October 20, 2006
Wal-Mart Limits Prepaid Cell Phones to 2
Wal-Mart Stores plans to limit each customer to two prepaid cell phones per purchase amid complaints that entrepreneurs are buying the subsidized handsets by the hundreds to resell at a profit, according to people familiar with the matter.
MSNBC reports.
"Limits on their purchase aren't new among major retailers. But phone makers and service providers are pressing retailers to tighten restrictions, which can be easy to skirt by going to multiple cashiers or coming back at different times of day. Law enforcement, meanwhile, worries the anonymity of prepaid phones makes them appealing tools for criminal and terrorist activity.
The change in Wal-Mart's policy follows high-profile arrests two months ago in Ohio and Michigan of men who had purchased bulk quantities of the phones."
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