hi guys.
I just bought another TP2 from Ebay to replace my one which is broken. I've put my simcard but it doesnt register on my network. I've tried my sim card in another phone and it works fine, and I'm able to connect to wi-fi on the new TP2, but not to my network....so I've come to the conclusion that it must have a locked imei number.
I conacted ebay and the seller to ask whether it was a stolen phone, but to no avail. the seller has de-listed and ebay arent interested as the phone is in "working order", even though I cant connect to a network!!!
is there anyway to change the number, or unlock it, so I can use it? Otherwise it's a pretty expensive paper weight! My fault for not checking these facts before buying, but you live and learn....anyone help?
Cheers
Don't expect advice on changing the IMEI here.
As for unlocking, take a look here: http://rhodium.htc-unlocks.com/ (as far as I know, there is no free solution).
report the transation to paypal. You'll get your money back. Especially if the phone was potentially stolen.
Related
I have an O2 orbit.
I paid through the nose for it (on ebaY) and I'm getting a lot of hassle (its certainly stolen or contract blocked).
Is there any way to change the IMEI number so that I can use it again, using a different network sim? Or an unblock facility?
Also I dont know about this but as its a multi-use phone, could you still use the phone as a non-cell PDA once its blocked from the network? I know that some phones are completely dead once barred but then their only use is for a phone anyway. Is it the same for PDA phones? Like having it on flight mode? Or does it brick up as well?
Thanks.
edit: BTW Is there any way to check an IMEI number remotely to see if its blacklisted before buying on ebay?
deaddavey1 said:
Is there any way to change the IMEI number so that when I report the phone lost (Its insured of course), I can still use that phone as a backup later using a different network sim? Or an unblock facility?
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Are you trying to cheat the insurance? If the phone is to be 'broken', how do you reckon it will work on a different network sim?
Anyway, changing IMEI is possible but illegal, and theoritically, it can be traced if not done carefully. Search for the IMEI il-legal statement by VJ in this forum.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=276851&highlight=IMEI
Anyway, the PDA feature will still work as long as you don't stick in a SIM.
DeadDavy, whilst I realise your frustration what you are talking about is both insurance fraud and it is illegal to change the IMEI.
This is an open forum and not for that kind of talk. Please don't post anything more on the subject as it could bring this forum into disrepute.
i read that post and understand its illegal. But so is selling dodgy phones. I only want to change it to one of my old buggered phones imei's.
I alternatively could claim it lost soon on my insurance. Thats illegal as well. But with my first choice no one loses out. I just paid a lot of money for a paperweight.
ok thanks. no more posts on subject.
deaddavey1 said:
ok thanks. no more posts on subject.
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I presume you have exhausted all the "normal "channels to get your money back, e.g raised a dispute with eBay? Or did the scally close their account?
Edit:- just found this
http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/A-database-of-stolen-mobile-phones-CheckMEND_W0QQugidZ10000000004188075
Dunno how effective it is though.
hi, i have recently purchased a touch pro 2 off ebay and i stuck my SIM card in it to find out i cant get a signal or make calls etc..
i really dont know what i should do.
please help. any advice is helpful.
Was it used or new?
used, he was selling as 'it no longer makes calls or sends texts'
if it was listed as barred theres no way i would have bought it. but with what he wrote it sounded fixable.
earni said:
used, he was selling as 'it no longer makes calls or sends texts
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So you were suprised when you got it that it doesn't make calls? Call you provider they might be able to unlock it if the phone isn't broken to begin with. Next time i suggest understand what you are buying because this is a pretty ridiculous post. I am questioning my own judgment for even answering to this post.
i wasnt surprised it didnt make calls, i thought he may just have a bad radio or something but i checked the imei on checkmend and it shows up as blocked..
You bought a phone that the seller told you didn't work. You assumed the reason it didn't work was one thing, but it turned out to be another. Whether he lied to you as to why it didn't work or not, you still took a chance on buying a phone you knew was not working. Take your loss, learn from it and move on.
If the phones blocked then he has found/stolen it. Or put in an insurance claim saying it’s been lost/stolen.
If you paid by PayPal put in a claim giving reason that you were not told the phone was blocked. You will then get your money back.
earni said:
i wasnt surprised it didnt make calls, i thought he may just have a bad radio or something but i checked the imei on checkmend and it shows up as blocked..
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bwaaaaahahahahahaha...that's what you get...!!!
earni said:
hi, i have recently purchased a touch pro 2 off ebay and i stuck my SIM card in it to find out i cant get a signal or make calls etc..
i really dont know what i should do.
please help. any advice is helpful.
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Click to collapse
I've had this situation before and although it turned out that the phone I had purchased wasnt stolen, the process will be the same:
Contact your Phone Network and give them the IMEI number and explain the situation. Don't worry - they are used to dealing with this type of call. They will use a database shared between all the network providers to find out the original and current owner of the handset and tell you whether it has been registered stolen or just blocked by the previous owner (this is what happened to me only I found this out a lot later).
If they tell you it is stolen, take the handset and everything that came with it to your local police station, including print-outs of any correspondence you have had with the seller - via the website market place or direct.
The police will give you a crime number and most probably take the device and the print outs from you to investgate further. You will need the crime number to get your money back later on.
Contact the market place and your bank (credit card company) and explain the situation and give them the crime number.
In most situations, the market place will give you your money back (withdraw it from the sellers account). If they dont, your credit card company will do the chasing for you but you'll need to try yourself first.
The market place may ask you for more documents from the police and the police will be very understanding. The police woman assigned to my crime number was very helpful and was in regular contact with me about how the investigation was proceeding.
The whole process may take 6-8 weeks. It can be drawn out but persevere and you will get your money back - and deservedly so.
Good luck and PM me if you need any further advice.
I thought gsm phones cannot be blocked?
DJ_MiX said:
I thought gsm phones cannot be blocked?
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I am no expert but they can certainly be blacklisted by the owner and that was what I was suggesting.
http://www.unlockme.co.uk/blacklist.html was a site I read up on when I was faced with the same situation.
My phone was blocked. I rang up Orange and told them the situation and they unblocked it - to my surprise. At the same time, I had opened a case in eBay which went in my favour, but I decided to keep the TP2 as it's now working. In my case, I could get a signal (four bars), but it always came up with no connection.
bought a second ZF2 from amazon. tracking shows it arrived 9/4 but i dont have it and had to have amazon open an investigation.....thats great but i have to wait for that before i get my new phone. So being i spent $300 on this new item and i dont have it, i am pissed and want to know if it would be possible to track the imei since Asus labels them on the box and i am sure amazon scans that barcode label. Couldnt they track the imei even if the phone is not activated? or would it have to be activated before the imei can be tracked?
i dont know how imei works with an inactive or active unlocked phone. Wouldnt the owner of the phone have to report the imei as stolen? but how would that work on a phone that didnt have a carrier?
Anyone know about this stuff? thanks in advance!
sidenote - i am sure amazon will send me a new phone once i call them in the morning. I did chat for the claim..... but it pisses me off to think someone might have stolen this from my front door. I would kind if like to find it.
Maynard46 said:
bought a second ZF2 from amazon. tracking shows it arrived 9/4 but i dont have it and had to have amazon open an investigation.....thats great but i have to wait for that before i get my new phone. So being i spent $300 on this new item and i dont have it, i am pissed and want to know if it would be possible to track the imei since Asus labels them on the box and i am sure amazon scans that barcode label. Couldnt they track the imei even if the phone is not activated? or would it have to be activated before the imei can be tracked?
i dont know how imei works with an inactive or active unlocked phone. Wouldnt the owner of the phone have to report the imei as stolen? but how would that work on a phone that didnt have a carrier?
Anyone know about this stuff? thanks in advance!
sidenote - i am sure amazon will send me a new phone once i call them in the morning. I did chat for the claim..... but it pisses me off to think someone might have stolen this from my front door. I would kind if like to find it.
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Depending what country but here in Oz if you supply the police with an imei number of a phone that was stolen it can be blacklisted. That means no carrier here in Australia will allow that phone to be used however if it gets shipped outside Australia there is no problem using the phone...
Sometimes you see these phones for sale on ebay with a title saying "For sale overseas only"...
i am in the US. i know imei can be blacklisted with a carrier, but this is an unopened brand new unlocked phone. No sim, no carrier. plus i am more interested in trying to see if i or amazon can track this phone to find out where it is.
Maynard46 said:
i am in the US. i know imei can be blacklisted with a carrier, but this is an unopened brand new unlocked phone. No sim, no carrier. plus i am more interested in trying to see if i or amazon can track this phone to find out where it is.
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Was it sold directly by amazon or an amazon seller? if it was by an amazon seller he "might" have a database containing IMEI's of the phones he sell's, if it was amazon then your out of luck they do not keep records of IMEI of any kind, just explain the issue to amazon im sure they will gladly replace the device.
rafyvitto said:
Was it sold directly by amazon or an amazon seller? if it was by an amazon seller he "might" have a database containing IMEI's of the phones he sell's, if it was amazon then your out of luck they do not keep records of IMEI of any kind, just explain the issue to amazon im sure they will gladly replace the device.
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From Amazon.....not a 3rd party i would be surprised Amazon wont record a serial # or imei # especially since the label is on the outside of the box with a simple barcode label.
Maynard46 said:
bought a second ZF2 from amazon. tracking shows it arrived 9/4 but i dont have it and had to have amazon open an investigation.....thats great but i have to wait for that before i get my new phone. So being i spent $300 on this new item and i dont have it, i am pissed and want to know if it would be possible to track the imei since Asus labels them on the box and i am sure amazon scans that barcode label. Couldnt they track the imei even if the phone is not activated? or would it have to be activated before the imei can be tracked?
i dont know how imei works with an inactive or active unlocked phone. Wouldnt the owner of the phone have to report the imei as stolen? but how would that work on a phone that didnt have a carrier?
Anyone know about this stuff? thanks in advance!
sidenote - i am sure amazon will send me a new phone once i call them in the morning. I did chat for the claim..... but it pisses me off to think someone might have stolen this from my front door. I would kind if like to find it.
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Click to collapse
.....................
I called and they were very good about it. I get the impression this happens a lot. I don't know why they used usps. They make tons of mistakes.
I asked Amazon for the serial number and imei so I can file a police report. Sadly they emailed me the asin number instead. I can not believe they don't keep serial or imei for there products.
Is there a way to get this info from Amazon or even Asus? Police won't take a report with out that info
Hey XDA Team,
I have a 5x with andoird 6.0.1 and the IMEI is blacklisted (thanks ebay)
Well i managed to root and change the IMEI of the device after a lot of work ( downgrade anroid etc)
So when i check the IMEI with *#06# or under the settings then it shows me the new one, but on this device under settings and SIM i still can see the old IMEI. I guess thats why it is not working. Is there a way to fix it or do i need another SIM card ?
Big thanks in advance
I thing you cant just by a software change IMEI. Only possible way is to change a motherboard, or find someone who makes this kind of stuff.
Given the nature of your question and the lack of help it's illegal to change imei's and nobody on XDA will help you. My apologies for you having been scammed into buying a paper weight. Unless you can found out from the seller why it's black listed. (Stolen, non payment) It's unlikely you'll get it un black listed. Since you already tampered with the phone. No one will help you. In the future if you buy off of eBay, Swappa, Amazon etc.. take special care into looking into the item you are interest in buying. Your only hope of getting it to work is to pay a tech specialist to swap the motherboard with a legal imei and thats gonna cost money. All the best.
Hello, this is my first post but sure it not the last!
I have been exposed of fraud! I bought Note 10 Plus on a website called Blocket in Sweden were you can buy everything. The guy told me that the phone was locked to 3 and that was no problem because i have that to. But when he came to me he had activated the phone so WiFi call was on (I didn't know that). I logged in to my google account and then I also connected to my WiFi. Then i tried a call and no problems so I paid the guy and got a receipt and took his ID. But as soon as I went out I couldn't call and did some research and the phone had only 0 as IMEI and in small letters on the back it says that it is a Demo unit and have a serial number and its name is SM-975X . So my question is if anyone have been able to get a phone like this to work? Everything is reported to the police but he had false ID and the phone number has been turned off! I payed 650$ so would be so happy if anyone has an solution of my problem :fingers-crossed :fingers-crossed:
Sadly, there is no solution, only a motherboard replacement would work
Hm, is it so bad! Do they remove the radio parts for everything else works like a charm even WiFi calls and wireless charging both on my phone and to other phones to!
Do you know if the they only remove/disable the radio part and let everything else work?
What I know, is that there is no way to make it work as a regular device, they are intended to be used by vendors, to discourage people from stealing them from showrooms, precisely the cellular part is totally disabled
the IMEI is generally a unique identifier used by networks and such to track devices (stolen or otherwise) without one a device wont work on a network and the only way for a device to get one is from the factory encoded into the hardware, so short of swapping out hardware for a different board that has an IMEI there is pretty much nothing you can do.
as if it was simple to change them people would be able to hide stolen hardware or their tracks when swapping SIM cards. also would get them around blacklisting and other features on the networks.
the IMEI is basically the same as a VIN number on a car, even if you could change it you would need a valid one to register the device on a network.
it's sad but unfortunately all you can use this as is a learning experience, in future only buy from reputable sources that offer some level of consumer protection and always check things like the IMEI as people even sell blacklisted phones as they will turn on and seem to work but will be blocked off the majority of networks.
Yes it was a wakening call, but I have sold and bought 40-50 different phones and other stuff on "Blocket" but this was the first time i was cheated. I had no idea of that you could make WiFi calls otherwise it wouldn't worked! He had receipt and everything so I had no thought that it was a demo phone! Before he came i was looking for a site were you could write the serial number and look if it was stolen but couldn't find any! Apple has one and have used that often and had one guy that tried to sell a iPhone that was stolen!
I talked to a independent repair shop and he was willing to buy it for 200$ so he could use it for parts, then my lost is only 450$ but it hurts anyway
yeah screen battery and a few other parts would still be viable, it's mainly the board with the phone modem on that would be unusable as little more than a demo/home unit.
WIFI calling will still work as it doesn't use any of the phone identifiers other than stuff like the MAC address of the phone WIFI chip that even a demo unit would need.
A quick google should give you IMEI checker sites and it's something you should always check, if you have bought as many phones as you say, you have been very lucky this is the first to have a problem as there is a massive black market for stolen devices that are black listed and such, that is why IMEI checker sites are fairly common as most networks do allow access to blacklist device lists as they don't want them being sold on. so really IMEI is probably the most important thing to check when buying a phone as there are multiple ways it could cause you problems.