They are cheap and disposable.
So called: "Toss away" phones! The ultimate little gadget.
But the real advantage of having a prepaid cell phone is that it is "untraceable".
In part because you don't need to give any personal information, or show any identification to buy one of these devices.
Prepaid cell phones can also be purchase anywhere.
The criminal complaint recently filed against the 10 Russian nationals on charges relating to espionage, for example include the fact that they all used prepaid cellphones, or "burn phones to communicate.
These phones were used once maybe and then discarded.
For years organized crime and drug cartels have used prepaids to stay one step ahead of law enforcement.
If that wasn't bad enough cheap prepaid cellphones can be used to trigger an "improvised explosive devices" (IED's) remotely, as was the case with the recent Times Square bomb plot in New York.
Police say terror suspect Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani American citizen use a prepaid cellphone to detonate the vehicle bomb.
Prepaid cell phones have long been associated with crime.
One United States Senator Charles Schumer of New York went so far as to say "prepaid (mobile) phones help terrorists"!
Phone companies sold $16 billion worth of prepaid cellphones in 2009.
Robert Tilford
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