Mobile phone carriers are balking at a plan by police and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party to extend call record archives so they can be used in fighting fraud, it has been learned.

A National Police Agency and LDP working team is proposing doubling the period mobile phone call records are kept to six months to help them fight con artists using phones as weapons of their illicit trade.

But the Telecommunications Carriers Association is not keen on the move.

"I understand why they want to do it, but the cost of changing our computer systems would be enormous," an association spokesman said.

It has become common for con artists to use a number of cell phones to carry out scams targeting the unsuspecting and getting them to make bank transfers under false pretences.

Last year, about 4,000 mobile phones were used in frauds. Criminal investigators armed with court orders are allowed to check the records of mobile phones believed to have been used by fraud groups to gather evidence and try and determine the individuals who belong to these rings

Many victims often don't realize they have been stung by shysters until some time after it has happened and there is a tendency for fraud reports to be filed too late.

Of crimes involving mobile phones last year, about 10 percent were not reported until at least one month after they had happened.

Carriers currently hold records for three months, but it often takes investigators four to five months from the time of the actual crime to track down perpetrators. Even if police are given approval to seize mobile phones, the three-month archive period has often expired.

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