Apple blocking IMEIs of jailbroken phones?!

[ArsonWells]

So here's the story. A friend of mine has a jailbroken 3G. One day, the screen refused to turn on but he could still hear calls and text messages coming in. Rather than hard-rebooting or restoring the phone, he took it to the Apple store and the "Genius" noticed the Pwnapple logo when he tried rebooting the device. He said the Genius became very rude and accusational, then proceeded to enter his IMEI into the computer at the store. The Genius tried to say that Cydia had "burned the IMEI number" in the phone, which is absolutely ridiculous. He then mentioned something about the phone now being flagged, saying that my friend would have to pay $200 for a replacement phone. At this point the phone was on the Activation screen requesting that it be connected to iTunes.

Back at home, iTunes refused to reactivate the phone. He gave me a call and I came over to repwn it, so that he could at least get to the home screen. It worked, but he is unable to get any signal WHATSOEVER. We've tried a different AT&T sim, no difference. It's as if the phone was reported stolen.

We're trying to figure out how we can get the phone active again, I was thinking maybe a proxy SIM would work because it may fake the IMSI or IMEI, but that's the only idea I could come up with.

Has anyone else had this experience or have an idea how we can get his phone working again? Please share your experiences, it's unbelievable that they legally have the ability to do this.

 

[jpk32092]

uhhh are you joking?

 

[calvy]

What did you use to jailbreak it for him? If it was Pwnage, did you uncheck the activate option? Cause if you didn't, it'll put you in a state that you mention.

 

[fleshman03]

Has anyone else had this experience or have an idea how we can get his phone working again? Please share your experiences, it's unbelievable that they legally have the ability to do this.

I'm not really sure how to correct this problem. To be honest, I don't think it can be fixed at the handset level. Sounds more like it was "blacklisted" by the network.

This is highly illegal for Apple and/or ATT to do and I recommend calling some media outlets. It brings to mind issues like "hush-a-phone." This is when users would modify the handset given by ATT and ATT would attempt to shut down the user's service.

Take a look at the court case that followed:

The court's decision, which exonerated Hush-a-Phone Co. and prohibited further interference by AT&T toward Hush-a-Phone users, stated that AT&T's prohibition of the device was not "just, fair, and reasonable", as required under the Communications Act of 1934, as the device "does not physically impair any of the facilities of the telephone companies", nor did it "affect more than the conversation of the user".

Source

Using those standards, ATT/Apple would need to proof that the jail broken device "physically impairs any of the facilities of the ... phone company" and only "affected the conversation of the user."

 

[Opie]

That genius must have been a stickler. I wouldn't think they could flag your phone. Its not like the library book from Seinfeld.

 

[ArsonWells]

I had originally used QuickPwn to jailbreak his phone, and made sure to answer "Yes" to "Do you have a contract etc." as he is completely legit on AT&T.

 

[nimda0]

No, they can't blacklist the IMEI number because you had it jailbroken. They can't prove it was jailbroken even if they saw it with their own eyes, and all it would do is void the warranty.... not the service contract.

This thread doesn't make sense, really.

 

[dccorona]

Has anyone else had this experience or have an idea how we can get his phone working again? Please share your experiences, it's unbelievable that they legally have the ability to do this.

they have no right to do this, that is true
but did he honestly expect anything good to come from taking it in to apple while its still jailbroken?
just restore it before you go and they'll never know

 

[akbc]

Well, I'm sure there's a reason why the cellular carrier and Apple don't encourage jailbreaking/unlocking.

Couldn't you find someone local that could fix it? I know a couple of people that fixes jailbroken/unlocked phones. That might have been a safer way.

Either way, taking it to the Apple store isn't exactly the wise idea.

 

[ArsonWells]

This thread doesn't make sense, really.

I don't blame you for thinking so, but there really is no other explanation I can think of. The phone functions were working flawlessly until the Genius started playing with his computer, and why in the hell would he make up the nonsense about "Cydia burning the IMEI number"? It's not possible, even on a physical level.

I think we are going to try to take it back to the Apple store tomorrow and hopefully they won't have any data in their system about the previous encounter. Hopefully they should be able to do a free warranty exchange as there is no damage to the phone.

 

[NT1440]

I don't blame you for thinking so, but there really is no other explanation I can think of. The phone functions were working flawlessly until the Genius started playing with his computer, and why in the hell would he make up the nonsense about "Cydia burning the IMEI number"? It's not possible, even on a physical level.

I think we are going to try to take it back to the Apple store tomorrow and hopefully they won't have any data in their system about the previous encounter. Hopefully they should be able to do a free warranty exchange as there is no damage to the phone.

But there were other problems to begin with, how do you know this isnt an extention of those?

 

[ArsonWells]

But there were other problems to begin with, how do you know this isnt an extention of those?

Well even though the screen wouldn't turn on, phone calls still came through. I've had this problem before on my 2G and I just do the hard-reset holding home+power. I'm willing to bet that would have fixed his too but my pal isn't very tech savvy, which is why he went to the Apple store without consulting me in the first place.

 

[NT1440]

Well even though the screen wouldn't turn on, phone calls still came through. I've had this problem before on my 2G and I just do the hard-reset holding home+power. I'm willing to bet that would have fixed his too but my pal isn't very tech savvy, which is why he went to the Apple store without consulting me in the first place.

so have YOU tried a restore?

 

[ArsonWells]

so have YOU tried a restore?

Absolutely. Did a clean restore in iTunes, afterward it still refused to activate. QuickPwned it, now I can access the menu but it still will not pick up signal.

 

[CocoaPuffs]

This is obviously a bogus spam.

Move on from this garbage.

 

[NT1440]

Absolutely. Did a clean restore in iTunes, afterward it still refused to activate. QuickPwned it, now I can access the menu but it still will not pick up signal.

Why in the world would you pwn it before you knew that you fixed it?

And to the underlined, what?😕

 

[ArsonWells]

This is obviously a bogus spam.

Even if it were, you don't fight spam with spam. If you don't want to help, stay out of the thread.

And to NT1440, I tried to reactivate with iTunes after the restore, but to no avail. After that, I figured it wouldn't hurt to try and pwn it especially since he'd be able to use it as an iPod touch until we could figure out what else to try.

 

[Knolly]

Thoughts:
1. Taking a jailbroken phone with the Pwnapple to logo wasn't the wisest thing ever.
2. Despite that, blacklisting the IMEI like that is rather *******ish of Apple.

Solutions:

To get the phone working again:
1. Restore a pwned firmware to phone WITH forced activation. The phone will NOT have signal.
2. Set it up as a new phone and sync it with the computer.
3. Restore with another pwned firmware, this one WITHOUT activation. Technically the official firmware would work to.
4. After it has been restored, restore it from the backup that you just made by syncing the inactive phone with your computer.
5. Give it a few minutes and you should have signal.

 

[Rayfire]

I'm actually surprised that they did this, I wonder if you're not alone.. or something else

 

[ArsonWells]

Thanks Knolly, I'll definitely give that a try.

 

[sdsvtdriver]

call att and play dumb.

"hi, my phone won't work..."

 

[Babybandit]

call att and play dumb.

"hi, my phone won't work..."

That's probably the smartest thing to do 😛
But seriously, one should be prepared for consequences if they jailbreak! 🙄. Just call it a $200 lesson 🙂

 

[Aea]

That's probably the smartest thing to do 😛
But seriously, one should be prepared for consequences if they jailbreak! 🙄. Just call it a $200 lesson 🙂

And AT&T/Apple will be quickly be paid a large legal lesson if they decide to teach him a $200 lesson. But, I highly doubt the legitimacy of the story.

 

[Hutch1]

Well even though the screen wouldn't turn on, phone calls still came through. I've had this problem before on my 2G and I just do the hard-reset holding home+power. I'm willing to bet that would have fixed his too but my pal isn't very tech savvy, which is why he went to the Apple store without consulting me in the first place.

People who aren't tech savy shouldn't screw with things or have others screw with them?

I think he'll have to calk this one up to a lesson learned.

 

[Tokiopop]

Jesus. Sounds like you're in quite a pickle. Did you use PwnageTool or QuickPwn? Just out of curiosity.