I found an almost new Galaxy S2 for 100 bucks that no one else wants because it has a bad esn. I'm on Sprint, can I get around this? will I be able to root this thing and get it working on Sprint, or is that not possible with a bad esn. I don't know why it has a bad ESN, does that matter? I want this phone but don't want to get screwed if I can't get it working. Thanks all.
If it has a bad esn, then it was possibly reported stolen or a cloned esn [which is technically] illegal. If a phone has a bad esn more service centers won't want anything to do with it by activating it.
teh roxxorz said:
If it has a bad esn, then it was possibly reported stolen or a cloned esn [which is technically] illegal. If a phone has a bad esn more service centers won't want anything to do with it by activating it.
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So if I root it, will the esn still be bad? Can it even be rooted with a bad esn? Is there any way to access the esn?
hurrycaine3000 said:
So if I root it, will the esn still be bad? Can it even be rooted with a bad esn? Is there any way to access the esn?
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You can root it just fine, but the ESN will still be bad. You have to use that QPST program to change it. But again, that's technically illegal. So honestly, unless you want it just for wifi use only, and tried placing calls and texts using google voice, you're out of luck.
teh roxxorz said:
You can root it just fine, but the ESN will still be bad. You have to use that QPST program to change it. But again, that's technically illegal. So honestly, unless you want it just for wifi use only, and tried placing calls and texts using google voice, you're out of luck.
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Changing the esn of a device is only illegal if you are going to be committing fraud as a result of the change.
For example.. If you change your esn to match someome elses and access their service.
Changing an esn to use on your own paid account is not fraudulent, as you are paying for the service you are using.
Will if void the warranty? Yes.. Will it piss off the actual cell company the phone was intended for? Yes.. Illegal? No.
You can get an S III on Wirefly for 100 bucks right now, brand new
Sprint? No.
Boost? Yes.
But you would have to flash it.
HipKat said:
You can get an S III on Wirefly for 100 bucks right now, brand new
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New activations only. Not for upgrades
[Sent from my *voided* HTC EVO running [Team D.I.R.T] [Jelly Bean] UNOFFICIAL Codename Android 3.3.1]
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I bought a Brand new still Sealed SG II Epic 4G touch for sprint from a guy on craigslist.
Tried to activate it this morning and sprint said it was already activated. As a reuslt, i couldn't the phone. I contacted the seller and he said that he works for sprint and all he has to do is meet up with me and reprogram the phone. This sounds kind of sketchy to me because i can't see how he can reprogram the phone and deactivate the account from the phone?
But the thing is.. i'm not meeting him at the sprint store.
Any experts out there can help me out?
Maybe he stole it from the sprint store? Call sprint, check the esn, etc. There's nothing he can do that sprint cant themselves
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
bbedward said:
Maybe he stole it from the sprint store? Call sprint, check the esn, etc. There's nothing he can do that sprint cant themselves
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
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This
Call sprint and check the ESN to make sure it isn't lost or stolen.
If its not lost/stolen but currently activated to an account, its possible someone used the phone as a donor phone to clone ESN
lol man, hope its not stolen.. alwasy check the ESN before you buy any phone off a site like craigslist! and make sure you check it from the phone itself, sometimes the stickers on the box/back of phone are wrong! trust me, i work for U.S. Cellular and we have a lot of stickers that are wrong..
I called sprint and they said it was recently activated on OCT and it was not reported Stolen or Lost..
Is this a good sign?
The rep even gave me the name of the person it's under and the actual phone number it's currently activated as.
R1ptide said:
This
Call sprint and check the ESN to make sure it isn't lost or stolen.
If its not lost/stolen but currently activated to an account, its possible someone used the phone as a donor phone to clone ESN
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aznne0 said:
I called sprint and they said it was recently activated on OCT and it was not reported Stolen or Lost..
Is this a good sign?
The rep even gave me the name of the person it's under and the actual phone number it's currently activated as.
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lol some customer privacy! they just give it out.. if you cant make/receive calls from the device then that means the esn was used with another device..
When u activate on the website it tells u to reprogram the phone and gives u a code
Sent from my M9300 using XDA App
That's one thing I miss about GSM phones you can use any phone even if someone stole it. Not that I support buying stolen things but it helps against scams
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA App
aznne0 said:
I called sprint and they said it was recently activated on OCT and it was not reported Stolen or Lost..
Is this a good sign?
The rep even gave me the name of the person it's under and the actual phone number it's currently activated as.
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If you turn it on can you make calls?
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2
I didn't try making a call.. but It asks me to activate.. and i can tell there's reception with a 3G icon that popped up.
Is that a good sign? lol
R1ptide said:
If you turn it on can you make calls?
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S2
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I tried to activate it on the sprint website.. but when i type in the DEC number... it says that it's already been activated on another account.
So i can't proceed any further...
chrystal0925 said:
When u activate on the website it tells u to reprogram the phone and gives u a code
Sent from my M9300 using XDA App
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What looks like had happened is he bought the phone online to sell using his full upgrade. Since he used his upgrade to get it, the device would be activated on his account. The phone itself may not be activated yet, but the ESN is. You need to get ahold of the guy again and have him remove the ESN from his line by swapping the devices. Now if he says that it is already off of the account, and Sprint is reporting otherwise, then he probably did steal the phone from someone else, or never did what he said he did.
I know this is a stupid question bud Ive seen Evos with "bad ESNs" so cheap Ive began to wonder what it is. I know its something bad (duh its fkn obvious) but what exactly is this ESN?? and can I still activate the phone with sprint n use it? thnx!
You can't activate it if it has a bad ESN
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Bad ESN's are phone's that are essentially "lost" or something else. You wont be able to use those phones on Sprint, but you can flash on another carrier like MetroPCS or Criket.
Electronic serial numbers (ESNs) were created by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to uniquely identify mobile devices.
The ESN is "bad" in the sense that it is reported stolen or the account has an outstanding balance remaining. It cannot be activated on a network. There are ways to zero out the ESN and cloning. ESN cloning is illegal. Thus, for all intents and purposes, a phone with a bad ESN can be your new Wi-Fi bound media device
oook, so basically if I want a PHONE (call, txt, web,...) I should avoid bad ESN phones, unless I want an HTC branded iPod... well thnx every1 for the fast replies =)
i want to flash my evo to boost mobile but it has a bad esn so i can, is there a way to change it or repair it?
Yep there is and its a simple process. Just search for the many available guides for Flashing to Boost. You'll need a donor Boost phone of course.
Dean_L said:
Yep there is and its a simple process. Just search for the many available guides for Flashing to Boost. You'll need a donor Boost phone of course.
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what do you mean by donor boost phone? and i tried to get to boost to activate a contract to i could flash the phone but the said i couldnt cause the htc evo has a bad esn? so what should i do cause i really dont understand?
cwa542 said:
what do you mean by donor boost phone? and i tried to get to boost to activate a contract to i could flash the phone but the said i couldnt cause the htc evo has a bad esn? so what should i do cause i really dont understand?
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You can flash phones with bad esns to other carriers. Mostly half the people on flashed phones have bad esn phones.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA
evo4gnoob said:
You can flash phones with bad esns to other carriers. Mostly half the people on flashed phones have bad esn phones.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA
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i understand that cause im using cricket but the singel and internet sucks so thats why i want to get boost mobile, but when i went in there they said that i couldnt buy the plan cause the phone has a bad esn or meid or something like that
You need a donor phone with a good esn to clone to the bad phone.
sitlet said:
You need a donor phone with a good esn to clone to the bad phone.
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and how would i clone the esn to the evo? do you know a good video i could watch cause theres only 2 i can find on youtube and you have to buy a guide and sont wanna wast money on it
cwa542 said:
and how would i clone the esn to the evo? do you know a good video i could watch cause theres only 2 i can find on youtube and you have to buy a guide and sont wanna wast money on it
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We don't talk about illegal activity here. I can tell you that you need a donor phone with a good esn, that's it. Google is your friend, it's not that hard. Don't try youtube for this, obviously you wont find videos there on how to do illegal things.
If i buy a phone with a bad esn can I use the esn of my current phone as a donor to replace the phone I would buy?
monstaX said:
If i buy a phone with a bad esn can I use the esn of my current phone as a donor to replace the phone I would buy?
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yes sir you can XD
all you do is clone the esn to your new phone and if the old phone and the new phone models are the same you can save, replace in qpst, the process would take no more that 5 minutes.
But I want to buy a galaxy nexus for $250 off craigslist with a bad esn. Different models!!!. Is it the same process..? I am a noob!!! So it would be an esn from a clean epic on sprint to a bad esn galaxy nexus..
monstaX said:
But I want to buy a galaxy nexus for $250 off craigslist with a bad esn. Different models!!!. Is it the same process..? I am a noob!!! So it would be an esn from a clean epic on sprint to a bad esn galaxy nexus..
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yes exactly. itll just take merging of settings instead.
So i would open qpst have drivers and all that stuff and i would just put my epics esn as the galaxy nexus's and then replace all the cricket settings with exact settings with my phone. *turn phone on* then voila?!!!! Im sure its more difficult than that
monstaX said:
So i would open qpst have drivers and all that stuff and i would just put my epics esn as the galaxy nexus's and then replace all the cricket settings with exact settings with my phone. *turn phone on* then voila?!!!! Im sure its more difficult than that
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well, if you do that gtalk me([email protected]), and i can walk you through it of course you dont use qpst to clone an esn though XD
Lol. Ok Im learning. Me== Dumb Mexican haha. But if i do end up buying it i will definately ask you for help man. Thanks so much. If I do get it it will be by July 20th haha. Get paid the 15th or some **** like that. And i think youre a big dev on here or something along those lines haha so if you ever need a tester im here. I dont think i have a gtalk but will get one soon. Thanks again ( no homo)
Soooo...
So every stolen iPhone automatically has a bad ESN?
nikkygirl1 said:
So every stolen iPhone automatically has a bad ESN?
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If it's reported stolen, yes...
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Xparent ICS Blue Tapatalk 2
I have a Sprint Galaxy S3 that I got from a friend. He was with Sprint but went to another carrier so he unlocked the phone and used it with them. Now I want to use it on my Sprint acct but when I tried to activate it Sprint told me the the ESN is not in their database anymore so they can't activate it. The ESN does not show up as bad, they just say they have no record of this ESN at all.
It this point I'm not sure what to do. This phone is a better phone (it's 32 gb, mine is 16) and it's in better shape than mine so I would settle on cloning my ESN to this phone but I have not been able to find any way to do that.
Does anyone have any ideas about how I can activate this phone?
Thanks!
bhood9 said:
I have a Sprint Galaxy S3 that I got from a friend. He was with Sprint but went to another carrier so he unlocked the phone and used it with them. Now I want to use it on my Sprint acct but when I tried to activate it Sprint told me the the ESN is not in their database anymore so they can't activate it. The ESN does not show up as bad, they just say they have no record of this ESN at all.
It this point I'm not sure what to do. This phone is a better phone (it's 32 gb, mine is 16) and it's in better shape than mine so I would settle on cloning my ESN to this phone but I have not been able to find any way to do that.
Does anyone have any ideas about how I can activate this phone?
Thanks!
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well sprint doesn't have the ESN in there database cause it was literally moved to the other company......unless they went to a sub company of sprint cause then it would still be alright