i know these forums are congested with newbies like me trying to flash and unlock there phones but i really cant find anything that helps me with this problem. if you all havent noticed there are great deals on phones with bad esn numbers. i plan on buying a cdma touch pro and flash it to cricket. im wondering if a bad esn number well prevent me from doing this and i want to avoid changing the esn number since there a lot of legal issues with that.
thanks in advance
i bought my Touch Pro on ebay advertised as a "bad ESN" phone. Cricket could care less where the phone comes from, or who blacklisted the ESN for whatever reason. i have flashed many for the Cricket network and never walked into a store to do it! costs $15, just tell them the ESN. and it may not over-the-air program with *228 (mine doesn't) but that isn't needed
remember that their data plan is unlimited, but limited by ports- so IM, email, and other stuff not browser related *may* be blocked on your Touch Pro!
anybody can help me telling me how change my evo to boost mobile i had tryed calling to customer service but they won't help so can somebody help me with this problem please
mhackner said:
anybody can help me telling me how change my evo to boost mobile i had tryed calling to customer service but they won't help so can somebody help me with this problem please
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Dear soloboy,
Why did you make a new name on here bc u couldn't get help in the other thread? The guy said he east doing it anymore, so what's ur deal?
All spelling errors thanks to xt9 on my Evo!
Are you stupid. Im still SOLOBOY. I went with METRO PCS instead.. So mind your Business... And BOOST MOBILE DOES NOT ALLOW EVOS on BOOST
Soloboy1 said:
Are you stupid. Im still SOLOBOY. I went with METRO PCS instead.. So mind your Business... And BOOST MOBILE DOES NOT ALLOW EVOS on BOOST
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Split personalities ftw
All spelling errors thanks to xt9 on my Evo!
it's not suppose to work....you can always try this guide and see if it will work for you, but customer service won't help you do it because it "can't be done"
http://cellphoneforums.net/boost-mobile/t307946-how-get-sprint-phones-boostmobile-cdma.html
and as always, please google before posting your question in multiple sections...
thanks
wvaj said:
it's not suppose to work....you can always try this guide and see if it will work for you, but customer service won't help you do it because it "can't be done"
http://cellphoneforums.net/boost-mobile/t307946-how-get-sprint-phones-boostmobile-cdma.html
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Just wondering if anyone can confirm this working on the evo? looks promising but would still like some feedback from anyone who may have tried this... F**k sprint!!! I purchased a new Evo for me and a samsung seek (which stopped turning on after one day) for my girlfriend, but sprint charged me for two evos and they refuse to admit they are wrong... so needless to say i cancelled my contract and i am now making free calls over wifi (take that sprint) without service. But having to be in a wifi hotspot to call or text isnt always convenient. Please post any issues or non issues that you may have if you try this... Thanks
there is a way , but its illegal , its has to do with ESN change on phone , but you can go to jail for many years , its a fellony , CDMA ws ,QXDM, these programs needed , but again u can go to jail , it can be done , nd it has been done .
I guess it depends on your interpetation of the law, many peolpe are 50/50 on this. but i can confirm evo works with boostmobile.... you will go on a hunt for the info but its out there.... and no i will not provide the info or tell you where to find it... google my friends... and once you get the info and do what needs to be done you will feel good that you did it on your own, not entirely on your own...lol-
740man said:
there is a way , but its illegal , its has to do with ESN change on phone , but you can go to jail for many years , its a fellony , CDMA ws ,QXDM, these programs needed , but again u can go to jail , it can be done , nd it has been done .
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not true. u can get a legit phone from boostmobile a 3g phone preffered and use that esn and flash it to your evo. thats not illegal since u own that boostmobile phone and you not using it to harm or steal no ones identity or making free phone calls withouth paying for it. so i dont see anything illegal about it. i use 2 phones 1 for work and the evo when im out of work.
dominicanodcora said:
not true. u can get a legit phone from boostmobile a 3g phone preffered and use that esn and flash it to your evo. thats not illegal since u own that boostmobile phone and you not using it to harm or steal no ones identity or making free phone calls withouth paying for it. so i dont see anything illegal about it. i use 2 phones 1 for work and the evo when im out of work.
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It doesn't matter whether or not you consider it illegal, it's what the fcc thinks that's important, and according to the fcc, it's a federal offence, even if it's your own phone/esn. From their website;
Fraud
Cellular fraud is defined as the unauthorized use, tampering, or manipulation of a cellular phone or service. Cellular industry estimates indicate that carriers lose millions per year to cellular fraud, with the principal cause being subscription fraud. Subscriber fraud occurs when a subscriber signs up for service with fraudulently obtained customer information or false identification.
In the past, cloning of cellular phones was a major concern. A cloned cellular telephone is one that has been reprogrammed to transmit the electronic serial number (ESN) and telephone number (MIN) belonging to another (legitimate) cellular telephone. Unscrupulous persons obtain valid ESN/MIN combinations by illegally monitoring the transmissions from the cellular telephones of legitimate subscribers. Each cellular telephone is supposed to have a unique factory-set ESN. After cloning, however, because both cellular telephones have the same ESN/MIN combination, cellular systems cannot distinguish the cloned cellular telephone from the legitimate one.
The Commission considers any knowing use of cellular telephone with an altered ESN to be a violation of the Communications Act (Section 301) and alteration of the ESN in a cellular telephone to be assisting in such violation. The Wireless Telephone Protection Act (Public Law 105-172) was signed into law on April 24, 1998, expanding the prior law to criminalize the use, possession, manufacture or sale of cloning hardware or software. The cellular equipment manufacturing industry has deployed authentication systems that have proven to be a very effective countermeasure to cloning. Authentication supplements the use of the ESN and MIN with a changing encrypted code that can not be obtained by off-the-air monitoring.
Sent from my blah blah blah blah
You can get your HTC EVO on Boost Mobile
It is possible to get your HTC EVO on Boost Mobile.
Some people will tell you it is illegal and site code of federal regulations. Well as of January congress has crushed that.
If you OWN (OWN being the KEY WORD) your device and you are not changing the device info to commit fraud. Then you are good to go.
How do you own your device, Not be under contract, have no outstanding balances, etc. Easiest way around this is to just buy a seperate phone. This way you are not playing with the semantics. You can also find info and detail guides here www evoflash . myfreeforum . org
Hope this helps everyone enjoy their EVO ON BOOST, I am
ALSO WITH 4G, How? I activated the Mac Address with CLEAR.
I love it
The text from my post above is still what's posted on the fcc website, and it doesn't say anything to the effect of "the above doesn't apply if you clone your own phone, or mess with the esn of your own device". What happened in Jan to change the law? Is the fcc just posting old info? Do you have a more current link?
Sent from my blah blah blah blah
fachadick said:
The text from my post above is still what's posted on the fcc website, and it doesn't say anything to the effect of "the above doesn't apply if you clone your own phone, or mess with the esn of your own device". What happened in Jan to change the law? Is the fcc just posting old info? Do you have a more current link?
Sent from my blah blah blah blah
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Supposedly they are suppose to change it, which makes sense. It all stemmed from Apple wanting to punish people for jailbreaking, but congress decided that as long as you own the device, and are not doing anything wrong, then you can do whatever you want. Basically, as long as you are not committing theft you are alright.
TechSoft said:
It is possible to get your HTC EVO on Boost Mobile.
Some people will tell you it is illegal and site code of federal regulations. Well as of January congress has crushed that.
If you OWN (OWN being the KEY WORD) your device and you are not changing the device info to commit fraud. Then you are good to go.
How do you own your device, Not be under contract, have no outstanding balances, etc. Easiest way around this is to just buy a seperate phone. This way you are not playing with the semantics. You can also find info and detail guides here www evoflash . myfreeforum . org
Hope this helps everyone enjoy their EVO ON BOOST, I am
ALSO WITH 4G, How? I activated the Mac Address with CLEAR.
I love it
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i went to that website and i dont see any info. and why u would pay $50 for boostmobile and $45 for 4g with clear doesnt make sense just stay with sprint it will be a lot cheaper.
TechSoft said:
It is possible to get your HTC EVO on Boost Mobile.
Some people will tell you it is illegal and site code of federal regulations. Well as of January congress has crushed that.
If you OWN (OWN being the KEY WORD) your device and you are not changing the device info to commit fraud. Then you are good to go.
How do you own your device, Not be under contract, have no outstanding balances, etc. Easiest way around this is to just buy a seperate phone. This way you are not playing with the semantics. You can also find info and detail guides here www evoflash . myfreeforum . org
Hope this helps everyone enjoy their EVO ON BOOST, I am
ALSO WITH 4G, How? I activated the Mac Address with CLEAR.
I love it
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So, under your logic here, having two cars would, in essence give you the right to change the VIN numbers. This is not allowed. It is illegal for mostly anything out there.
I have 5 cars and I commonly switch around the VIN numbers and licence plates just to **** with the authorities.
jk.
I have one car and it's starting to break =[
In any case, I think the law would be a little more lenient on switching around phone information than car information.
I might be wrong.
egzthunder1 said:
So, under your logic here, having two cars would, in essence give you the right to change the VIN numbers. This is not allowed. It is illegal for mostly anything out there.
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A better comparison would be an engine swap. VIN #'s don't match but you can get it registered at the DMV for legality issues. Just like phone companies have the right to not add the phone to their network the DMV has the right to deny your swap as legal.
I was under the impression that there was a recent ruling that made it totally legal to do whatever you want to your phone, as long as you are not bound by a contract. As far as phone flashing and esn adding, I believe houdinisoft is the only way to legally add an esn to a carrier, and I think it only works for metroPCS. I can confirm that the Evo works on metroPCS legally, with 1x data. I have mine sitting on my desk next to me.
Soloboy1 said:
Are you stupid. Im still SOLOBOY. I went with METRO PCS instead.. So mind your Business... And BOOST MOBILE DOES NOT ALLOW EVOS on BOOST
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I have an EVo on Boostmobile..!
but all those laws are TARGETED AT CRIMINAL INTENT.
first if you own both phones and are NOT defrauding boost of "subscription" ie you also have a valid subscription and you gain no service above what you would have had.
there really is no criminal intent under this law. Still illegal? hell yes. likely to be found? hell no (unless your STUPID and keep both phones on. that first phones needs to be DAMAGED to prevent it EVER turning on and connecting to the system)
Likely to be prosecuted and convicted? NOT likely. once in court (if it ever gets that far not likely) when the judge see's wait you own both phones? you own the services and pay for it? your not defrauding anyone of service or identity? you even made sure the old phone can NOT connect and still posses it so your not getting TWO phones working for the price of one.
I don't see you EVER being convicted and certainly not a felony if your lawyer has more than 50 brain cells.
illegal yes. would you be convicted? probably a better chance of you being struck by lightning. twice. and then hit by a meteor made of gold.
Hey! I purchased an htc evo from a friend of mine who fail to pay his phone bill, so the phone have a bad esn. Can someone guide me thru flashing it to boost mobile please. I look all over and couldnt' find nothing on flashing htc evo too boost. I found something on epic to boost that's about it. I heard writing the meid is different can someone please help me out. thanks. I purchase a boost incognito as a donor phone.
sakpase said:
Hey! I purchased an htc evo from a friend of mine who fail to pay his phone bill, so the phone have a bad esn. Can someone guide me thru flashing it to boost mobile please. I look all over and couldnt' find nothing on flashing htc evo too boost. I found something on epic to boost that's about it. I heard writing the meid is different can someone please help me out. thanks. I purchase a boost incognito as a donor phone.
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i have seen guides but from what i read it a royal pain the ass and don't work 99% of the time
I bet its a stolen phone
HERE'S a tutorial on flashing to metro. It will be a good start but you will need to change the addy from metro to boost. A little google searching should help you out but like I said, start here.
I know two people, that got there evo stolen too bad they can sorta still activate it on ghetto metro.
Any talk of boost/metro flashing should be banned >=]
The information in my post here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1008909 may be helpful.
I completely agree with both nsxla and weehooherod... stolen phones shouldn't be able to be able to be activated. At the same time the way providers tie you into using their devices is as ridiculous as Apple's software copyrights not allowing you to use software you purchase on non-approved hardware (that's another topic). I have an acquaintances that is a area sales manager for a big cell company and his only argument for carriers not accepting outside phones is that they are not optimized for the individual provider's network and hence can bog it down. Yeah... mmmm hhhmm
Flashing to Metro is perfectly fine, because you don't need to illegally modify your phone, hell metro openly flashes evo's to their service.
However, putting an evo on Boost is outside of the legal guidelines since it requires a donor phone to clone onto the evo.
As far as MetroPCS and other pre-paid services bashing them is just plain ignorant. In some states you'll get better coverage with Metro than you would AT&T or some other contract providers and the prices are good.
To the OP: Metro has better coverage than Boost in my area so it might be worth checking out where you live.
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 finally got a new phone and I want to sell this one off eBay however I want to make sure this is sell ready. I went back to stock rom am I good to go or do I need to do anything else?
Well, you might be a little confused on what the ESN (Electronic Serial Number) actually is...
In short, if the phone can get voice and data service by signing up through the provider, the ESN is clean. If you are currently using it on a voice/data network with no issues, the ESN is clean. An ESN is only blacklisted by a service provider when reported stolen or you didn't pay your bill for too long. At that point, any attempts to sign up new service for the phone will be rejected, and the attempt to do so is usually reported by the provider.
The ESN is programmed into the firmware of the phone itself when it is manufactured; note that it is not programmed into the OS firmware ROM, but the firmware on the phone itself that contains things like the PRL (preferred roaming list) and other information the data modem needs to make a data connection. This firmware is independent from the OS and usually never changes except when updating the PRL or activating it for first-time use. The ESN is then linked to your phone service account with your provider unless you cancel service, report it stolen, or possibly if you stop paying your bill for too long.
The ESN can be changed with phone programming software (QPST, CDMA Workshop, etc). However, this is very illegal and I never advise attempting to do so. A change in the ESN is also detectable when it differs from the ESN/IMEI sticker usually under the battery. Because of the illegality of this, I will give no further details. If you stole the phone you are trying to sell, the ESN will come up as stolen when the purchaser of the phone attempts to register it with the service provider.
Hope that helps.
If you did steal the phone, karma will catch up with you
AlwaysLucky said:
Well, you might be a little confused on what the ESN (Electronic Serial Number) actually is...
In short, if the phone can get voice and data service by signing up through the provider, the ESN is clean. If you are currently using it on a voice/data network with no issues, the ESN is clean. An ESN is only blacklisted by a service provider when reported stolen or you didn't pay your bill for too long. At that point, any attempts to sign up new service for the phone will be rejected, and the attempt to do so is usually reported by the provider.
The ESN is programmed into the firmware of the phone itself when it is manufactured; note that it is not programmed into the OS firmware ROM, but the firmware on the phone itself that contains things like the PRL (preferred roaming list) and other information the data modem needs to make a data connection. This firmware is independent from the OS and usually never changes except when updating the PRL or activating it for first-time use. The ESN is then linked to your phone service account with your provider unless you cancel service, report it stolen, or possibly if you stop paying your bill for too long.
The ESN can be changed with phone programming software (QPST, CDMA Workshop, etc). However, this is very illegal and I never advise attempting to do so. A change in the ESN is also detectable when it differs from the ESN/IMEI sticker usually under the battery. Because of the illegality of this, I will give no further details. If you stole the phone you are trying to sell, the ESN will come up as stolen when the purchaser of the phone attempts to register it with the service provider.
Hope that helps.
If you did steal the phone, karma will catch up with you
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Yeah I am a bit confused, I once tried selling my old S3 off eBay that my mothers boyfriend gave me but the buyer couldnt activated so i had to clean the ESN. I didnt steal this phone I bought it off eBay and used it for a month then got the Note 5. I just dont know if rooting and installing a custom ROM can mess everything up and the new owner won't be able to activate the phone.
I went ahead and unrooted the phone and reverted it back to stock ROM. So is it safe to sell this phone or is there more I need to do?
Also thank you.
Check the esn/IMEI on swappa. That will tell you if it is clean and sellable.
Frankenscript said:
Check the esn/IMEI on swappa. That will tell you if it is clean and sellable.
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Nevermind I read it wrong.
Adamgm10 said:
Yeah I am a bit confused, I once tried selling my old S3 off eBay that my mothers boyfriend gave me but the buyer couldnt activated so i had to clean the ESN. I didnt steal this phone I bought it off eBay and used it for a month then got the Note 5. I just dont know if rooting and installing a custom ROM can mess everything up and the new owner won't be able to activate the phone.
I went ahead and unrooted the phone and reverted it back to stock ROM. So is it safe to sell this phone or is there more I need to do?
Also thank you.
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With that said, it sounds like to me your ESN is clean because it hasn't been reported stolen and is not associated with a delinquent account. It just sounds like you rooted the phone and installed a custom ROM. There is nothing wrong or illegal about that, but it usually does void the manufacturers 1-year warranty. There is no need to un-root and go stock when selling unless that is how you want to sell it or the buyer requests it.
Bottom line: Rooting the phone and installing a custom ROM has NO impact on the ESN, and vice-versa.
You're very welcome, sir.