Hi my cousin recently bought a phone from a classmate (she is not very saavy), she said the price was good, but after finding out more info she found out that the classmate bought the phone from a local big box store and returned an older phone back to the retailer in the new phone's box. So the older phone will likely be going back to the manufacturer, and I told her that her new phone (which is a factory unlocked GSM device) may become blacklisted when the manufacturer receives the box for the new phone and they see that the returned phone's IMEI does not match the IMEI on the box. Was I correct in what I told her? I realized afterward that most blacklists and bad ESN/IMEI's come from the carriers, so I'm not sure if manufacturers would blacklist IMEI's or if they even could possibly do that for factory unlocked GSM phones...
Aside from her returning the phone to the classmate, etc. which I advised her to do -- I'm still curious about the inquiry - thanks for any advice you can provide..
May be it is quite possible but i don't know much about this.
Yes what you told her is correct. The oem can report it to the companies that blacklist devices and the carriers.
Related
Before the default question is assumed - no I DON'T want to change the IMEI!
HD2 was sent to HTC repairer, and came back with a different IMEI but same serial number. Looks like they've reprinted the battery-compartment label as it matched the software readout. BUT - and here's the rub - the box and paperwork no longer match the phone.
Question is, could this give rise to legal issues, particularly if/when I sell the phone?
Should I demand that it's put right.
Incidentally, while they were at it they managed to convert a sim-free phone into a branded/simlocked one. I imagine the repairers replaced the mobo with an incorrect one. I can fix the branding, thanks to this site's howtos, but not the IMEI issue.
I don't know what country you're in, however here in the UK it is illegal to change your IMEI and can result in up to 5 years in prison.
I would therefore go to the repairer and ask what is going on. I presume you went to a reputable person. Though they would be unlikely to do this.
Maybe get law enforcement involved, as a crime has been committed.
I'd contact HTC first, and find out what is going on...Odds are they have given you a different handset, and just moved over the Software number. Call HTC is should all be logged and accessible by there call center staff.
About what I thought
It's the official UK HTC repairer. They say the IMEI is different because a replacement board was fitted. -Well OK, but then why did they reset the serial number but not the IMEI? And, why leave it with mismatched labels? If that is the only resolution when a board is changed, they urgently need to look-at their procedures.
"Thank you for your reply. According to our system, your phone is branded to O2 network but it has not got a SIM lock. We have replaced a motherboard in your phone and that is why the IMEI number in the menu of your phone does not match with this one form underneath of the battery. HTC is legally obliged to lock this phone. We can not unlock this phone without the expressed permission of the network provider."
Which tells me that firstly, they didn't read what I said properly. Secondly they are saying that they knew the phone was supplied to them as unlocked, but have locked it nevertheless. At least, that is the way it reads.
I'm getting onto Trading Standards about it.
Thx for advice, will let you know how this pans-out.
Hello,
I'm looking to buy an Android phone off of someone in my local area and need some questions answered before I go any further. I don't know what phone I want yet, but I'm just worried as to if the phone is going to be stolen or not. Because I don't want it to be registered stolen and locked from the carrier few days later or something. Is there anyway I can prevent this from happening? I called Wind Mobile (That's what I'm planning to get either the phone fully unlocked or at least locked to Wind Mobile) and asked if they can see if the phone is stolen using the IMEI number, and they told me no. Which is odd because I did some research and some suggest to call the original carrier with the IMEI number to see if it's registered stolen. But since that's out of the picture. Is there any other way I can see if the phone is stolen? I'm thinking ask for a receipt of purchase of some kind, but do receipts show the serial number or something to show that it is that specific phone that was bought? Some people are also saying they have Unbranded phones which I know means that it is straight from a manufacturer to the public. So does that mean it is unlocked to all carriers? Is there still an original carrier? And can it still be registered as stolen to the company and remotely locked? I know even unlocked phones can still be registered stolen to the original carrier it was once locked to, but don't know about unbranded since there was no carrier in the beginning. (To my knowledge) Thanks for the help. Sorry for the long post, just need these questions off my back.
A proof if purchase would probably work, and also look at when the device was registered to make sure the receipt isn't forged
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using XDA Premium HD app
Hi,
In November 2010, I purchased a Samsung Omnia 7 from Computer Exchange (where they sell 2nd hand tech equipment) for the early adopter price (£425). It was locked to the "3" network but i eventually found a seller on ebay selling unlock codes from a user named nckzone and the unlock code worked nicely. However, on saturday I found that I was unable to make calls. I gave my carrier T-mobile a call from a seperate number and they told me that the phone has been blacklisted or in otherwords, it got reported as lost/stolen...
I was advised to ask the seller of the unlock code about the issue however he isnt responding.
I was wondering how to go about this situation...this phone cost me some serious cash and im not even due to get a new phone yet. What should I do?
I'm thinking about reporting this problem to the police since I have all my documents and proof but I hear its possible to change the IMEI number. Im really bugged at the moment.
Nerosam said:
Hi,
In November 2010, I purchased a Samsung Omnia 7 from Computer Exchange (where they sell 2nd hand tech equipment) for the early adopter price (£425). It was locked to the "3" network but i eventually found a seller on ebay selling unlock codes from a user named nckzone and the unlock code worked nicely. However, on saturday I found that I was unable to make calls. I gave my carrier T-mobile a call from a seperate number and they told me that the phone has been blacklisted or in otherwords, it got reported as lost/stolen...
I was advised to ask the seller of the unlock code about the issue however he isnt responding.
I was wondering how to go about this situation...this phone cost me some serious cash and im not even due to get a new phone yet. What should I do?
I'm thinking about reporting this problem to the police since I have all my documents and proof but I hear its possible to change the IMEI number. Im really bugged at the moment.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only thing you can do is go to the police..
check your phone's IMEI against what is written on the sticker / your box (to check IMEI type *#06#)
If it is different 100% that the 'unlocker' is at fault and he f-ed up your phone.
Otherwise somebody has created a false report with the police in which case the problem can be solved by going to the police and they can look up who filed the report and have it all undone (of course bring the box + purchase proof with you).
Also another good tip for many many people looking for (free) unlock codes. Don't post your IMEI everywhere!!!! Doing that will result in this exact situation and if you did this, all this is 100% your own fault.
take care
I bought my droid ultra for $150 off of craigslist, I checked the serial and IMEI and everything was fine. now after this morning, the phone all of sudden says out of service, and when i go online to check out the IMEI it says it is blacklisted..
Is there a IMEI unlocker for this phone? or anything i can do? I might just throw it on Ebay and call it a day...
Sounds like someone sold it then called it in as stolen or lost, if you can contact the seller it's worth finding out although they'll more than likely avoid you like the plague. Don't use the contact info you did when you reached them, use a different email/phone number if possible, you might get lucky.
Aside from that and maybe getting somewhere in that respect (probably not going to happen but there's always a chance) the phone is effectively dead to you in terms of being used but it depends on the carrier.
If you're checking it against Verizon (which calls it the ESN) and it shows as blacklisted that doesn't mean it can't be used with GSM carriers since the Ultra/MAXX/Mini are all GSM unlocked. The IMEI (which is what GSM carriers refer to it as) could still be potentially "open" and not blacklisted.
Worth checking out. There is still no one single "blacklist" that every cellular carrier in the world checks or reports their ESN/IMEI numbers to or with - it's a crap shoot but worth finding out.
Other than those possibilities, if you can't get anywhere then dump it. Changing the ESN/IMEI is possible but requires pretty specific hardware (JTAG stuff iirc) to get it done and even then it's basically flat out illegal to do it so, it's always possible that you could go through all the crap to make it work on a network and then get popped for it just the same.
Good luck...
I purchased an S7 from a friend of a friend that was 'Google Locked' for $10 figuring that I could get the lock off pretty easy and that it was worth the price. This S7 was of the AT&T variant. I tried to use the Combination File to get the lock of the phone and I bricked it. I guess its considered a brick, it had the SBL Error that I have read about in the forum. It looks like some users have been able to recover from it but I couldn't. I purchased 2 EDL cables from online and no luck. At this point, I feel like I was in way too far to give up. I am pretty good with phones and computers and I always accept a challenge. The next thing that I did was purchased a new motherboard for the phone from ebay. i paid $15 and it was guaranteed to have a clean IMEI or my money back. Now its installed, the phone is running, with my Google account. The phone has T-Mobile bloatware on it. In about device, the model is SM-G930T. When I lookup the IMEI it says its an SM-G930F. What happend?
As far as I understand it, the G930T is a US snapdragon based model, whilst the G930F is the international model based on the exynos chip.
I think this means that either:
the motherboard you have is actually a G930F board, and it's had G930T firmware flashed to it. I'm not sure if it's actually possible to do that and have a working phone, as they're essentially different devices.
or it's a G930T motherboard, which had a blocked IMEI number, and has had the IMEI overwritten with a clean one taken from a dead G930F board.
I used the Samsung Info app and it said that it's a Snapdragon. I'm curious though because on one hand, I might have a rootable device. On the other hand, I am scared to start flashing random stuff because this whole situation started because I tried to downgrade the firmware and got a brick.
I think it's likely that it is the snapdragon version if the info app says that. what does cpu-z say about it?
another thing you could do is go to imei.info and enter the IMEI number. once it's checked the IMEI and given you the basic info, select CHECK SN / WARRANTY / CARRIER.
that might take a little while, but it is free. have a look at the serial number that comes up. if the serial number associated with that IMEI number is different from the one reported in the about section of your settings menu, then it has had the IMEI number modified.
you can also see info like what country it was intended to be sold in, and what network it was locked to. if these are anything other than US T mobile, then that's pretty strong evidence that it's been given the IMEI of another device.
in which case you can probably go ahead and treat it like it's what it says it is, a snapdragon model.