View Full Version : This cloning thing?
Read a few messages on here, what is it? and how would you know if its happening to you?
Sorry if I seem Naiive, but I am!
MovedGoalPosts
14-10-2007, 16:49
There is quite a lot of discussion in this thread (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/12/33621757-possibly-been-cloned.html)
I know it's an emotive subject, but remember we don't discuss on Cable Forum how to obtain services without subscription. By all means discuss if a customer has been affected, but any hint of "how to" references will see this thread, like many others on the subject, having to be closed.
ECW_Original
14-10-2007, 18:33
If I ever suspected that someone around my area was a 'cloner' and I had some proof, I would report them to the police straight away!
Cloners suck and they deserve all their equipment to be confiscated & a visit from the boys in blue!!
Im on the VIP package, the thought of someone possibly nicking my connection makes me sick.
more people than you think use cloned modems, i know a few forums with a few few hundred or so VM users all with cloned modems
How is this possible when the modems MAC address is registered to the address of the customer?
For example you can't just plug your neighbors modem into your connection, it wouldnt work. It would be registered at your neighbors address.
TraxData
15-10-2007, 18:56
How is this possible when the modems MAC address is registered to the address of the customer?
For example you can't just plug your neighbors modem into your connection, it wouldnt work. It would be registered at your neighbors address.
but you can use someone elses mac address on a different ubr, where the other customer is not registered on, and it works fine.
How is this possible when the modems MAC address is registered to the address of the customer?
For example you can't just plug your neighbors modem into your connection, it wouldnt work. It would be registered at your neighbors address.
you can plug your neighbours modem in and it will work the mac address is linked to a valid acount not the physical address
Even if you obtained an active MAC from a different UBR that MAC address wouldnt be registered to your home address.
Even if you obtained an active MAC from a different UBR that MAC address wouldnt be registered to your home address.
???? thats the point!!!
???? thats the point!!!
Shocking isn't it.
As I understand it if the modems MACs is not registered to your home address it wont work. Are you sure it only has to be registerd to an active account because if thats the case then the way to resolve this is to link the MAC address of the modem to the address of the customer.
As I understand it if the modems MACs is not registered to your home address it wont work. Are you sure it only has to be registerd to an active account because if thats the case then the way to resolve this is to link the MAC address of the modem to the address of the customer.
without going into detail you need to do some reading, virgin and sky have no way of knowing where there equipment is sky try to get round this by telling you to plug the telephone line in (also there return path)
If thats the case then as I said previously, just link the MAC of the modem to the customers Home address.Problem solved
Telewest used to do that - no idea why it was changed.
When I installed someone's broadband we'd read off the MAC address of the modem and their network card and tell the folks at Staverton who would then link the two and activate the services.
I don't know why they decided to fix something that wasn't broken!
If thats the case then as I said previously, just link the MAC of the modem to the customers Home address.Problem solved
Unfortunately its not as simple as that. The Home address as such as no bearing on the system in place at the moment.
I've just left VM after 12 months on tech support (Telewest) and as far as I'm aware the two are tied together. Could this be down to the way SABS works . If so then the migration to ICOMS (which I'm familiar with) might put a stop to it.
Mr.X - anything to do with my reply at the end of page 1?
I can't, however, remember how we activated USB modems!
Yes. Sorry should have quoted you.
Mr Angry
15-10-2007, 20:05
Why doesn't Steve dust off his typewriter and write to customers on a regional basis?
He could write something along the lines of:
"Hi there, it's Steve here, your old mate from Virgin Media. Listen, we've heard there are some scoundrels around who are doing the nasty by stealing your broadband services doing something called "cloning". Me and the guys got together and we've had a whizzer idea.
Without going into the legal stuff™ here's the plan. Between (insert date) and (insert another date) we are going to switch off your broadband. When you notice you suddenly can't download any porn / movies / music just phone the following number 0800 blahblah - don't worry, it's absolutely free!! and a CS rep will ask you to identify yourself as the account holder and ask you to read back the MAC number on your modem. They will then intermagically marry the two so that the bad boys can't use your MAC anymore and you actually stand a chance of getting the optimum use of the broadband that you pay for.
Better still, because we value our paying customers, we'll credit your account £1.50 (or a pack of screen / keyboard wipes) per day that you are without a connection, no matter what tier / package you are on!!
Let's teach these bad guys a lesson - don't steal from us, because each time you do a kitten dies, probably.
Rock on!!
Steve"
don't steal from us, because each time you do a kitten dies, probably.
PMSL LOVE IT!!!!!
homealone
15-10-2007, 22:21
Why doesn't Steve dust off his typewriter and write to customers on a regional basis?
He could write something along the lines of:
"Hi there, it's Steve here, your old mate from Virgin Media. Listen, we've heard there are some scoundrels around who are doing the nasty by stealing your broadband services doing something called "cloning". Me and the guys got together and we've had a whizzer idea.
Without going into the legal stuffâ„¢ here's the plan. Between (insert date) and (insert another date) we are going to switch off your broadband. When you notice you suddenly can't download any porn / movies / music just phone the following number 0800 blahblah - don't worry, it's absolutely free!! and a CS rep will ask you to identify yourself as the account holder and ask you to read back the MAC number on your modem. They will then intermagically marry the two so that the bad boys can't use your MAC anymore and you actually stand a chance of getting the optimum use of the broadband that you pay for.
Better still, because we value our paying customers, we'll credit your account £1.50 (or a pack of screen / keyboard wipes) per day that you are without a connection, no matter what tier / package you are on!!
Let's teach these bad guys a lesson - don't steal from us, because each time you do a kitten dies, probably.
Rock on!!
Steve"
that it might work, probably, rules it out of the agenda - plus, as you know, there will be the people posting they have received two packs of screen wipes, as a deal, thus sidetracking the main issue. ;)
sky TV spike iffy cards and boxes or used to .why cant ntl do the same with modems and tv box.if you are paying you will ring up .if you have an iffy modem and or cable box who gives a **** about you .know a friend at work ,with a doctored modem and box .20 meg config file so he says .i we and all are subsidising this .wouldn`t grass him though .
Good heavens above, there are a lot of misinformed people around. Without giving too much away:
1) there's no link between your physical connection and your account, whether you're on SABS or ICOMS. You're confusing an entry in a database table with a physical piece of coax cable - believing that what's on billing systems is in some way a reflection of reality is a common mental error in ISPs. What you're talking about with the phone call the association of a modem to an account and service level, which is purely a billing/provisioning function and nothing to do with preventing cloning. In fact it's the opposite - an unpaired MAC is probably useless to a cloner while a paired one (i.e. with service on) is what they actually need.
2) We *can* find out where an individual modem is, within reason. It's not always the most efficient way because
3) There's a perfectly good method of remotely identifying and whacking bad guys which for some reason has never been implemented. No, I'm not saying - apart from anything else I invented it.
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