This question is geared towards an iPhone, but it should be the same for any phone.
My girlfriend's phone was stolen yesterday and given repetitive attempts to contact the thief and offer money to get it back, in her haste she asked the cellphone company to block her IMEI.
My question is, since we know the thief has seen my messages to him with my contact number and the offer of a good reward, if I recover the phone, can my girlfriend unblock/unblacklist her phone IMEI. I don't mean illegally changing the IMEI, I mean legally. I'm just wondering if IMEI blocking is a one way street or if she can present herself in her cellphone company with her purchase receipt and her contract (if she ever recovers her phone) and they unblock her phone for her again.
Thanks for any help.
god. it's not very simple i don't think, although it is possible. you need to prove you own the phone(proof of purchase) and then ring up the network provider who blocked it i think, and then they will unblock it, and eventually the other networks should also unblock it.
Assuming you're with AT&T (since you said IMEI). All you need to do is have your friend call in and ask for it to be unblocked. They'll unblock it as long as the request is coming from the person who initially requested the block.
Related
My phone (Touch) got stolen will HTC help me by locking it and making it useless for the thief.
viewedit said:
My phone (Touch) got stolen will HTC help me by locking it and making it useless for the thief.
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Sorry to hear that mate
As long as I know, unless you had installed an anti theft software on your stolen device, it won´t be possible (Hope I´m worng)
They toss your sim card?
Anywho, phones have a unique IMEI number right? couldn't the phone companies see if anyone trys to use it, even with a different sim card? Heck, they could triangulate where the person is using it if he is in range of 3 towers! Lord knows they wont help you that much but they can atleast disable the IMEI and make it worthless to the a-hole.
diff countries diff rules here
when my phone got stolen i gave the IMEI to the police
and they got it blocked from any domestic phone service
and any other countires service's the domestic company's had roaming
or other agreements with
I don't know how it works in India, but in the UK we can call up our network operator and as long as the phone is registered with them, they can block the IMEI number.
The other major networks will then block the phone within 24-48 hours. That makes stealing a mobile pointless in the UK because it will almost certainly be blocked from all the major networks within 2 days.
Got it back bec of anti theft software + HTC Replied
After the phone was stolen, I didn't receive any imei and sms from the stolen phone for a day, I thought the thief was smart enough to HR the phone, but i was wrong, I got that [email protected]# [email protected]#$% imei and Cell no, went straight to the cops, they called him and told him to handover the phone, he denyed having it initially, but when cops were at his door step he confessed.
Am very happy the software worked.
Now I am seriousely thinking of embedding it inside the rom, so even if some some smart A$% HR's it, I will still get it back.
Vodafone in India didnt co-operate at all.
Thanks everyone for showing concern.
Here is what HTC replied to my mail.
Thank you for contacting HTC Email support.
We will be assisting you with “HTC". As per your mail we understand that you have lost your handset and we understand that you are looking forward to block or trace the device with the help of IMEI number.
We are sorry to know that you have lost your device In this case we would like to inform you that unfortunately it won’t be possible for us to deactivate or trace the phone however services can be barred and you may block your SIM through your service provider.
If you need any further assistance with the HTC please feel free to get back to us, we will be more than happy to assist you further.
We look forward to be of service to you again..
Best Regards,
Gaurav Rathore,
Customer Service Department,
Customer Service Hotline (India): 1800 11 33 77
glad all is ok now
so this thread is now closed.
thank you
Hi Guys,
I lost my phone one night. I am not in hope of finding it, but I do not want thief to profit from the occasion.
I have the IMEI number still at hand. Is there anything that can be done?
(NB: I did not have a phone/sim lock on the phone and the thief deleted the findmyphone function WP7 has)
Many thanks in advance,
Jason
jasonchiu said:
Hi Guys,
I lost my phone one night. I am not in hope of finding it, but I do not want thief to profit from the occasion.
I have the IMEI number still at hand. Is there anything that can be done?
(NB: I did not have a phone/sim lock on the phone and the thief deleted the findmyphone function WP7 has)
Many thanks in advance,
Jason
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If you really want to pursue it, you can ask your cell phone company to try and give you a rough location of where it is through cell triangulation, although that may be difficult to get them to do. Otherwise, you can tell them to Blacklist the IMEI number so that it can't be used on any networks.
Product F(RED) said:
If you really want to pursue it, you can ask your cell phone company to try and give you a rough location of where it is through cell triangulation, although that may be difficult to get them to do. Otherwise, you can tell them to Blacklist the IMEI number so that it can't be used on any networks.
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Thanks for the tips.
I tried to block the IMEI in Hong Kong, but my service providor (Smartone Vodafone) said they dont provide such service.
When I went back to the UK, I called up T-Mobile and someone from an India call centre said they blocked it for me, but the "reassuringly" told me it can be easily unlocked by someone who knows mobiles well...
Are there any sites or places I can submit the IMEI number to?
Many thanks,
Jason
jasonchiu said:
Thanks for the tips.
I tried to block the IMEI in Hong Kong, but my service providor (Smartone Vodafone) said they dont provide such service.
When I went back to the UK, I called up T-Mobile and someone from an India call centre said they blocked it for me, but the "reassuringly" told me it can be easily unlocked by someone who knows mobiles well...
Are there any sites or places I can submit the IMEI number to?
Many thanks,
Jason
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It can't be "unlocked". The person would have to spoof or change the IMEI number, something which I've been able to ever do on 1 phone (original iPhone). But the reason I did it is not because it was stolen, but because I didn't want a data plan that AT&T was forcing on its customers, so I made the phone appear as another phone. I don't think it can be done easily on most phones.
I don't think there are any websites you can submit the IMEI number to. I believe there's a global IMEI blacklist database that most responsible carriers choose to enforce.
Cheers for the details.
I too was shocked that Smartone Vodafone did not offer IMEI blocking.
I hope t-mobile really did block the IMEI number.
I was a bit sceptic as all the CS Agent did was take note it and that was it. She didnt ask for any details about me either.
Product F(RED) said:
It can't be "unlocked". The person would have to spoof or change the IMEI number, something which I've been able to ever do on 1 phone (original iPhone). But the reason I did it is not because it was stolen, but because I didn't want a data plan that AT&T was forcing on its customers, so I made the phone appear as another phone. I don't think it can be done easily on most phones.
I don't think there are any websites you can submit the IMEI number to. I believe there's a global IMEI blacklist database that most responsible carriers choose to enforce.
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So we are clear: I am not talking about stolen phones. I am not asking how to change the IMEI on any device.
I am aware of someone who is involved in drugs, I know her mother but I do really know anything about her. It seems to me that she has some kind of scam going on with buying and reporting cell phones stolen. I really do not know the details of the scam, still putting the pieces together.
She took her mother's vehicle one night. Days later the mother was able to locate it and take it back.
In the truck was a lot of stuff, one was a receipt for four new phones on an ATT family plan. In the bottom portion it listed the same phones as the top portion with a statement regarding changing the IMEI.
I guess I am wondering if anyone knows what -if any- advantage there is to having the store change the IMEI of the phone you just bought?
Is this part of some scam anyone might be aware of?
I didn't even imagine that the store would, or could, change the IMEI before seeing this.
Interested story though!
Ok First off. Talks about this are not allowed on XDA. Now that is clear le me explain what is going on.
When a device is reported stolen/lost the carrier can put a block on the IMEI so it can not be used on the network. In EU they can do it so it doesnt work on any network in the area. By changing the IMEI (which is illegal in 98% of the world) This allows the device to be used on the network. This allows the device to be resold as a working device. Only the OEM has the rights to change these numbers. And I dont mean the phone OEM I mean the OEM for the main board which is where this number is hard coded.
I would stay as far away from this girl as you can. She is gonna get you caught up in more drama then you know.
Thread closed
My phone got stolen. I reported it to t-mobile and sent a text to the phone saying that it's being tracked and they better return it before cops find them. They returned it to a lost and found location where i picked it up but now the IMEI # is blocked because i reported it stolen... i called t-mobile telling them the story and that i needed my phone unblocked... tmobile tells me they don't block non-tmobile phones... i contacted oneplus one and they can't do anything about it. now i have a useless phone... is there anyway i can unblock this phone?!... Thanks for any help!!
P.S. oneplus one customer service sucks ass!!!!!!
It has nothing to do with OnePlus. They're a manufacturer of phones, they have nothing to do with the networks that the phones connect to, nor do they have anything to do with the blocking or unblocking of IMEI numbers. What exactly do you expect them to do? Assigning blame or grief towards them is seriously misplaced and unjust.
It's T-Mobile who are responsible for blocking the IMEI, and it's T-Mobile who should be responsible for unblocking the IMEI. Them giving you an excuse that they don't unblock non T-Mobile device is BS. Push them harder, if they refuse to play ball then advise them that you'll be taking the situation to your local telecommunications ombudsen or consumer rights bureau (whatever you have available), that should motivate them to help you out.
timmaaa said:
It has nothing to do with OnePlus. They're a manufacturer of phones, they have nothing to do with the networks that the phones connect to, nor do they have anything to do with the blocking or unblocking of IMEI numbers. What exactly do you expect them to do? Assigning blame or grief towards them is seriously misplaced and unjust.
It's T-Mobile who are responsible for blocking the IMEI, and it's T-Mobile who should be responsible for unblocking the IMEI. Them giving you an excuse that they don't unblock non T-Mobile device is BS. Push them harder, if they refuse to play ball then advise them that you'll be taking the situation to your local telecommunications ombudsen or consumer rights bureau (whatever you have available), that should motivate them to help you out.
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I didn't blame OnePlus on the issue... i'm saying their customer service sucks because i had to wait about 4 weeks before getting a response from their customer service and it took them about another week and about 3 different customer service reps to tell me there was nothing they could do. They did not offer me any advice on how to go about unblocking the phone. Seeing as they are a cell phone manufacture they should know how the cell phone industry works and who i should be contacting to get it unblocked.
I'm not sure how IMEI blocking works... Tmobile told me they don't block non T-mobile phones so i don't know who blocked my phone then. Is there a way i can find out?? i guess i will have to push T-mobile harder to unblock it since it's their network i don't see how or why they can't get it removed. I was just wondering if anyone else had an issue with trying to unblock a blacklisted phone and if they had any advice or where to go to so i can get this issue resolved.
Thanks i will push t-mobile to see if there is something else they can do.
timmaaa said:
It has nothing to do with OnePlus. They're a manufacturer of phones, they have nothing to do with the networks that the phones connect to, nor do they have anything to do with the blocking or unblocking of IMEI numbers. What exactly do you expect them to do? Assigning blame or grief towards them is seriously misplaced and unjust.
It's T-Mobile who are responsible for blocking the IMEI, and it's T-Mobile who should be responsible for unblocking the IMEI. Them giving you an excuse that they don't unblock non T-Mobile device is BS. Push them harder, if they refuse to play ball then advise them that you'll be taking the situation to your local telecommunications ombudsen or consumer rights bureau (whatever you have available), that should motivate them to help you out.
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I agree. And add to that, to your local small claims court, as you can prove you are the original purchaser, and the phone is now back in your (rightful) hands.
Kuno3x16 said:
My phone got stolen. I reported it to t-mobile and sent a text to the phone saying that it's being tracked and they better return it before cops find them. They returned it to a lost and found location where i picked it up but now the IMEI # is blocked because i reported it stolen... i called t-mobile telling them the story and that i needed my phone unblocked... tmobile tells me they don't block non-tmobile phones... i contacted oneplus one and they can't do anything about it. now i have a useless phone... is there anyway i can unblock this phone?!... Thanks for any help!!
P.S. oneplus one customer service sucks ass!!!!!!
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Send a tweet to Legere, you might be surprised how responsive he can be on twitter
So a couple months ago I bought a phone that at the time I didnt know was stolen. After finding out a little more about it here is what I found:
-not blacklisted
-previous owner still owes 500+ dollars on it
-its the g930p version (sprint)
-There is no lock pin or anything so I have access to it, just cant use it for data, sms, mms, or anything of the sort.
-sprint says its still under contract/financial responsibility so they wont unlock it for me
So, I dont have the money to pay it off, and have no way of contacting the owner, so what I'm wondering, is if there is a way that I could perhaps change the imei or meid number (to seem new to different carriers) or any other way of making it so i can actually use the phone.
btw919 said:
So a couple months ago I bought a phone that at the time I didnt know was stolen. After finding out a little more about it here is what I found:
-not blacklisted
-previous owner still owes 500+ dollars on it
-its the g930p version (sprint)
-There is no lock pin or anything so I have access to it, just cant use it for data, sms, mms, or anything of the sort.
-sprint says its still under contract/financial responsibility so they wont unlock it for me
So, I dont have the money to pay it off, and have no way of contacting the owner, so what I'm wondering, is if there is a way that I could perhaps change the imei or meid number (to seem new to different carriers) or any other way of making it so i can actually use the phone.
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Greetings and welcome to assist. You have my sympathies that you bought a stolen phone and I really hope you get your money back but changing IMEI numbers is illegal and not something we can discuss on xda
Thanks for understanding
Sawdoctor