Criminal liability will be imposed for the absence of an IMEI number when buying a SIM card. What you need to know

The Ministry of Finance has proposed a bill on the introduction of criminal liability if, when concluding a contract for the purchase of a SIM card, the IMEI number of the smartphone used is not indicated. The ban will affect foreigners and stateless persons, it is aimed at curbing telephone fraud. The penalty will be up to one year in prison. What is an IMEI number and what the adoption of the law will lead to is in the Izvestia article.

What is proposed in the bill

• A bill will be submitted to the State Duma that criminalizes the absence of unique identification numbers of mobile devices (IMEI) in contracts for the provision of services to mobile operators, that is, when purchasing SIM cards. The measures are being introduced against subscribers who are foreign citizens or stateless persons.

• According to the proposal of the Ministry of Finance, criminal liability will occur if the owner of the SIM card causes damage in the amount of 5 million rubles by his actions using it. The punishment will be a fine of 300,000 to 500,000 rubles, correctional labor for up to six months, compulsory labor for up to 180 hours of forced labor for up to one year, arrest for up to two months or imprisonment for up to one year.

• The explanatory note to the draft law states that its necessity is due to the growing number of telephone thefts. The law will allow controlling foreign groups of fraudsters who organize call centers and use Russian SIM cards for this purpose. Registering an IMEI will allow you to use only one device for a SIM card.

• At the same time, the draft law does not specify for whom specifically criminal liability will be provided. With a broad interpretation of the law, the cellular operator, the employee who sold the SIM card, subscribers or intermediaries represented by dealers and agents may be found guilty. As a rule, the subscriber does not participate in the execution of the contract on communication services and only provides his banking details.

What is IMEI?

• The IMEI number is a 15-digit international identifier for devices that support cellular communication. It is assigned not only to mobile phones and smartphones, but also to tablet computers, smart watches, USB modems, car devices, home alarms, GPS trackers and other smart devices.

• Phones that support dual SIM cards will have two IMEI. You can find out the number in the phone settings, by calling the short number *#06#, on the device case or in its documentation. If the IMEI number is not displayed and consists of identical or consecutive digits, then this will be an alarm call for the user. This probably indicates hacking or illegal firmware of the phone.

• IMEI allows you to learn more about the device. It can be used to determine whether the gadget was stolen or blocked by the manufacturer, how it was imported into the country, and whether it was activated before purchase. Customer services also determine by IMEI whether the phone was officially purchased, what kind of warranty it has, and what kind of call history. If the smartphone owner wants to insure his gadget, he will have to specify his IMEI.

What will the bill lead to?

• The current legislation already obliges foreigners and stateless persons from January 1, 2025 to indicate the IMEI number when concluding a contract for the provision of communication services, so that they can already use only one device for the same SIM card. Now it is proposed to introduce criminal liability in case of violation of the requirements of the law. It will be possible to check whether the subscriber uses the required IMEI both from the telecom operator and during a face-to-face inspection by a police officer, as is done in case of suspected theft of the device.

• The draft law does not provide for the procedure if the user wants to use another phone: will he need to change his SIM card for this, or will it be possible to make changes to the contract and specify a new IMEI. At the same time, it is not completely clear whether the subscriber will be responsible at all for using a device not specified in the contract. There may be a situation when the seller of the communication salon who signed the contract on the part of the operator will be responsible for fraud in the amount of more than 5 million rubles.

Call or don't call: fines for selling SIM cards will rise to one million

Now the amount of sanctions for operators is twice as low.

• At the same time, foreign scammers who actually use Russian SIM cards and regularly change devices to contact their victims will still have the opportunity to issue a SIM card through Russian citizens. This scheme may be similar to bank card dropping, when respectable citizens are used "in the dark" to take over their banking details and withdraw the stolen money.

What other initiatives relate to IMEI

• Recently, this is not the first legislative initiative of the authorities that has to do with IMEI numbers. In December last year, Dmitry Ugnivenko, Deputy head of the Ministry of Finance, spoke about plans to create an IMEI database. According to him, it is necessary in order to match SIM cards with the devices in which they are used. This will make sure that the SIM card is not used in a foreign drone, after which it will be possible to loosen the blocking mode of the mobile Internet.

• The Ministry of Finance also proposes to introduce mandatory registration of IMEI numbers for smartphones imported into Russia. This will require the introduction of an additional registration fee, which may be small for official devices and amount to a percentage of the cost of illegal gadgets. In the future, this will allow you to link the IMEI to specific subscriber numbers. SIM cards will not work on devices that are not registered in the database.

• Experts believe that the initiative of the Ministry of Digital Services will not affect used and already used phones, as operators already know their IMEI numbers and will be able to enter them into the database. While such a registry would be a good way to monitor the gray market for phones, it would also severely restrict users by forcing them to use only one device. This will lead to a reduction in shipments, a shrinking market that has already fallen by 20% over the past year, and a reduction in the tax base on devices sold.

When writing the material, Izvestia talked and took into account the opinions of:

• mobile communications market analyst, owner and chief analyst of Mobile Research Group Eldar Murtazin.