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Iphone 3g imei number change?

R

rujoesmith

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 12, 2009
10
0
Hi im looking to get net10 prepaid service for my iphone, but their sims are "reverse locked" or something, and can only be used on the imei number they are assigned to. I already called them up and tried to get a sim registered on my iphone imei, but they wouldnt give me one. So now i was thinking of buying a cheap net10 phone and talking the sim card out, then changing/masking the imei of my iphone, to the imei of the net10 phone, then finally putting the sim in my iphone and using net10 service. Is this possible, and if so plz share it with me :D
 
As far as I know with cell phones the Imei number is like a digital serial number. I'm not sure you can change that on the handset.
 
No, it's pretty much burned permanetly into the chip, there's no way to change it and I highly doubt there ever will be.
 
I would be cool if we can change our IMEI's.
Like for those that dont want data and companys are forcing them to have it on their smarthphones. I can switch the IMEI to the one from my old motorola RAZR and not have to worry about it.
Same thing with Tmobile users that are beeing forced into a $25 monthly data charge for slow as$ edge internet.
 
dhlizard said:
It can be done (if you know the right folks with the right equipment), but is done for illegal purposes. :cool:

Can you imagine the cell phone industry allowing anything to do this legally.

I smell the illegal use of someones cellular account without their knowledge. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

the cellular account data is on the SIM chip.. unless the sim is cloned, no account can be accessed thru imei cloning. Except for selling stolen phones, that is.
 
True.
Everything is on the simcard so you cant hijack someones account unless you can somehow get their simcard for a few minutes and clone/copy it.
With all this hacking and jailbreaking going on with the iphone Im surprised they were not able to reprogram/change the IMEI number to make it appear as a different type of of phone.


jmmo20 said:
the cellular account data is on the SIM chip.. unless the sim is cloned, no account can be accessed thru imei cloning. Except for selling stolen phones, that is.
Click to expand...
 
The IMEI is to cell phones as the VIN is to automobiles, it is a unique identifier of a piece of cellular communications equipment, and is not intended to be changeable. It may be possible to change the IMEI of a phone using specialized equipment.

The primary reason to change an IMEI is to make it possible to sell a stolen cell phone. For this reason I suspect you won't find many legitimate hackers interested in creating tools to do so. In the UK, changing a phone's IMEI or even merely possessing equipment capable of changing an IMEI is illegal.
 
Yes, I heard of alot of stolen iphones beeing blacklisted by networks and people trying to trade them or even sell them to US and other countrys cause they cant use them.
I would be cool with a simple program thru cydia to accomplish an IMEI change and then put it back to stock whenever one wants.
Offcourse its illegal but what isnt it nowadays. Apple wants to make Jailbreaking Illegal also.


thelatinist said:
The IMEI is to cell phones as the VIN is to automobiles, it is a unique identifier of a piece of cellular communications equipment, and is not intended to be changeable. It may be possible to change the IMEI of a phone using specialized equipment.

The primary reason to change an IMEI is to make it possible to sell a stolen cell phone. For this reason I suspect you won't find many legitimate hackers interested in creating tools to do so. In the UK, changing a phone's IMEI or even merely possessing equipment capable of changing an IMEI is illegal.
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Applejuiced said:
I would be cool with a simple program thru cydia to accomplish an IMEI change and then put it back to stock whenever one wants.
Offcourse its illegal but what isnt it nowadays. Apple wants to make Jailbreaking Illegal also.
Click to expand...

You would be cool with an app that made it easier for people to steal and use your iPhone? I would not. Of all the possible iPhone hacks, this is the one I would find most objectionable. There is no legitimate reason to change a phone's IMEI.
 
Its not possible to use someones elses phone/account with just the IMEI.
You need to copy their simcard to do that.
And how would one get a hold of my IMEI?
You're clueless.......
That would be a very usefull utility so carriers would stop forcing services not needed to iphone users.


thelatinist said:
You would be cool with an app that made it easier for people to steal and use your iPhone? I would not. Of all the possible iPhone hacks, this is the one I would find most objectionable. There is no legitimate reason to change a phone's IMEI.
Click to expand...
 
Applejuiced said:
Its not possible to use someones elses phone/account with just the IMEI.
You need to copy their simcard to do that.
And how would one get a hold of my IMEI?
You're clueless.......
Click to expand...

No, I'm not clueless. Clearly you do not understand what I am saying. I am not talking about service theft or cloning, I am talking about the actual physical theft of a phone. Blacklisting IMEIs is how carriers and law enforcement trace and prevent the use of stolen phones. If I report my phone stolen and report it, it will be worthless to anyone who stole it as long as the IMEI remains unchanged. If I sell such a phone on eBay, authorities are likely to show up on my doorstep. This is a huge deterrent to theft.

You might think that modifying the IMEI is a harmless little trick to escape data plan requirements, but you can be sure that its primary use if it existed would be to make stolen phones untraceable. That is not harmless.
 
I could care less since in the US no carrier blacklists stolen phones or IMEI's.
And you really think authorities care that much about lost or stolen cellphones that they'll come and try to track you down? How many cellphones go lost or stolen every day worldwide. Cops got better things to do than chase cellphones around.


thelatinist said:
No, I'm not clueless. Clearly you do not understand what I am saying. I am not talking about service theft or cloning, I am talking about the actual physical theft of a phone. Blacklisting IMEIs is how carriers and law enforcement trace and prevent the use of stolen phones. If I report my phone stolen and report it, it will be worthless to anyone who stole it as long as the IMEI remains unchanged. If I sell such a phone on eBay, authorities are likely to show up on my doorstep. This is a huge deterrent to theft.

You might think that modifying the IMEI is a harmless little trick to escape data plan requirements, but you can be sure that its primary use if it existed would be to make stolen phones untraceable. That is not harmless.
Click to expand...
 
help me

hay im not sure if im in the right forum if not could someone direct me to wich one i should be in....

my prob is i recently bought a second hand samsung f480 which was on o2 but duel banded, i put my 3g sim card in and it worked fine but i turned it on after college today and it said limited service. My mate has told me this means the phone is blocked. Is this correct he aslo said i should change the imei number to make it work again. Is this correct also and how can i do this??

thanks for any help x
 
URBANGAL said:
hay im not sure if im in the right forum if not could someone direct me to wich one i should be in....

my prob is i recently bought a second hand samsung f480 which was on o2 but duel banded, i put my 3g sim card in and it worked fine but i turned it on after college today and it said limited service. My mate has told me this means the phone is blocked. Is this correct he aslo said i should change the imei number to make it work again. Is this correct also and how can i do this??

thanks for any help x
Click to expand...

This is an iPhone forum. Sorry man.

From what I've seen here I'd suggest calling your carrier and asking them what's up. It doesn't seem like you've done anything against the rules.
 
ViViDboarder said:
This is an iPhone forum. Sorry man.

From what I've seen here I'd suggest calling your carrier and asking them what's up. It doesn't seem like you've done anything against the rules.
Click to expand...

if the fone has bein reported lost or stolen tho wont i get in trouble for it?? im conserned cause iv tried to contact the girl who sold it me and its seeming impossible!! errr iv bein jiped ant i?? will they just confenscate the phone or will i get arrested?:confused::mad::(
 
URBANGAL said:
if the fone has bein reported lost or stolen tho wont i get in trouble for it?? im conserned cause iv tried to contact the girl who sold it me and its seeming impossible!! errr iv bein jiped ant i?? will they just confenscate the phone or will i get arrested?:confused::mad::(
Click to expand...

Hmmm... That's a good question. Sorry I don't think there's a certain answer for you here.

You can always call up your provider and explain that you bought the phone online and you don't know why it's not working. Just be blunt. At least in the US you are innocent until proven guilty and there is no reason for them to assume that you stole the phone over you buying it and someone having ripped you off.
 
thelatinist said:
There is no legitimate reason to change a phone's IMEI.
Click to expand...

its not illegal everywhere and there are legit purposes they may or may not be against your carriers terms of service but not illegal.
one legitimate purpose i can think of is some carriers only allow phones from their network on their network so this allows you to buy a phone from them and clone the iphone to use it
another legit reason is some features cant be added to certain phone types by your carriers software (dumb phones, smart phones, or special features or a certain model etc.)
by cloning another phone you own it can allow you to use these features


that being said i know unlocked iphones could "clone" the IMEI modding the bootloader or whatever with ziphone but as far as i know there is no method for the 3g or 3gs if anyone knows a way please post or PM


thanks
 
Iphone 3G

Hey there, my problem is the following: my white 3g iphone was stolen a couple of days ago and then also added to the blacklist by me. I live in Estonia, a rather small country and there is a chance that if I check manymany pawnshops in Tallinn, my hometown, there is a possibility that I may find it.

However, it might not end up in a pawnshop as I understand that the IMEI code can be hacked in illegal ways? I'm actually looking for confirmation whether the IMEI code can be changed? Because if it can not, it probably is or will be in one of the many pawnshops around here.
 
There is NO legitimate reason to change the IMEI of a phone. Mobile Phone theft is a problem here in the UK. It would be made a lot worse if IMEI changing could be achieved.

If the network you're on only works with phones from that network, wait till your contract is up and then change.
 
No, at the moment its not possible to change the IMEI number.

niirehtak said:
Hey there, my problem is the following: my white 3g iphone was stolen a couple of days ago and then also added to the blacklist by me. I live in Estonia, a rather small country and there is a chance that if I check manymany pawnshops in Tallinn, my hometown, there is a possibility that I may find it.

However, it might not end up in a pawnshop as I understand that the IMEI code can be hacked in illegal ways? I'm actually looking for confirmation whether the IMEI code can be changed? Because if it can not, it probably is or will be in one of the many pawnshops around here.
Click to expand...
 
Applejuiced said:
No, at the moment its not possible to change the IMEI number.
Click to expand...

I know it is not exactly the most reliable source, but here's the information I found in wikipedia:
"The IMEI number is not supposed to be easy to change, making the CEIR blacklisting effective. However this is not always the case: a phone's IMEI may be easy to change with special tools."

Doesn't this mean that the IMEI can still be changed illegally?

Edit: I now understand that the part of changing IMEI is about cells in general, and it is not possible for newe iPhones.
 
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