Case I: Lopamudra Aich’s husband snapped a picture of her with her cellphone camera and stored it in the phone. Some months later, the phone was stolen on a crowded bus. Lopamudra filed a police complaint and bought a new phone. Soon after, she found that the picture had made its way into a social networking website, where it was being used along with pornographic content.

Case II: When Sunirmal Roy Chowdhury’s multimedia mobile phone was stolen, he was not as concerned about the monetary loss as about the stored pictures falling into the wrong hands. His worst fears came true when he found that his girlfriend’s pictures saved in the phone were morphed with obscene ones and put up on a popular file sharing website.

Misuse of images and data stored in stolen cellphones is fast becoming a headache for Lalbazar. So much so that the police now want people to delete personal photographs and videos from their cellphones.

“The handsets that have multimedia facilities cost more than basic models and are profitable targets for cellphone thieves. After stealing such a phone, they take it to their associates for changing the software,” said an officer of the cyber crime wing of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

Those who change the software — charging Rs 300 to Rs 500 for each set — are responsible for uploading content stored in the phone on the Internet, according to the officer.

“They save the content in the handsets elsewhere. Sometimes, they tamper the photographs and upload them on the Internet,” added the officer.

Change in software also alters the IMEI number, making it virtually impossible for the police to track down the phone.

Tampered images on the Internet is not the only risk the owner of a stolen cellphone runs. Bank account details and credit card information stored in the phone can lead to financial ruin.

What is the way out? Not storing sensitive data in cellphones is the best policy, stated another officer of the cyber crime wing.

If pictures are uploaded on the Internet, the authorities of the websites concerned are requested to delete them, said special inspector general (operations) Rajeev Kumar.

“The website authorities obviously must cooperate. If the culprit uploaded the pictures from his own computer, we can track him down. If he did so from a cyber cafe, our job becomes tougher,” added Kumar.