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so my friend got a vibrant, and he wanted to file a claim for a lost phone to get one for his brother. as far as I know this is illegal. can you guys give me some examples of things that might happen to him if he goes through with it or some possible consequences? "it's illegal" isn't seeming to convince him.
Insurnce fraud. He would go to jail most likely.
TMobile can track the missing phone using gps and cell towers. They'll see where the phone is and get it for him instead of giving him a new one.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant using the xda app
gonintendo said:
so my friend got a vibrant, and he wanted to file a claim for a lost phone to get one for his brother. as far as I know this is illegal. can you guys give me some examples of things that might happen to him if he goes through with it or some possible consequences? "it's illegal" isn't seeming to convince him.
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Click to collapse
Well your friend is slightly dumb. First of all, the lost phone is blocked for life. Meaning if anyone ever tries to put a sim card in it, and use it, on any network, it won't work. It is permanently blocked from registering onto any network. So basically your friend is going to get 1 refurbished phone in the mail, and his new vibrant will be blacklisted for ever.
Next, if they find out about the fraud, well he can face fraud charges. If he is underage on a family plan, his parents will face fraud charges.
Good luck.
thanks guys!
Its cheaper to buy one from wal-mart than to file a claim (Wal-mart new two year contract is $98.99, asurion charges $130, not to mention you run the risk (more likely than not) you'd get caught.)
SamsungVibrant said:
Well your friend is slightly dumb. First of all, the lost phone is blocked for life. Meaning if anyone ever tries to put a sim card in it, and use it, on any network, it won't work. It is permanently blocked from registering onto any network. So basically your friend is going to get 1 refurbished phone in the mail, and his new vibrant will be blacklisted for ever.
Next, if they find out about the fraud, well he can face fraud charges. If he is underage on a family plan, his parents will face fraud charges.
Good luck.
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well i have to say this is a bunch of bs... i havent done this but known people that have and nothing happens to the other phone they work fine and they dont track you down or go on some sort of man hunt lol but if you say you lost your phone it would be best to not use it anymore get another phone and give the one you had to whoever as long as its not on your plan you should be good.
just so you know im not a fan of thieves but i believe in stealing from big companies cause they steal from people everyday so i would say its fair...
You can do whatever you wish. I found my g1 from a club. Used it for 2 years no prob. Its a gsm phone so whatever the case anyone can put a sim card and use it. How you do it as far as claiming to get a new one is your business
Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk
tribalb said:
You can do whatever you wish. I found my g1 from a club. Used it for 2 years no prob. Its a gsm phone so whatever the case anyone can put a sim card and use it. How you do it as far as claiming to get a new one is your business
Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk
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lucky guy... i need to start going to clubs to look for phones lol
They will not blacklist it and they will not track it down.lol
Insurance don't deal with the phone company. You can claim online without ever speaking to anyone .
Also they do blacklist the sim but a new sim will work, this isn't cdma where ya need to call the phone company to activate a new bought phone, just put in your sim...
Hell who says ya can't lose it, then find it a week later, what you supposed to do send it back?
You pay the 130 you got 2 phones that work. My wife just lost her tp2 and we asked if whoever found it can just put on a new card and its now there phone, dude said yup, we can stop the sim but the phone is gone....
gonintendo said:
can you guys give me some examples of things that might happen to him if he goes through with it or some possible consequences? "it's illegal" isn't seeming to convince him.
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Click to collapse
Well, tell your friend that when he dies god is going to know he did it and will definitely be really pissed off and condemn him to spend all eternity in Pittsburgh with an incurable case of crabs on his nuts.
Seriously though, tell your friend to stop being shady and just man up and buy another phone if he wants it.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App, bro
smashpunks said:
They will not blacklist it and they will not track it down.lol
Insurance don't deal with the phone company. You can claim online without ever speaking to anyone .
Also they do blacklist the sim but a new sim will work, this isn't cdma where ya need to call the phone company to activate a new bought phone, just put in your sim...
Hell who says ya can't lose it, then find it a week later, what you supposed to do send it back?
You pay the 130 you got 2 phones that work. My wife just lost her tp2 and we asked if whoever found it can just put on a new card and its now there phone, dude said yup, we can stop the sim but the phone is gone....
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actually you can say you still have your sim but not the phone and they will be like ok? and you get to keep your sim still lol
T-Mobile can and most likely will block the IMEI number from being able to register on the network. They've done it multiple times for my sister when she has had the phone stolen or lost. They can insert another SIM card all they want and it won't work. It might work on AT&T, I don't know if the companies share blacklisted IMEI numbers.
Most likely, they would not go through the process of prosecuting a fraud case on something like this because the cost of the lawyers and other legal fees outweigh the cost of just paying the claim but you never know.
hockeyrcks9901 said:
T-Mobile can and most likely will block the IMEI number from being able to register on the network. They've done it multiple times for my sister when she has had the phone stolen or lost. They can insert another SIM card all they want and it won't work. It might work on AT&T, I don't know if the companies share blacklisted IMEI numbers.
Most likely, they would not go through the process of prosecuting a fraud case on something like this because the cost of the lawyers and other legal fees outweigh the cost of just paying the claim but you never know.
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No they don't black list IMEIs.
Well your "friend" meaning you is a complete moron and hopefully you get caught. People like you are the reason insurance deductibles are so expensive.
skater4690 said:
well i have to say this is a bunch of bs... i havent done this but known people that have and nothing happens to the other phone they work fine and they dont track you down or go on some sort of man hunt lol but if you say you lost your phone it would be best to not use it anymore get another phone and give the one you had to whoever as long as its not on your plan you should be good.
just so you know im not a fan of thieves but i believe in stealing from big companies cause they steal from people everyday so i would say its fair...
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I never said they were going to track you down on a man hunt.
HOWEVER, they do deactivate your lost phone permanently. You can never use it on any network.
speoples20 said:
No they don't black list IMEIs.
Well your "friend" meaning you is a complete moron and hopefully you get caught. People like you are the reason insurance deductibles are so expensive.
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for your information, they do blacklist the phone from working. If you file a claim the phone was lost/stolen, the phone will be blacklisted and no longer work when you try to register on a network.
smashpunks said:
My wife just lost her tp2 and we asked if whoever found it can just put on a new card and its now there phone, dude said yup, we can stop the sim but the phone is gone....
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holly cow, you have a wife? with the comments you leave on here, I thought you were a 12 yr old.
they don't blacklist the IMEI because whoever finds it still has to have a service provider... its the same way with the iphone... Phone company is gonna get paid, regardless of whoever has the phone. I do think however that they lock the number associated with the simcard to prevent "fraudulent activities" i think its like 30 days i remember reading that at the tmobile website
google tmobile insurance replacement FAQs it lays it all out.
good luck, best to do it with a prepaid card so you don't lock a good number...
not that i would ever condone such behavior
Soooo not true.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I've been in the cell industry for the last 6 years and can tell you for a fact, with GSM phones they do not blacklist or lock IMEI's. Its not even possible. The only thing they might do is see if you are stupid enough to use the lost phone on your own plan.
SamsungVibrant said:
holly cow, you have a wife? with the comments you leave on here, I thought you were a 12 yr old.
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I think I have a fan. Follow me on twitter douche bag...
And I'm the 12 year old sounding one.lol.
.....is Nelson or you have phone insurance, you might want to read this post.
(Let me preface this by saying I'm a Sprint Premier customer the hard way, 10+ years of service.)
I had to have my phone replaced through the ins. plan via Sprint through Asurion. Their website *specifically* says that if you submit your claim before 11pm, you'd have your phone the next day. Cool, I paid my $100 ded. and submitted it @ 948pm CST. Thurs. rolls around, and still no phone, no email about a tracking number, nothing. So I called and was advised the phone was shipped, and that if I checked back a little later, I'd have a tracking number in my email. True to the reps word, that happened. The phone arrived this morning around 930. It was a BRAND NEW PHONE (2.2) b/c there aren't any refurb'ed EVOs. Heck yeah! So I called and had it activated, and the guy kept calling me by the wrong last name. I didn't think anything of it, I had a BRAND NEW EVO. I made a test call, it went through, and I was on my way.
Fast forward to around 400 this afternoon. My boy told me he called and the phone went straight to voice mail, so he left me a message. Eh? No message notification, no nothing. I called it from my work phone....same thing. I tried to access v/m, and I was unable to, as it kept trying set up v/m, repeatedly. I start flipping through the phone settings trying to figure out what was up. And then I came to the "phone info" screen....and the phone number listed wasn't my phone number, and the "@sprintpcs.com" address wasn't mine either! The last name, Nelson, was the same one the rep kept calling me earlier.
Now, the gist of this is that I can call out on this account (his number appears on the caller id), and I can text out, but I can't receive incoming calls or texts. So I can call anyone, anywhere. On someone else's account.
I called up Sprint to let them know they activated this phone on the wrong account. The rep I spoke to, Kim, couldn't understand what was going on. It took me a good 5 mins before she finally caught on. She forwarded me to tech support to talk to another lady named Kim. She wanted me to do a factory reset, which I did, and reboot, which I did. Checked the info, it was the same. She was stumped, said it was up to Asurion to rectify, so she had a conference call with them. The rep said that they would have to send me another phone. I asked if it would arrive the next day, and he said it wouldn't arrive until *Monday*. Uh, no, that isn't reasonable. I asked to speak to a supervisor, so he transferred me. She said the same thing. I was furious. I asked her how this happened. Get this: the lady told me that it was because HTC ran out of serial numbers and this serial number is the same as Mr. Nelson's EVO, which is active. W.T.H. Do you *seriously* expect me to believe that garbage? Yup, she sure did. Well, I surmised, they're going to re-serial this phone and use it, so my thought process is that I can have them use the serial and ESN from my old phone and transfer it to my *new* phone. She said that I would have to call Sprint to ask that. I'm glad I got transferred to the phone survey after the call, b/c I let them know under *no* uncertain terms how upset I was.
I called Sprint again. The rep listened as I started by the beginning, explaining the whole "port my old serial/ESN to the new phone" so I didn't have to use some stranger's account and I could get phone calls this weekend. She transferred me to her supervisor, Clark. Clark listened intently, and rotated between asking me questions and putting me on hold. He finally came back and said, "So, you want me to turn off your phone number." *sigh*. I again explained that, HELLO, I AM RUNNING UP SOMEONE ELSE'S ACCOUNT. So then I got transferred to a MANAGER (guy sounded like he was on the NE coast). So I went through my situation AGAIN. He said, "Can you call me on a demo number so I can see what number shows?" As I had already done this with my g/f, I told him, it's the other guys phone number. He said okay, that he would notate his account so that they would STOP HIS STATEMENT FROM COMING TO HIM so they could sanitize it of my calls.
So, the long and the short of it is:
1) I won't have a fully working phone until Monday
2) No one did a [email protected] thing to help me get a phone before the weekend
3) I have an outbound-only clone of some strange guy's phone, and can make calls and send texts from this phone and no one cares enough about it to stop me or to notify this man.
4) Oh, and one of the myriad of people I spoke to told me that I couldn't go into the store and pick up another phone. I guess no one thought about letting me pick up a phone there and sending my "on the way" phone to the store to replace the one I picked up.
So, if your last name is Nelson and you have an 815 area code EVO, chances are I'm making calls on your account. I'm trying not to use it, but I'm kinda stuck. Sorry.
Yay.
Wow man, quite a story. Lol.
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App
lol thats crazy.
I seriously doubt HTC ran out of serials.
Well damn.....
Sent from my HTC Evo
Sprint's customer service sucks... No credit, no nothing? Damn... They have great prices, but tmo trumps all the carriers with their customer service imho. SMH...
looneylu said:
Sprint's customer service sucks... No credit, no nothing? Damn... They have great prices, but tmo trumps all the carriers with their customer service imho. SMH...
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Agreed! I plan on going back to T-mo after my 2 year EVO contract is up.
U should make some international calls, load up the account and have sprint to suck it up.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Hahah. What fing idiots. I love how no one cares anymore - at the least they should have come up with a semi-believable story for you, and made sure the guy's account that you're on isn't totally screwed over.
Spring has great prices, but you pay for it when it comes to 3g service, dropped calls, and CS!
815 is northern mchenry county illinois, thats out by me, poor fellow. guess thats asurion for you though.
you could always try to *cough*cdmaworkshopit*cough*
Sprint reps are idiots. I get annoyed having to call in because I know I'll bee in for it.
Sent while sitting on the toilet.
haha, I love sprint. *rolls eyes*. I have been with them for roughly 6 years now, so I know all about that "Customer Service".
Are these people randomly plucked from the streets? Hey ill go be a cs! If I feel like being an idiot one day, ill get away with it. Lol
Sent from my Evo
Is not sprints fault the samething happen to me. This is because you idiots trying to root their phones and they brake something and returned it ti sprint. I got a phone from craigslist I called sprint to swap my phone everything goes fine and than she tells that I have to get a new line for that phone because a have already five lines. After an hour on the phone no matter what we did we were unable thw guys profile. I called the giy since I had his information and ask him if did root the phone and he said yes but didnt work. Just look at the forums how many habe broken wimax or bricked phones and they blame the guys who made that metod to root..
latoso said:
Is not sprints fault the samething happen to me. This is because you idiots trying to root their phones and they brake something and returned it ti sprint. I got a phone from craigslist I called sprint to swap my phone everything goes fine and than she tells that I have to get a new line for that phone because a have already five lines. After an hour on the phone no matter what we did we were unable thw guys profile. I called the giy since I had his information and ask him if did root the phone and he said yes but didnt work. Just look at the forums how many habe broken wimax or bricked phones and they blame the guys who made that metod to root..
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lol Of course you wouldn't expect Sprint to give out working phones, what a ridiculous idea. It's all the fault of people who root their phones.
HEY!!!!!!!!!! I'm Mr Nelson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Just KIDDING!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow sounds just like something that would happen to me.
latoso said:
Is not sprints fault the samething happen to me. This is because you idiots trying to root their phones and they brake something and returned it ti sprint. I got a phone from craigslist I called sprint to swap my phone everything goes fine and than she tells that I have to get a new line for that phone because a have already five lines. After an hour on the phone no matter what we did we were unable thw guys profile. I called the giy since I had his information and ask him if did root the phone and he said yes but didnt work. Just look at the forums how many habe broken wimax or bricked phones and they blame the guys who made that metod to root..
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Click to collapse
Fool. I had to call in my phone b/c it was lost/stolen, not b/c it was rooted.
And it has nothing to do with the new phone being rooted. As I stated in my first post, IT IS A BRAND NEW PHONE.
BTW, Mozilla has a built in spell-checker.
campchi said:
U should make some international calls, load up the account and have sprint to suck it up.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
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This
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Dude....that's poopy. Thankfully, I've never had this issue and for me Sprint is always nice and resolves my issues quickly. Sounds like you got dealt a bad hand that day bro.
im not saying you rooted the phone for someone else info to be in the phone has to be activated. Just look at my brothwr in law got his phone on thursday tryed to rooted didnt work he got another one today and the phone he return is new where you think that phone is goin to. Asurion.
Rooting does not break a phone. And I would have asked for the manager's boss. It was their fault. They should have arranged a store pick up or overnight you one. A dishonest person could run up a huge phone bill for that guy to pay. I am sorry this happened. Hopefully everything is worked out.
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger Gee Bees.
I didn't see a thread on this so I thought I'd warn anyone who doesn't know.
AT&T now blacklisting stolen phones.
AT&T is now blacklisting all reported stolen phones, or devices they say were "Improperly scanned" out of inventory and major retailers such as Best Buy or Wal-Mart. What this means is that sometime after inserting your SIM card into one of these phones, AT&T will lock your SIM card and you will either get a message stating the device is blocked from the network, or the phone will only call AT&T's security division. Even if you put it back in another phone.
This lock is supposed to occur within minutes according to AT&T, however we have seen it take up to weeks for the lock to occur. This also applies to any pre-paid service such as Straight Talk and Red Pocket who use AT&T phones. If you are on one of these plans, you must call your carrier, not AT&T and request the account be unlocked.
Sounds like a good plan right? The only problem with this is, at this time, unlike Verizon, Sprint, and other carriers, there is no way to call in and check the IMEI before you purchase a used or refurb phone. Thus, if you buy a phone from Craigslist, Ebay, or a local used phone store, its imposable to check the esn like you would a CDMA phone to determine if it has been reported lost or stolen.
The best you can do is put your SIM in the phone and try it out before you buy it and, more importantly, make sure there is a return policy at the store you buy it from. At this time there seems to be no sure fire way to determine if a phone you buy from an individual or online has been reported lost or stolen, and AT&T will not unblock any phone reported stolen except by the person who reported it.
The only exception is if you have purchased a phone from a major retailer. In that case AT&T security division reports that if you take the phone back with the receipt, they will unblock it.
Just reading this reminds me about insurance scams where someone would sell their old phone on some site and then call in the phone as stolen. To me: this is just another risk for buying used phones now. Then again: I recall reading a very recent article about a iphone theft ring in San Francisco. Maybe it's better off this way.
Puts ATT in hard spot. They can either let the thieves sell the units and then the end customer's are unknowingly screwed or let the units work. I suppose their rationale is that if the unit stops working they can report who sold them the phone?
I think they very well should blacklist phones reported as stolen. They've been doing it in Europe for years. My problem is, unlike every other major carrier, you cannot verify if a phone is stolen or not before you buy it. This doesn't punish the thieves so much as the person who unknowingly buys it.
killgorian said:
I think they very well should blacklist phones reported as stolen. They've been doing it in Europe for years. My problem is, unlike every other major carrier, you cannot verify if a phone is stolen or not before you buy it. This doesn't punish the thieves so much as the person who unknowingly buys it.
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If it's reported stolen that's one thing - but what about the phones that somebody hasn't paid their bill to on the major carriers - the money owed goes on that person's SS# anyways for life until they settle up - I see bad esn's being sold on ebay all the time. I don't feel bad flashing a phone to cricket with a bad esn since it's tied to somebody's social. If it's stolen by thieves of course - lock em down. I'm just sayin'
mook_ said:
the money owed goes on that person's SS# anyways for life...
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No. 7 years max.
killgorian said:
My problem is, unlike every other major carrier, you cannot verify if a phone is stolen or not before you buy it.
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Yes. This service should have been offered FIRST and then a couple of years later they should have introduced the banning practice. As it is I can see a lot of people making honest mistakes.
You can call into att and have them check the numbers on the phone ...I just did this a week ago with my one x after getting.burnt on one
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Some online stores have a very efficient and reliable pre-purchase customer care.
I bought my AT&T phone from europe from negrielectronics.com and I clearly asked to know the IMEI of the device before placing the ordere since we have some specific IMEI issues here n Europe.
They could immediately email me the code.
So just ask if you want to purchase on the internet; maybe you'll be lucky.
We can actually deactivate stolen / lost phones,
I`m not sure about blacklisting, savedesk knows that,
After we make reports on lost/stolen phones we just send them to savedesk
It has always been a long before practise to ask the customer to rescan again to where you have bought the phone in cases of phones tagged as warehouse are not deactivated
this post is approved by the national potato safety regulation
hey guys - so i just got taken. bought a phone on CL and turns out it's blacklisted. do you know if there's anyway for ATT to check who this phone belonged to based on IMEI? my long shot is maybe contacting original owner (i know ATT doesn't give out information) but could THEY possibly contact original owner and tell him someone found his device?
i figure this is better than me tossing the device?? any thoughts?
piotrus22 said:
hey guys - so i just got taken. bought a phone on CL and turns out it's blacklisted. do you know if there's anyway for ATT to check who this phone belonged to based on IMEI? my long shot is maybe contacting original owner (i know ATT doesn't give out information) but could THEY possibly contact original owner and tell him someone found his device?
i figure this is better than me tossing the device?? any thoughts?
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If you have any of the seller's info you can report it to authorities.
The only info i have is a cell phone number. Which was a pay as you go number. So i dont think they can do anything if sim card has been tossed right?
What will they authorities do? Dont they have more important things? Ill they confiscate the phone? I just realized i could sell it for use in Europe potentially?
piotrus22 said:
The only info i have is a cell phone number. Which was a pay as you go number. So i dont think they can do anything if sim card has been tossed right?
What will they authorities do? Dont they have more important things? Ill they confiscate the phone? I just realized i could sell it for use in Europe potentially?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's IMEI programmed.
so no matter what SIM you'll use it will still be blacklisted,
as long as a stolen phone can receive a signal and passes through AT&T's database it will automatically send out a code to lock out the phone,
it is n "as-is" basis though,
depends entirely on the phone
deathnotice01 said:
it's IMEI programmed.
so no matter what SIM you'll use it will still be blacklisted,
as long as a stolen phone can receive a signal and passes through AT&T's database it will automatically send out a code to lock out the phone,
it is n "as-is" basis though,
depends entirely on the phone
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Click to collapse
Hi, my first post here.
I have a customer (I do computer repair, not cell phones) who unknowingly bought a "blacklisted" att phone an HTC one x from craigslist. Is there anything he can do? I told him I would look into it to try and help him out. But I know nothing of cell phones. The guy's like 60 trying to make a few bucks while in retirement buying and selling cell phones.
He used it for a day or so then it just stopped working. when his att sim was deactivated he went to att as he knows the folks who work in the local store. They cleared his sim card, but not the phone. They weren't interested in taking the phone from him either. They said it could be blacklisted for several reasons from non-payment, to stolen or some other reason, but they couldn't tell him the reason. Some advice or a point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Would unlocking the phone make any difference (to use on another carrier) or is he just basically screwed with this one?
Thanks,
Chris
SIM unlock it and have it on T-Mobile.
Lil Chris said:
Hi, my first post here.
I have a customer (I do computer repair, not cell phones) who unknowingly bought a "blacklisted" att phone an HTC one x from craigslist. Is there anything he can do? I told him I would look into it to try and help him out. But I know nothing of cell phones. The guy's like 60 trying to make a few bucks while in retirement buying and selling cell phones.
He used it for a day or so then it just stopped working. when his att sim was deactivated he went to att as he knows the folks who work in the local store. They cleared his sim card, but not the phone. They weren't interested in taking the phone from him either. They said it could be blacklisted for several reasons from non-payment, to stolen or some other reason, but they couldn't tell him the reason. Some advice or a point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated. Would unlocking the phone make any difference (to use on another carrier) or is he just basically screwed with this one?
Thanks,
Chris
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AT&T is very strict with matters pertaining to blacklisted phones,
reactivation of a valid sim card is possible but not the phone,
i never had actual experience with AT&T phones since i'm not in the US and we only had experience navigating them during our training at AT&T tech support,
but you can try flashing the stock generic firmware from a AT&T HTC one X and using a T-mo sim instead of a AT&T sim to prevent execution and authentication of IMEI protocols which are nessesarry to deactivate the blacklisted phone,
Welcome to the bad ESN world
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
cell128 said:
Welcome to the bad ESN world
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
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And corporate controlled america
--------------------------------------------------------------
By staring at this post you have waived your right to privacy
Complaints will be trolled accordingly
Im a bit confused. Maybe someone could shed some light. Can a at&t iphone that is not in good standing with at&t be used on straight talk. If so must it be a ST Tmobile sim?
Im buying my mom an at&t iphone 4s off CL and want to make sure it can be activated. Thanks!!
themow said:
Im a bit confused. Maybe someone could shed some light. Can a at&t iphone that is not in good standing with at&t be used on straight talk. If so must it be a ST Tmobile sim?
Im buying my mom an at&t iphone 4s off CL and want to make sure it can be activated. Thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As long as it is not reported lost or stolen it can. If it has been blacklisted, no it cannot.
I didn't know where else to post this question...
I'm about to buy a NEW Galaxy S4 Active from a guy on Craigslist that's going to get one new from the ATT store today. The selling price to me? $400.
That's a great price, so I'm wondering...
Is there anything that I need to be aware of? Can I lose out on this deal? I'm assuming that he's going to get an upgrade and extend his contract, because that's the only way he can make money on this deal. But what if he cancels his contract or doesn't pay his bill, won't the phone get blacklisted and I'll end up with a brick in a few months?
No blacklisting on att phones. The only way you can lose out is if the guy has insurance on his phone, sell it to you, then calls att reports it stolen. Then the phone becomes a glorified paperweight.
Alot of people run this Craigslist scam, because the insurance deductible is cheap, and they make a large profit selling it, then reporting stolen and get a brand new device, meanwhile you get scammed.
To prevent that from happening you can meet the guy at an att store and let them know you are purchasing the phone from him, and they will transfer ownership to you and he can't file a stolen device.
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I would be very careful when buying an expensive phone from Craigslist. Tell him you only want to meet at an at&t store so they can make a note on his account that he sold you the phone. Then I would have them activate the phone there and then for you. If it's legit then he'll have no issue doing what you suggest. $400 is a good price for an active. But sometimes if it seems too good to be true, well you get the point.
Great advice you guys! That's what I'll do is meet him at the store and make sure I'm notated and the ownership is transferred to me. I didn't realize ATT would do that for me!
That is two good pieces of advice. Benefit of Craigslist over EBay is one-on-one contact. I would add, and you probably already decided, is if he doesn't want to meet with some excuse--don't buy it--
I just bought an iPhone for a family member. I met the seller at the AT&T store and I went in and had AT&t run the IMEI. they said it was not reported stolen but that is all they could do. According to the sales person there is no way to transfer an IMEI and that an original purchaser could theoretically still report the phone stolen.
I am not sure if I believe the second part but it could be. I can't see att trying to track every IMEI as phones change hands.
alphadog00 said:
I just bought an iPhone for a family member. I met the seller at the AT&T store and I went in and had AT&t run the IMEI. they said it was not reported stolen but that is all they could do. According to the sales person there is no way to transfer an IMEI and that an original purchaser could theoretically still report the phone stolen.
I am not sure if I believe the second part but it could be. I can't see att trying to track every IMEI as phones change hands.
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Yeah that's wrong. Basically an imei cannot be on two accounts at the same time. So going in to a store with the seller they could remove it from their account and it would be put on yours. With ATT however, there is very little ways for them to "blacklist" a phone. Sure it may not be able to be placed on your account but a sim will still work just fine in it. Verizon is different due to the way their activations work.
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imitenotbecrazy said:
Yeah that's wrong. Basically an imei cannot be on two accounts at the same time. So going in to a store with the seller they could remove it from their account and it would be put on yours. With ATT however, there is very little ways for them to "blacklist" a phone. Sure it may not be able to be placed on your account but a sim will still work just fine in it. Verizon is different due to the way their activations work.
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I am not sure why you say they can't blacklist. They can and are now doing so. EU has done it for years. No one in the USA did it in the past but the carriers are doing it now, and they are working on a shared database. So once a phone is blacklisted it will be unusable on any carrier.
Today a blocked AT&T phone could still be used on t-mobile.
The phone sends its IMEI when it connects to the network and AT&T can easily block it if it is reported stolen. There are other threads about people buying notes and s4 that are blocked.
alphadog00 said:
I am not sure why you say they can't blacklist. They can and are now doing so. EU has done it for years. No one in the USA did it in the past but the carriers are doing it now, and they are working on a shared database. So once a phone is blacklisted it will be unusable on any carrier.
Today a blocked AT&T phone could still be used on t-mobile.
The phone sends its IMEI when it connects to the network and AT&T can easily block it if it is reported stolen. There are other threads about people buying notes and s4 that are blocked.
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Weird. I've never seen a phone not connect to the network like that. I haven't told ATT I've switched phones since my OG Note a year and a half ago. That phone has long since been gone. The only thing that seems to be reporting to ATT is the sim. What happens when you use an imei from outside their database? How does it access their network then?
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imitenotbecrazy said:
Weird. I've never seen a phone not connect to the network like that. I haven't told ATT I've switched phones since my OG Note a year and a half ago. That phone has long since been gone. The only thing that seems to be reporting to ATT is the sim. What happens when you use an imei from outside their database? How does it access their network then?
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I switch phones all the time and I don't "tell" AT&T - this works fine without issue, but they do see the IMEI - this is easy to verify. Log into your AT&T account and look at your devices - it shows the actual phone that is being used on that number. I am not sure how often they update this, but it shows the system automatically sees the IMEI.
They only keep a database of Blocked or blacklisted IMEI. It is impossible for them to keep a database of approved phones, it just wouldn't work and it would piss people off. It is easier to keep a short block list.
On my account, I have 2 other family lines for dumb phones and they have data blocks. But these lines are using other smart phones, and they listed by brand and model when i log into my account. The IMEI can be used to detect brand and model. I still don't know why the CSRs ask for IMEI when this info shows up automatically, but i never give it to them.
And like I said, when i bought the last phone, I walked in the store and the guy knew what i wanted and looked it up to see if it was reported stolen. When it was not, he said everything was good. A few years ago, they would not have cared either way.
alphadog00 said:
I switch phones all the time and I don't "tell" AT&T - this works fine without issue, but they do see the IMEI - this is easy to verify. Log into your AT&T account and look at your devices - it shows the actual phone that is being used on that number. I am not sure how often they update this, but it shows the system automatically sees the IMEI.
They only keep a database of Blocked or blacklisted IMEI. It is impossible for them to keep a database of approved phones, it just wouldn't work and it would piss people off. It is easier to keep a short block list.
On my account, I have 2 other family lines for dumb phones and they have data blocks. But these lines are using other smart phones, and they listed by brand and model when i log into my account. The IMEI can be used to detect brand and model. I still don't know why the CSRs ask for IMEI when this info shows up automatically, but i never give it to them.
And like I said, when i bought the last phone, I walked in the store and the guy knew what i wanted and looked it up to see if it was reported stolen. When it was not, he said everything was good. A few years ago, they would not have cared either way.
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See that's where I'm having this issue. I log into my ATT dealer site and it still shows me on the OG Note. When I log into my account it shows OG Note. My account doesn't update with what phone I'm using currently. Not sure if mine is an anomoly or not. AFAIK though ATT told us there was nothing that could be done when one of our ATT display phones was stolen. That's part of where my assumption that blacklisting was not a real thing with ATT.
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imitenotbecrazy said:
See that's where I'm having this issue. I log into my ATT dealer site and it still shows me on the OG Note. When I log into my account it shows OG Note. My account doesn't update with what phone I'm using currently. Not sure if mine is an anomoly or not. AFAIK though ATT told us there was nothing that could be done when one of our ATT display phones was stolen. That's part of where my assumption that blacklisting was not a real thing with ATT.
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I admit I never blocked a phone. But there is thread that has lots of details of a few users experience:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2315935
According to AT&T only the original owner can report a phone stolen - so maybe only new activations get treated this way. The AT&T rep said i could not add the IMEI of the used phone to my account to prevent someone from reporting it stolen, so their system has lots of limits.
I wish I knew more, but AT&T is not the most forthcoming with how things work.
alphadog00 said:
Today a blocked AT&T phone could still be used on t-mobile.
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I read just the other day that Tmo and ATT are sharing their blacklists. And once a phone has been blacklisted on one carrier, the other will follow suit.
I purchased a Verizon Galaxy Note 3 from a guy off Craiglist and checked the ESN, it was clean then and I proceeded to use with T-Mobile. Everything was working fine, HSPA and such. But now, after waking up, the phone has not signal, so I went online to check to see if anything happened to the ESN, and noticed it now has changed from Good to Bad. I've tried to contact the guy but no response.
I tried to remove the sim and inserted it in a different phone and everything was fine.
Is there anyway I can still use the Verizon Galaxy Note 3 with T-Mobile even though the ESN is bad?
I've tried to change the APN settings (epc.tmobile.com) and even (fast.t-mobile.com) on the device but nothing is working for me. It keeps showing No Service - Selected Network (T-Mobile) not available.
The device model is SM-N900V, Android 4.3.
Please help !
Waw I did not think that happened . he called the phone lost stolen after he sold it . sorry this happened to you . did you call up Verizon to explain the situation ?, they are the ones that issued the lock on the ESN They might be able to help . please keep is posted
ttav9216 said:
I purchased a Verizon Galaxy Note 3 from a guy off Craiglist and checked the ESN, it was clean then and I proceeded to use with T-Mobile. Everything was working fine, HSPA and such. But now, after waking up, the phone has not signal, so I went online to check to see if anything happened to the ESN, and noticed it now has changed from Good to Bad. I've tried to contact the guy but no response.
I tried to remove the sim and inserted it in a different phone and everything was fine.
Is there anyway I can still use the Verizon Galaxy Note 3 with T-Mobile even though the ESN is bad?
I've tried to change the APN settings (epc.tmobile.com) and even (fast.t-mobile.com) on the device but nothing is working for me. It keeps showing No Service - Selected Network (T-Mobile) not available.
The device model is SM-N900V, Android 4.3.
Please help !
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You may also want to try to set your network settings to global rather than to lte. For some reason, if you have it set to global it uses a different radio and will work just fine on tmobile.
jmichaels1982 said:
Waw I did not think that happened . he called the phone lost stolen after he sold it . sorry this happened to you . did you call up Verizon to explain the situation ?, they are the ones that issued the lock on the ESN They might be able to help . please keep is posted
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I have called both T-Mobile and Verizon.
I called Verizon first to explain the situation and the representative transferred me to Tech Support, and then the Tech Support asked me for the ESN, which I gave him. He then told that indeed the ESN is bad, but he could not find the reason why. He recommended me to call T-Mobile.
I then called T-Mobile and told them about the situation. It's funny because for reasons T-Mobile found out that the reason ESN is bad is because, exactly what you said, the phone has been reported lost/stolen. The phone is now blocked from accessing any US carriers. The representative from T-Mobile told me that Verizon was the one who put the lock on it, so I would need to call Verizon to get the problem fixed.
I called Verizon again, and this time, I spoke with a really friendly representative, she listened to the whole situation, and tried to fix the problem for me. She even tried to look up the phone numbers that I used to contact the guy with. But unfortunately, none would work. I feel really bad because she tried all she could. The conversation went on for almost an hour.
Long story short, the phone is now locked from being able to use with any US carriers. I'm stuck with a very expensive brick. Both T-Mobile and Verizon could not do anything about my situation. Pretty frustrated now.
Learned my lesson, I will never buy any phones from anyone on Craiglist ever again !
Certain people will buy it for parts . dont give up on selling it . try swappa next time . they have PayPal protection . although anyone can do what just happened to you . to protect yourself against this in the future : put the phone under your account either by calling or in a verizon store . I believe that once the ESN is registered under your name they can't report it lost or stolen . popping the Sim in , I think , without calling just puts the phone on your account but doesent register the ESN . these are all.just speculations . I could be way off. There is a verizon rep on these forums . he is very friendly ... Look up his forum and ask away !
It's unfortunate. I had a friend who ran into the same thing about two months ago with a note 2 on verizon. Not to mention I had been scammed on an ATT phone. Unfortunately att phones they dont block the phone for a couple hours, so when I was purchasing the phone I was able to make a test call then I got blocked in the morning. This was few months after tmobile, att and verizon instituted that co-network nationwide ban.
I'm not sure if it would help, but next time it might be a good idea to do a transaction instore. Possibly having one of the employees transfer over the phone and issuing a new sim card, might deter the would be thief from doing an insurance claim. Since you would be able to prove that you did everything in store, hopefully with the aid/witness of the verizon rep that helped you.
You can use blacklsted note 3 on att and t-mobile. However, u need to add apn into the phone yourself in order to get data. I don't need you need to root it or not to change it. Go switch to GSM I think there people who able to get lte on T-mobile in band 4 , but i don't know how. I had a blacklisted note 3 currently running on ATT. Only get H+ .
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2582747
I wonder what could be the motivation of a seller to report a phone stolen after selling it? Fraudulent insurance claim afterwards? Or maybe it was a stolen phone but the owner was out of town and was unaware of the theft? (Strange scenario.) Or maybe Verizon blacklists phones for non-payment on an account?
Sorry this happened to you, but I am sort of curious if you got a "too good to be true" deal off of CL... do you mind me asking how much you paid for a $700 phone?
Performing the sale right in a carrier's retail store with an immediate account transfer does seem to be a really good idea - if the seller gets cold feet about that, you'll know that things are not on the up and up.
A sure fix is replacing the motherboard with one from a shattered unit.
Check the IMEI number before purchasing.
Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk
raginmonkey said:
You may also want to try to set your network settings to global rather than to lte. For some reason, if you have it set to global it uses a different radio and will work just fine on tmobile.
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Did OP try this?
That's very unfortunate. I've dealt many times over craigslist I'm fortunate that the phones I've bought were from good people.
I hope you get something out of it.
I trade phones alot, and thats why I swap sims wherever I meet someone.
brex91 said:
I trade phones alot, and thats why I swap sims wherever I meet someone.
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Can you elaborate?
xdadevnube said:
Can you elaborate?
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i mostly trade even up, went from a note 2 to a s4 to a note 3 and only spent money on gas to meet the person with the phone.
So when we both arrive I look at the phone for physical damage, then power both down, swap sims and power back up. If I get a signal it's activated. (on verizon at least)
(I think theres a limit to how many times you can do this in a certain period of time, but for me it's only every 6 months or so, so no problems)
And of course in my situation I'm doing trades locally off craigslist.
brex91 said:
i mostly trade even up, went from a note 2 to a s4 to a note 3 and only spent money on gas to meet the person with the phone.
So when we both arrive I look at the phone for physical damage, then power both down, swap sims and power back up. If I get a signal it's activated. (on verizon at least)
(I think theres a limit to how many times you can do this in a certain period of time, but for me it's only every 6 months or so, so no problems)
And of course in my situation I'm doing trades locally off craigslist.
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I suppose after a trade you can call in your old phone lost/stolen if the other guy does it to your "new" phone. If you just buy a phone, then I can see what happened to the OP being much more likely.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk 2
xdadevnube said:
I suppose after a trade you can call in your old phone lost/stolen if the other guy does it to your "new" phone. If you just buy a phone, then I can see what happened to the OP being much more likely.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk 2
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possibly, but like i said, that's why I swap sims. After that the phone is activated on my account, they can't report it stolen. I make sure I have a signal before the trade is done.
brex91 said:
possibly, but like i said, that's why I swap sims. After that the phone is activated on my account, they can't report it stolen. I make sure I have a signal before the trade is done.
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Now I'm confused. So in the case of the OP, he should have activated it with Verizon first (Verizon phone)?
He said it was working with T-Mobile, then it stopped working.
Sent from my HTC6500LVW using Tapatalk 2
Never heard of a Verizon phone being blocked from the other carriers. I bought a bad esn Verizon note 3 for my girlfriend off eBay and she still using it on AT&T. Please update on the situation if you're able to use with AT&T
Sent from my SM-N900V using xda app-developers app
so OP, did anything work out for you?
This just happend to me too..
I lost my AT&T S4, and since i had over a year left on the contract i sought craigslist for a new phone.
I purchased a used Verizon s4 for $380 from a person claiming to be the original owner, he said he upgraded and was selling the current phone.
I put my AT&T sim in the phone and it was all good.. i had signal and tested it by making a call to the sellers phone.. I did other physical check to make sure no water damage etc.
I purchased the phone and switch the SIM back to my temp dumb phone. when i reach home i was googling APN settings for AT&T when i came accross a link that mentioned bad ESN, so just for the heck of it, i plugged in the ESN of the new phone and turns out it was reported Stolen!!
i am little scared to put in my SIM back into the phone... is it OK to put the SIM back? will it work? is there any other issues i may face?
Ofcourse i tried contacting the seller,, but as exected, he has not responded yet.
I checked ESN on checkesnfree.com, as well as the verizon site and they all report it as stolen.
I checked same ESN on tmobile site and used the ESN # as IMEI, and even tmobile site said it was stolen.
I did the same thing on Swappa.com and they were not able to determine ESN status..
on AT&T, if i go in as a new buyer, add SIM card to my cart, it asks me to enter device IMEI and it accepts it.. the AT&T rep told me that this was a good way to check if IMEI is clean or not.. so i am assuming IMEI is clean on AT&T, but for how long??
Sorry i know i am asking Too many questions.. but this has been so sudden and unexpected.. kind of feeling like a fish out of water!
If a phone is reported stolen, it will not work on T-Mobile or AT&T. If it is bad esn/imei for non payment, then it will only be blocked on Verizon.