Burner Cell Phone

[The Cowboy]

In the movies and on TV you often hear mobile phones being called a burner cell or a throwaway phone. Is this the American equivalent of our PAYG phones.?

[NazNomad]

Yes.

[JFoxmorgan]

Yes, but cleverer & for specific purpose. It's all about drugs yo! It's a burner or throwaway because you burn up the minutes and switch to a new phone before the Feds can throw up a wiretap and burn you.

See, it's a multi week hassle to get the dealers new number and put a tap on it and by the time you've done it, the pusher has already tossed it for a new one. A lovely game of cat & mouse! They are called PAYG phones too, but only by the non criminal element (which is a significant portion of our population)

But, we are also just 5% of the worlds total number and we use 60% of the planet's narcotics, so a lot of people say burner too...

At least America is still winning something