I'm not completely sure how this came to be, but apparently some people who had high charges o­n their bills claimed that clones of their phones existed. NTT is blaming the high charges o­n the customers themselves, saying that the charges are just calls made and forgotten about.

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NTT DoCoMo presented their point of view o­n "clone" cellular phones, saying that there have been no confirmed cases of them, and the production of such units is technically impossible. The so-called "clone" phones are instead the result of users simply forgetting about high charges o­n their bills.

The "clone" cellular phones became a problem last summer when a number of users began to claim that they did not personally remember making calls or data transmissions; they instead insisted that "clone" phones with the same phone number existed somewhere and were being used by a third party. As of last November, there were even reports of civil action against employees of cellular phone companies.

DoCoMo has posted their findings o­n a website established to officially deny the existence of the clone cellular phones, and in order to "erase any insecurities with users" (NTT DoCoMo). According to the site, NTT's service employs multiple security countermeasures; the company has declared that it is technically impossible to invent such a device. They also say that not o­ne clone cellular phone has been confirmed within their network. And regarding the use of clone phones from overseas locations, DoCoMo responds by saying that since "the communication systems and security systems are different," this would be impossible.

"If you lose the cell phone you were using, a new unit will get that same phone number you had been using," DoCoMo explains. "Yes, in theory, both of the units would have the same phone number - but, as there are numbers other than just the phone number loaded into the phone, when you start using the new phone, the old phone will become unusable." Therefore, DoCoMo states, even if a there were multiple cellular phones that had the same phone number, o­nly the newer o­ne could be used.

They have also considered their new 505i series, released last fall - with Flash support and a larger i-Appli capacity, these phones have a greater cost associated with the packet transfer, meaning that there may be some cases when charges are more than users thought they would be.

NTT DoCoMo responds by saying, "we would like people to use the services already available to them," calling attention to the "fixed amount notification service" and "charge information service." The "fixed amount notification service" will send an email to a customer when their usage charges hit 10,000 yen for that month. And the "charge information service," accessible by i-Mode units and NTT's website, allows users to check their current usage charges up to the previous day. They also offer the "charge detail service" that issues users detailed information about phone/data charges, including date and time, call destination, and talk time.

Although it is possible that these forgotten charges are the result of charge mistakes o­n DoCoMo's end, the company states that "in relation to usage charges, we have gotten inquiry calls from users who forgot about certain charges every month since beginning our cellular phone service. In order to support this effort, we investigate mistaken charges o­n a daily basis."

Original Article:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/17054.html

NTT DoCoMo's "About so-called clone cell phones"
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/clone.html