Develop Bugs

Bad imei/esn on the new AT&T S3 I just bought! ???

Is there a way to unblock these back to the original carrier yet?

paulmagglios said:
Is there a way to unblock these back to the original carrier yet?
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Unblock what? Does the imei read 0? Is the phone rooted or modified in any way?

paulmagglios said:
Is there a way to unblock these back to the original carrier yet?
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Where did you buy it?

Sounds to me like you are black listed. If so then you can probably do it if your name was the first attached to that phone and reported the ESN. Upon that failing, you can try to bribe someone to clear your ESN. What I have noticed is that there are a lot of bad ESN phones being sold to Canada, as it seems the checks are not compatible and could work up here. Aside from those options, it seems you have a bad phone.

BCSC said:
Sounds to me like you are black listed. If so then you can probably do it if your name was the first attached to that phone and reported the ESN. Upon that failing, you can try to bribe someone to clear your ESN. What I have noticed is that there are a lot of bad ESN phones being sold to Canada, as it seems the checks are not compatible and could work up here. Aside from those options, it seems you have a bad phone.
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Yeah, it was a craigslist buy
Also I've heard about the options to sell overseas and to canadians, but would like to use the phone here in the States if at all possible.
So these craigslist and ebay ads about being able to 'fix' the imei back to the original carrier are false?

paulmagglios said:
Yeah, it was a craigslist buy
Also I've heard about the options to sell overseas and to canadians, but would like to use the phone here in the States if at all possible.
So these craigslist and ebay ads about being able to 'fix' the imei back to the original carrier are false?
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My understanding is that bad IMEI or ESN is due to the phone being reported lost or stolen. I'm assuming here, but i'd be pretty confident in saying that the original owner would have to contact the original carrier to clear the block. Otherwise anyone could steal and un block ESN. On the other hand, the people offering this service may work for whatever agency or carrier deals with blocking ESNs. Here is an Ebay ad I've found for ATT. Seems kind of legit, but is definitely risky to give someone remote control of your phone in order to swap the IMEI number. Up to you entirely though. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Bad-IMEI-ES...217?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cd6ca26e9.

Thread closed before imei swapping ideas are presented as that is illegal in some countries and not allowed on XDA.

[Q] Note 3 security questions

I bought a used Note 3 on ebay and wondering if
1) The seller claims the esn is clean. Is there a way that I can verify that this phone is clean (i.e.: not stolen)?
2) The phone is also rooted. I'm concerned that it's possible that rooted phone could have hidden spyware apps installed. Is there some app or tools I can use to check for possible spyware?
Thanks!

TruongKy said:
I bought a used Note 3 on ebay and wondering if
1) The seller claims the esn is clean. Is there a way that I can verify that this phone is clean (i.e.: not stolen)?
2) The phone is also rooted. I'm concerned that it's possible that rooted phone could have hidden spyware apps installed. Is there some app or tools I can use to check for possible spyware?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
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1.
The should be able to provide you the IMEI before purchase. Many e-bay sellers put it directly in the listing. Once you have it you can check it here :
http://www.checkesnfree.com/
2.
Whenever you get a phone, rooted or not, flash it to stock. No spyware will survive a clean flash.

TruongKy said:
I bought a used Note 3 on ebay and wondering if
1) The seller claims the esn is clean. Is there a way that I can verify that this phone is clean (i.e.: not stolen)?
2) The phone is also rooted. I'm concerned that it's possible that rooted phone could have hidden spyware apps installed. Is there some app or tools I can use to check for possible spyware?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To be honest, even if you called t mobile and they told you the phone esn is clean, it can still be blocked later for probably one of the following reasons:
The person who bought this phone on contract and sold it on ebay and later for some reason, he decided not to keep paying the installment.
The person who sold you that phone just want to screw you and can later falsely report to t mobile that his phone is stolen.
Either of the situation happens, you might end up with a phone with blaskliested imei.

wzhao14 said:
To be honest, even if you called t mobile and they told you the phone esn is clean, it can still be blocked later for probably one of the following reasons:
The person who bought this phone on contract and sold it on ebay and later for some reason, he decided not to keep paying the installment.
The person who sold you that phone just want to screw you and can later falsely report to t mobile that his phone is stolen.
Either of the situation happens, you might end up with a phone with blaskliested imei.
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I've read that there's a way to avoid this. If its a T-Mobile device the imei can be registered on your account and in your name. Then the device can't be blacklisted later on. Granted if its a different carrier this doesn't really matter

icenight89 said:
I've read that there's a way to avoid this. If its a T-Mobile device the imei can be registered on your account and in your name. Then the device can't be blacklisted later on. Granted if its a different carrier this doesn't really matter
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Great tip, thanks

icenight89 said:
I've read that there's a way to avoid this. If its a T-Mobile device the imei can be registered on your account and in your name. Then the device can't be blacklisted later on. Granted if its a different carrier this doesn't really matter
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That would be as long as the phone is paid off.

Why not steal a Phone and have it for FREE!!

Just want to verify this:
My daughter lost her cell and I’m told by Sprint rep that she can put a restriction/flag on the phone so it can’t be use or activated. Now here is my issue; after I told her that I have a backup phone that I want to activate on that account she ask me if I had a screen look on my old phone because once she removed it from the account it can be activated on any other account with no restriction. Pretty much a clean ESN after the swap.
To my understanding once a phone is flag only the owner can call sprint and have the flag remove. This doesn’t make sense to me because people can just steal ur phone wait few days until you put a phone on your account and then activate it under their name and have a free phone.
If this is true is another reason to not pay for insurance because people will still take ur phone if they know they just have to wait couple of days and

You were told wrong, or more probable, you were told poorly. Once a phones serial number (ESN) has been flagged as lost/stolen, the only way to make that phone work on a network again is to flash it with another ESN (which usually a thief would not know how to do).

arunningpir8 said:
You were told wrong, or more probable, you were told poorly. Once a phones serial number (ESN) has been flagged as lost/stolen, the only way to make that phone work on a network again is to flash it with another ESN (which usually a thief would not know how to do).
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i lost my phones more then ones and they are all without screen locks and bad esn by sprint
and as for as my experience with sprint customer service
i'm not surprised that someone gave you wrong information
it looks to me that they all get paid minimum wage

arunningpir8 said:
You were told wrong, or more probable, you were told poorly. Once a phones serial number (ESN) has been flagged as lost/stolen, the only way to make that phone work on a network again is to flash it with another ESN (which usually a thief would not know how to do).
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Don't think thieves don't use these forums as well

purchased locked phone.

So my girlfriend just purchased an S6 (sprint) and when she took it to the store to have it activated they couldn't do it because it was "locked"...some kind of carrier lock I'm assuming.. Like they owed sprint money or something? Obviously if it was a normal security lock than we could just do a factory reset but apparently that won't work.
So.. Anyone know anything about this and a way around it? I'm a Verizon user and have never heard of this kind of problem. Thanks for any help in advance.

topshot17 said:
So my girlfriend just purchased an S6 (sprint) and when she took it to the store to have it activated they couldn't do it because it was "locked"...some kind of carrier lock I'm assuming.. Like they owed sprint money or something? Obviously if it was a normal security lock than we could just do a factory reset but apparently that won't work.
So.. Anyone know anything about this and a way around it? I'm a Verizon user and have never heard of this kind of problem. Thanks for any help in advance.
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All carriers, including Verizon, have a carrier BLOCK not lock. A carrier lock means the device is locked to that carrier. What exactly did Sprint say? If the phone is blacklisted, which you can check on any ESN checker online, then it will never work on Sprint.
Where did she buy the phone at?

elesbb said:
All carriers, including Verizon, have a carrier BLOCK not lock. A carrier lock means the device is locked to that carrier. What exactly did Sprint say? If the phone is blacklisted, which you can check on any ESN checker online, then it will never work on Sprint.
Where did she buy the phone at?
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I'm unsure what they told her exactly, besides that they can't activate it. Now what is the point of a carrier block? She got the phone off Craigslist.

topshot17 said:
I'm unsure what they told her exactly, besides that they can't activate it. Now what is the point of a carrier block? She got the phone off Craigslist.
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Yup. Its definitely carrier blocked. NEVER buy cell phones from Craigslist without first checking the ESN from Sprint directly. You are better off selling the device on eBay FOR PARTS.
The point of a carrier block is so people who steal, or fail to pay off their device, can not use it anymore, and thus rip off good people on craigslist and eBay.

elesbb said:
Yup. Its definitely carrier blocked. NEVER buy cell phones from Craigslist without first checking the ESN from Sprint directly. You are better off selling the device on eBay FOR PARTS.
The point of a carrier block is so people who steal, or fail to pay off their device, can not use it anymore, and thus rip off good people on craigslist and eBay.
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Joy. Problem with this phone is that it has a none removal back.. Can't look under the battery.. Can't get into the phone to check the ESN either without the previous owners Gmail account information.

topshot17 said:
Joy. Problem with this phone is that it has a none removal back.. Can't look under the battery.. Can't get into the phone to check the ESN either without the previous owners Gmail account information.
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That I believe is an FRP lock.. Totally different from a carrier block. But if you go into download mode, you can press the home key to view IMEI. But FRP lock, which is what you just described, can be bypassed.
Check out this video and follow it to a T. You may need to improvise do to different android versions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJ8_qbj1DPQ
Hope it helps! If its just FRP locked, and not carrier blocked, then you should be okay to get it activated.

elesbb said:
That I believe is an FRP lock.. Totally different from a carrier block. But if you go into download mode, you can press the home key to view IMEI. But FRP lock, which is what you just described, can be bypassed.
Check out this video and follow it to a T. You may need to improvise do to different android versions.
Hope it helps! If its just FRP locked, and not carrier blocked, then you should be okay to get it activated.
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Thank you, I'll check into it.

Saafir said:
The numbers for the device is located on the back panel, at the bottom.
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Ahh it is.. So the phone did have an FRP lock on it but that was an easy fix.. But unfortunately it also has a carrier block due to an unpaid balance. Thanks for everyone's help.

topshot17 said:
Ahh it is.. So the phone did have an FRP lock on it but that was an easy fix.. But unfortunately it also has a carrier block due to an unpaid balance. Thanks for everyone's help.
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can't you contact the person who sold it to you? threatening to bring the police in might scare them into giving you a refund. If the phone had a FRP lock and its flagged, then im pretty sure the phone was stolen.

The Android Attorney said:
can't you contact the person who sold it to you? threatening to bring the police in might scare them into giving you a refund. If the phone had a FRP lock and its flagged, then im pretty sure the phone was stolen.
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Yeah It more than likely was. It's pretty much a dead end.. My gf payed for it but her brother met the person somewhere for pickup.. Only contact information is an email address which they haven't responded too after the sale. Apparently the phone was dead when he picked it up. I personally would have put it on my car charger and powered it on before paying for it.. And got more information.. But oh well.. Now she knows to be more cautious and I'll probably handle any future used phone purchases for her.

Saafir said:
Shady stuff man. I hope you have better luck with Craigslist in the future. I try to steer clear of them, sort of like Ebay. You could always inquire on what the remaining balance is. If it's something stupid like $48, I would just pay it off.
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Haha yeah somehow I doubt it'll be anything under a few hundred.. Think I'll call and check just got kicks though.

topshot17 said:
Yeah It more than likely was. It's pretty much a dead end.. My gf payed for it but her brother met the person somewhere for pickup.. Only contact information is an email address which they haven't responded too after the sale. Apparently the phone was dead when he picked it up. I personally would have put it on my car charger and powered it on before paying for it.. And got more information.. But oh well.. Now she knows to be more cautious and I'll probably handle any future used phone purchases for her.
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Who buys a used cellphone without even physically checking it ?? I mean seriously ?...next time when buying atleast have a number of the seller and complete info of what u are buying atleast
Sent from my LG-H815 using XDA-Developers mobile app

Question [CLOSED] Help! Bought dodgy phone

I new it was to good to be true, the reason my phone keeps saying cannot use voice or connot use sim 1, is due to someone selling me a phone that was previously on a contract! And of course there is no trace of this guy, I contacted Google, they need proof of perchase! Yeah that's not going to be simple to get, it's there any way of unlocking this device? I haven't tried any other sim, apparently it's a Three network phone but iv been using my EE sim this hole time for a long time to, can I root to fix this or?
I do not want to lose this phone because of some scammer

Contact the carrier and negotiate a pay off price to unlock it... if it isn't stolen.

blackhawk said:
Contact the carrier and negotiate a pay off price to unlock it... if it isn't stolen.
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My network is EE and they wore able to un blacklist my IMEI three network for free, pritty handy

kevinireland11 said:
My network is EE and they wore able to un blacklist my IMEI three network for free, pritty handy
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You got lucky this time. Don't ever put yourself in that position again.

blackhawk said:
You got lucky this time. Don't ever put yourself in that position again.
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Definitely not! I honestly think the adviser that done it was an understanding guy, because if that was anyone else I don't think they would have done that for me, but yes, if y'all are buying phones look up the IMEI this will tell you everything you need to no about the phone

blackhawk said:
You got lucky this time. Don't ever put yourself in that position again.
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You can actually pay 7.99 to unblacklist or 13.99 for a new IMEI apparently

kevinireland11 said:
You can actually pay 7.99 to unblacklist or 13.99 for a new IMEI apparently
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That's illegal in the US especially to change the imei.

blackhawk said:
That's illegal in the US especially to change the imei.
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Actually illegal in most of the world, not simply the US.

How does that pay work? I though the reason to blacklist IMEI's was because they were reported stolen. Not much point if you can just pay a small ammount to own a stolen phone?

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
Actually illegal in most of the world, not simply the US.
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Unjustifiably.

96carboard said:
Unjustifiably.
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Explain?
IMEI is there to protect the legitimate owner of the device.

kevinireland11 said:
You can actually pay 7.99 to unblacklist or 13.99 for a new IMEI apparently
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IMEI changing is illegal.

Sorry I forgot there are allot of IMEI police on here

$cronos_ said:
IMEI changing is illegal.
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Oh there's a parot in the room lol, did you also not see those other comments that everyone else saw or?

kevinireland11 said:
I new it was to good to be true, the reason my phone keeps saying cannot use voice or connot use sim 1, is due to someone selling me a phone that was previously on a contract! And of course there is no trace of this guy, I contacted Google, they need proof of perchase! Yeah that's not going to be simple to get, it's there any way of unlocking this device? I haven't tried any other sim, apparently it's a Three network phone but iv been using my EE sim this hole time for a long time to, can I root to fix this or?
I do not want to lose this phone because of some scammer
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Click to collapse
How much did you pay for this device?

kevinireland11 said:
Sorry I forgot there are allot of IMEI police on here
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I'd rather call the grammar police reading your stuff.

Thread closed since the OP's question has been answered and XDA Rule #9 violations for changing IMEI's.
9. Don't get us into trouble.
Don't post copyrighted materials or do other things which will obviously lead to legal trouble. If you wouldn't do it on your own homepage, you probably shouldn't do it here either. This does not mean that we agree with everything that the software piracy lobby try to impose on us. It simply means that you cannot break any laws here, since we'll end up dealing with the legal hassle caused by you. Please use common sense: respect the forum, its users and those that write great code.
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-Regards: Badger50