Hi all
I was wondering if anyone knew the answer to the above question.
to explain a bit better:
If i change the IMEI on my XDA it will obviously show up on the phone. What i want to know is will the network see the new of old IMEI. Ie whis is sent out by the phone.
Also:
From that i have found out the new service which blocks off stolen phones work that runs in the UK work by the IMEI code of the phone.
How do i make sure i don't change my IMEI to a number that is registered as stolen and in turn block my phone off.
Also again:
If at a later stage my phone does get blocked will changing it back to the original IMEI unblock it?
After all this i'm wondering if i should bother changing the IMEI. Although it would be nice to have my DOB there.
Oops I think I posted this in the rwong place!!
To Adminstrators:
Sorry
If it is in the wrong place could you move it?
The IMEI is stored in two places: one is displayed, the other is used to send to the network. The Manipulator changes both locations. The chance you'll change your IMEI to one of a stolen phone is small, very small. (It's six digits if you exclude the manufacturer part, so the chance is definitely bigger than getting hit by a meteorite, but still)
We included the IMEI change bit because:
a) We could
b) Privacy concerns: we'd like to live in a world where people can have multiple identities that are hard to connect, even if their opponents happen to run the country / telco.
WOW!!
Thanks for the great answer. As soon as it is possible to change my imei and unblock my phone i'll be doing it. (I have version 4.20 so it don't work yet).
Does anyone know of a web site where it list all the imei that are recognised as stolen or a number i can call in the UK to find out. The local police are useless and don't know anything.
A number to report a stolen phone would be useful as well cos my little sis got her knicked.
Related
Hello Everyone
I was just wondering if it was possible to work with the IMEI number for an MDA Compact ?
Work with it in what way? You can add up all the numbers in the IMEI number, and if it adds up to more than 50 you will have good luck for the rest of the week. Lucky colour: green.
elyl said:
Work with it in what way? You can add up all the numbers in the IMEI number, and if it adds up to more than 50 you will have good luck for the rest of the week. Lucky colour: green.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HAHA! I was laughing for ages when I read that! :lol:
Change IMEI
Someone has sold me an MDA Compact, but apprently this has been blocked, so i was wondering if the IMEI number can be changed.
blocked from what? the network? that means its a stolen phone.
just install new image and it will be fine
ftp://ftp.clubimate.com/ u will find image for JAM
A new image will change IMEI? I dont think so.
install new image to unlock the phone , not to change the IMEI .
if the phone is blocked (and not locked) then flashing a new image will change nothing.
The best is to go to the seller.
can you explain more what is the block ? Thanks
If it's been blocked from the network, then tough luck - you've bought a stolen phone - or you have stolen a phone - either way, you'll not get any help on this forum to change the IMEI.
If you did indeed buy the phone, speak with the seller, or contact the police. If you stole the phone, enjoy your new PDA but forget about the phone.
Well, to be utterly fair, it is possible that he is on a different network, in which case the phone was locked to a specific carrier, not blocked. Phones can be unlocked for a different carrier.
Did you mean blocked or locked?
Well the fact that he said the phone was blocked, and wanted to know how to change the IMEI suggested to me that it had been stolen, and he knew exactly what he was talking about.
how we can check if the phone stolen or not , and in this case is it safe to buy from ebay .. ?
regards
There's not really any way to check - just make sure the seller has good feedback, and get full contact details, and buy via PayPal or a credit card - if it turns out to be stolen, contact PayPal, your credit card company, or ultimately the police.
not necessarily "stolen".
Sometimes it has been reported broken and insurance is claimed (which would be stealing from insurance company).
Or phone with contract (simlocked & sponsored by phonecompany) and refusing to pay the contract (which is stealing from the phone provider).
In both cases the Phone could get IMEI-blocked.
You can always ask the provider if it is blocked. tell them you can buy a phone, but want to know beforehand. Sometimes they will tell you.
changing IMEI
about changing IMEI.
There could be onother reason for doing that: i've been looking for a way to do it just to make shure ==the phone company could not identify me if i change the sim card e.g. buy another number and use the same device==
Will they really care?
Never a nice thought some one is flicking thru your contacts and private photos.
No they can onlu IMEI block it to prevent it making calls, consider using the built in password options.
they can imei bar it but the orbit works without a sim in terms of browsing stuff so I guess so, unless you set up a handset pin as well as a sim pin
What happens if they put a different sim card in there before i tell O2?
Can you still search around on the device with Active Sync if there is a lock.
it will still imei bar the handset, I would guess so re the active sync q, bes thing is to put a handset pin in
i take there is a hack to unlock the IMEI after they have blocked it.
No there is no hack unless you phyically flash the phone to change the IMEI as i amware this is not possible.. well probably but more likly to completely f*** the phone up.
Now there is a small thing there is no INTERNATIONAL blacklist for IMEI i think the EU or atleast many EU countries are linked so you cant just go to France from UK and use a bared IMEI but i know it u go to like Thailand you can (gave my girlfriend a phone i had when she was on holiday and it worked that was bared here because i reported it stolen and then it turned up).
Anyway no-one on here will help you change an IMEI its to risky for all they know you may have stolen it. (this is not an acusation in ANYWAY) However there are those that will try this sort of technique.
Hello everybody.
From what I have seen the last few days, in this forum and in HTC Spain, there are a lot of us who have the same problem. I've an HTC Touch (P3450, or Elf) that started with strange and spontaneous resets (I think you call it "Data crash") after being flashed. Also, the IMEI detected by the system changed to the number everyone's getting:
IMEI 00440000350111201.
This IMEI appears when *#06# is entered; it also appears in Start > Settings > System >Device Information > Identity.
I think this is the IMEI I'm sending to the service network. Of course, that IMEI is blacklisted, so I don't have signal nor service at all. Anyhow, "deviceinfo" (by dsixda) does read the correct IMEI. Therefore, I assume that the device DOES have the correct IMEI in the eprom (or wherever it is stored), but the OS, or the bootloaders or whatever, isn't reading it well (the weird thing is that everybody ends up with the same IMEI because of that error).
Well, we know that the "changing IMEI" subject is illegal and nobody wants to discuss that in public forums, but I ask you to leave the thread open in case anyone knows or reaches eventually to a solution.
Cheers from Argentina-
Juan Pablo.
IMEIs numbers are expensive for phone manufacturers...
So, when mading a copied phone, some chineese manufacturers are using the same IMEI for a lot of devices...
Do your device is a real HTC, or it is a fancy chinese name like THC, HiTC, etc... ?
If it's a legal one, just bring it back to the carrier or the seller, and you'll have without a doubt a new one...
If it's an... HiTC... Then... You payed for what you've got... **** ! Sorry...
And if the problem is caused by the flashing, it's certainly because the provider of the ROM have left its own IMEI in the ROM...
This thread explain the problem http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=456082
Well , i've been banned for this post ...
I want to make myself clear .. that's NOT my IMEI , not even a legal one i guess ... maybe the moderator misundestood my problem and didn't take the tome to read what I was explaining.
Then again ... THAT IMEI NUMBER APPEARS IN ALL THE PHONES WITH THE SAME PROBLEM. THE EXACT SAME NUMBER.
Ok , I hope it's clear now.
Thank you both for your replies. I keep looking for an explanation and solution for my problem , I'm even in contact with HTC about this.
Thanks again.
this is a legal thread as many of the samsung, Asus and htc WM phone's imei number changing exact that imei on the header just after a unperfect rom upgrade.
Wishing to change someone's imei number as it's original condition is called REPAIRING IMEI, NOT Changing its to another one.
Do any one know how a windows mobile sends the IMEI to the network?
Which function in the api ?
i'm sure it is in the low level api , kernel or may be the coredll.dll but i cannot find any clue on it , and i don't have any idea on where to start to trace that.
Any help or clue would be grateful
Is it really sent??
I'm by no means an expert on this subject -- but is it really sent over the network? In my case the US ATT network? I'm not so sure it is...
...if so, why do they have to always ask me for it?
...if so, why aren't they automatically charging me an extra $30/mo. for a PDA data plan which they insist is REQUIRED for PDAs to connect-even though we all KNOW that's a lie and an ATT rip-off scheme?
...if so, why am I able to call them and give them ANY NON ATT IMEI over the phone and they not dispute it?
...jus a few questions to answer your question.
I'm not an expert either, but I can tell you that they see it. I like to think of the IMEI number as your "ip address" or your phone's "username" for the network. It has to be sent for access purposes and it would be stupid not to log that type of server access. Else how else would you be restricted from using other Cellular towers.
Wrong.
Read up on IMSI's and TMSI's
In the Netherlands the police used an IMEI number to send text messages to a stolen cellphone, even thought they had changed the simcard the phone would show: " This phone is stolen please bring it to the police" every 5 minutes...
Though I'm not an expert on this topic, I thought that the Radio Firmware handled all communications with the Cellular network, including IMEI. One reason I am inclined to go with the Radio Firmware is this simple reason: If it was handled by WM, somebody could probably figure out how to spoof it through WM at one point or another, in the same way that MAC addresses can be spoofed.
And as I said, I'm no expert on this, so please, somebody correct me if I'm blatantly incorrect.
Oh, and w00t! 400th post!
IMEI is for sure transmitted to the network, since this is registered on the BTS every time your signal "auth" on it , and the server logs it and checks if your phone is on the "blacklist" and then reject connection if it is the case.
Check here
But i wonder, technically, where from it is sent, maybe from the Radio firmware like previously posted ?
I guess, since we have some tools to read & change the IMEI on others HTC, it could be done on every models (if i understood right, the IMEI part is somewhere on "read only" and we first need to unlock the CID to unlock this part of memory and then modify / alter it.)
The tools is found here :
IMEI Updater
But works only for iWizard and some other models.
But couldnt we hook the function that retrieves the imei and alter it on the fly? (from the software point of view?) or should i digg in the flash memory?
Or is it hardcoded on the SPL or the IPL? When and what function is used to send it on the network ?
Also for al the legal issues, i might add that an opensource OpenBTS Project is running , and it is in a research-oriented initiative.
So no post saying that i want to change stolen Imei etc.. this is not the case.
I'm a developer for one year now, and i'm interested in mobile security and research.
ix0u said:
IMEI is for sure transmitted to the network, since this is registered on the BTS every time your signal "auth" on it , and the server logs it and checks if your phone is on the "blacklist" and then reject connection if it is the case.
Check here
But i wonder, technically, where from it is sent, maybe from the Radio firmware like previously posted ?
I guess, since we have some tools to read & change the IMEI on others HTC, it could be done on every models (if i understood right, the IMEI part is somewhere on "read only" and we first need to unlock the CID to unlock this part of memory and then modify / alter it.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you'd have to Security Unlock as well. And I'm certain that it's stored somewhere in protected flash memory, at least on the Qualcomm based devices, because there have been isolated reports of IMEI changes after using Olipro's Kaiser SIM/CID unlocker/changer.
It works by flashing a modified radio firmware which security unlocks the device (until a different radio is flashed), then a program is run in Windows Mobile which somehow changes SIM lock and CID information. If you're curious, those cases concerning IMEI changes as a result of this tool are here and here. And if you really want to know about this issue, a visit to the XDA IRC channel, or a polite PM to cmonex, Jockeyw2001, Olipro, or Pof could probably clear this up, as those are the people who really know these devices. Good luck
Thank you very much DaveTheTytnIIGuy, at least i have a lead now, on where to go and who to ask.
The sticker and box say one thing, but the IMEI on the handset is different.
All I have ever done to the phone was soft/hard (I forget which) SPL so that I could flash WinMo 6.5 following the instructions on the wiki, and everything has been fine since I did this back in May/June time.
Now I have decided to unlock it as I am on O2 with an iPhone, and thought I would use my HD as a backup phone, so I bought a credit on HTCCode.com after seeing several success stories, and it failed on the login with the software. No big concerns just yet, I emailed him the details to sort it, however as I was typing out the IMEI from the box, I thought to double check on the handset, and discovered they are different.
Is this something likely to have been changed by the SPL thing when I flashed it?
I assume I can get it unlocked via the IMEI which is currently on the handset, but I am concerned that this is not the correct one.
Any help?
TIA
ive seen other threads for other devices where ppl have claimed flashing hardspl has changed there imei number ..... just use the one ur fone reports and nt the one on the box .... no big deal
Yeah I realise it works and it's not a problem, but it may look a little bit dodgy if I choose to sell it.
The unlock worked fine anyway, just seems a little odd that the IMEI is so easy to change on these handsets. I thought it was supposed to be almost impossible.
Oh well.
You've probably looked at your phone's system properties to see what it says the IMEI number is. You can also dial *#06# on your phone's key pad. When the final # is entered, a 15-digit number will appear. This is a free call regardless of whether you have a SIM card installed.
As long as you're not doing anything illegal, you should be okay. Within the past couple of days, I read something about crooks changing IMEI numbers mostly with stolen phones but also to evade the law.
I registered my new Blackstone Clone with T-Mobile today on their prepaid plan. I asked them what IMEI number they showed and the operator said she not disclose the number but could confirm it if I, the phone's owner, gave it to her. When I dialed in *#06# (I was on a land line) on the Clone, she confirmed the IMEI when I gave it to her.