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ATT will now blacklist your imei on your stolen/lost iPhone

TSX

TSX

macrumors 68030
Original poster
....But you have to buy their insurance. If you have their insurance and you lose or your iPhone or gets stolen they will blacklist your imei # and recover your iPhone of they try to activate it. Insurance cost 10.00 a month with a 200.00 deductible, but it covers lost and stolen phones too. This imei blacklisting is new to att, even though everyother carrier does it.
 
that stupid. They should blacklist if you lose it anyway. I never understood this rule. I know that some people would try to screw over a buyer by claiming it was "stolen" when they sell, but I mean really? this is stupid.😕
 
Makes perfect sense to me 😛

Att either:
- Gets paid extra through insurance by the iPhone user

or:
- Gets another paying customer on their network who stole the phone

Just got to follow the money trail...





BTW source?
 
They've never blacklisted any of their lost/stolen iPhones since 2007, so why start now. A $200 deductible is a scam as others have said b/c they should be doing it for free anyway...😱
 
TSX said:
....But you have to buy their insurance. If you have their insurance and you lose or your iPhone or gets stolen they will blacklist your imei # and recover your iPhone of they try to activate it. Insurance cost 10.00 a month with a 200.00 deductible, but it covers lost and stolen phones too. This imei blacklisting is new to att, even though everyother carrier does it.
Click to expand...

To be fair, AT&T does blacklist this for non-iPhones that have been stolen. At least they did when I used to work there (long before iPhone were around. lol).
 
IMO AT&T should be blacklisting ALL lost or stolen phones no matter what brand or whether the customer had insurance.
 
When phones were dumb and cost $50 I could understand the carriers reluctance to blacklist imeis. But with an iPhone costing as much as $850, I think they have an obligation to discourage theft.

This, of course, is just my opinion.
 
ZBoater said:
When phones were dumb and cost $50 I could understand the carriers reluctance to blacklist imeis. But with an iPhone costing as much as $850, I think they have an obligation to discourage theft.
Click to expand...

That would cost them money though if they blacklist a potential future customer using that stolen iPhone on their network 😉
 
How can ATT blacklist IMEI when last I knew they don't have/ use them. Isn't that a CDMA thing?
 
ap3604 said:
That would cost them money though if they blacklist a potential future customer using that stolen iPhone on their network 😉
Click to expand...

I know, right? I hate government intervention, but sometimes these companies beg for it....
 
What's the point? Is the thief going to be like "Oh, okay fine. I'll return it to the guy I stole it from since I can't activate it."

Chances are, they'll just sell it on CL.
 
ap3604 said:
That would cost them money though if they blacklist a potential future customer using that stolen iPhone on their network 😉
Click to expand...

I don't really think that's a valid argument.

Over here, the carriers block IMEIs for all lost/stolen phones and they share the data between each other.

That means that if your phone is stolen, its IMEI will be blocked on all carriers in your country as well as many carriers in other EU countries.

I don't really see anyone being in the situation that they have to choose between:

a) A stolen cell phone

OR

b) No cell phone

The carriers aren't going to lose customers from this.
 
kappaknight said:
What's the point? Is the thief going to be like "Oh, okay fine. I'll return it to the guy I stole it from since I can't activate it."

Chances are, they'll just sell it on CL.
Click to expand...

Well, if everyone knows this is regular practice to block IMEI's, then it could actually help reduce theft. Why steal something you know will be useless. And if other people know this can be blocked, people would (hopefully) ask for more proof of legitimacy when purchasing off of eBay or CL.
 
E3BK said:
Well, if everyone knows this is regular practice to block IMEI's, then it could actually help reduce theft. Why steal something you know will be useless. And if other people know this can be blocked, people would (hopefully) ask for more proof of legitimacy when purchasing off of eBay or CL.
Click to expand...

If this held true people would have stopped stealing car stereos as many now are useless without the correct PCM. But they'll always steal them and someone will always buy them.
 
krs7272 said:
How can ATT blacklist IMEI when last I knew they don't have/ use them. Isn't that a CDMA thing?
Click to expand...

Your phone still transimite the IMEI number to AT&T that is how they know if what phone you are using.
AT&T should of been blacklisting stolen phones for a while and sure as hell should not be charging for this service.
 
krs7272 said:
If this held true people would have stopped stealing car stereos as many now are useless without the correct PCM. But they'll always steal them and someone will always buy them.
Click to expand...

I don't know what PCMs for car stereos (I'm a New Yorker, we take the subway) are but if it a digital signature that can be tracked and stopped at a central source, then it should.

Can PCMs be tracked this way? Or are they more like DRM when it just makes use more difficult but not impossible?
 
E3BK said:
I don't know what PCMs for car stereos (I'm a New Yorker, we take the subway) are but if it a digital signature that can be tracked and stopped at a central source, then it should.

Can PCMs be tracked this way? Or are they more like DRM when it just makes use more difficult but not impossible?
Click to expand...

One of the cars computers
 
That doesn't make any sense.
Blacklist some iPhones with insurance and not all phones reported lost or stolen?
I call bs.
 
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