Why is the original Nokia 1100 from Germany going for 25K Euro?

Sean posted on the The F-Secure blog that this version of Nokia has topped in phone selling on crime most wanted list because, "(gangs) ...are able to hack this model to insert any mobile phone number and use it for criminal purposes, especially to intercept the mobile (sms) TAN code during on-line banking fraud."

Since banks are now offering transaction authentication numbers (TAN) via SMS text messages and the customer needs to only register their phone to receive the one-time passwords for the TAN, hackers can use Nokia 1100 to insert any mobile number and intercept Mobile TAN during registration and online banking.


A company called Ultrascan Research Services claims that East European gangs are paying big money for certain versions of Nokia 1100 phones and, according to them,

...to be worth the prices being paid (up to €25,000) the phone would somehow need spoof the victim's phone number without using their SIM card. If that's possible, then it's a very clever trick and suddenly enables the use of all of the past compromised account information that's been gathered by banking trojans.  And that's a very sizable return on investment. Even for a €25,000 phone.