which can be checked using the handset's 15-digit IMEI number.

CheckMEND says that the majority of UK police forces use its data to check the legitimacy of mobile phones and other goods sold online. Apparently 6,700,000 checks made through CheckMEND were to check the IMEI of a stolen mobile.

What's more, CheckMEND also claims that out of every town in the UK, you are most likely to be sold a stolen mobile in Leicester.