Stolen "roaming" Phone In Thailand

[maikee]

If a phone was stolen in Thailand that was set up for international roaming from another country, but may or may not have been reported stolen; and eventually that same number was reassigned in the original country.....

Would it be possible for both of those phones to be online in both locations (Thailand and the originating country) and working at the same time? Could this go indefinitely until someone paying the bill recognized what was going on?

Just doing a little investigation into something that happened.

Thanks

[autonomous_unit]

If a phone was stolen in Thailand that was set up for international roaming from another country, but may or may not have been reported stolen; and eventually that same number was reassigned in the original country.....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Assuming you are talking about GSM phones, the number is not really the identifying characteristic of the subscriber or prepaid account... calls are not billed to a phone number but to the account of the provider associated with a particular SIM (subscriber information module). The phone number, e.g. country code + area code + number is just a routing number to allow others to direct calls to you.

When GSM cell phones are stolen or cloned, it is the SIM that they are abusing. Once the SIM is no longer associated with an active account w/ the provider, it is useless as networks will no longer accept it for roaming nor allow it to place calls. SIMs are not normally reused; that is why you just cancel an account and toss the old SIM in the trash.