hey guys! i am looking to buy galaxy s2
The guy i wanna buy from apparently was attempting to use custom rom and has "altered" his IMEI to a generic one "It contains the IMEI so now its stuck to a generic IMEI of 004999010640000. "
According to him the phone is still fully functional, but I was wondering if I should be worried about this phone If i were to buy it
Not sure an imei number can be changed legally.
I think I would give a wide berth to a phone with a false imei number. It could mean that the phone has been stolen. You would not want your phone stolen and resold under a new imei number by some scumbag would you?
Its nicked my son, and so could you be
jojomojustin said:
hey guys! i am looking to buy galaxy s2
The guy i wanna buy from apparently was attempting to use custom rom and has "altered" his IMEI to a generic one "It contains the IMEI so now its stuck to a generic IMEI of 004999010640000. "
According to him the phone is still fully functional, but I was wondering if I should be worried about this phone If i were to buy it
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Click to collapse
You should be.Changing the IMEI of a device is illegal.It's also not allowed to speak of such matters on the forums.Not that I have a problem with what you're asking or something,as I had similar questions once,but a mod will probably close the thread.Which is right,XDA is a place for legal stuff only.Fortunately.
Anyway,dangers(if I can call it so) are that if the carrier or Samsung realise that the IMEI's been tampered with they can deny giving you phone service,so you end up with an expensive iPod-like device that can make no calls.Or you could be tracked and pay a fine or something.It also depends on the country where you live.
I'd say you don't buy it.I wouldn't for one.
Definitely stolen. Don't buy it.
jojomojustin said:
hey guys! i am looking to buy galaxy s2
The guy i wanna buy from apparently was attempting to use custom rom and has "altered" his IMEI to a generic one "It contains the IMEI so now its stuck to a generic IMEI of 004999010640000. "
According to him the phone is still fully functional, but I was wondering if I should be worried about this phone If i were to buy it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Up to 5 years in prison in the UK
[email protected]
Sent from my Samsung Galactic Crusader S II
i have the same issue with a samsung Galaxy S2 ,
the problem is that network will disappear when try to make a call ..
its IMEI has changed somehow ...
now its something like 004999010640000 (board IMEI is enterly different ,35xxxxx)
i approached the samsung service centre but they rejected ..
unfortunately the phone bought from UK ,
Is there any legal way to restore the orginal IMEI back ??
thanks & regards
Due to legal implications thread closed.
Sent from the valley of the shadows....
Related
My friend bought a samsung galaxy s3 i9300 from a thief. After he reached home and checked that phone he come to know that this phone is actually a display phone which is just like a normal i9300 but only cannot be used for GSM purposes becz the imei number of that phone is some thing like 00XXXXXXXXX0000/01 otherwise it works like a charm. i think if only its imei is changed than it can work for GSM purpose. Is there any way to change its imei number with only its data cable. without using any other Z3X like products??
Sorry for my bad english....
Changing the IMEI number is usually, in many countries illegal. Also illegal is buying/handling stolen goods/merchandise
mmannanmasood said:
My friend bought a samsung galaxy s3 i9300 from a thief. After he reached home and checked that phone he come to know that this phone is actually a display phone which is just like a normal i9300 but only cannot be used for GSM purposes becz the imei number of that phone is some thing like 00XXXXXXXXX0000/01 otherwise it works like a charm. i think if only its imei is changed than it can work for GSM purpose. Is there any way to change its imei number with only its data cable. without using any other Z3X like products??
Sorry for my bad english....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't expect a lot of help with this here.
Firstly, you mentioned the phone was bought from a thief; I've never had a phone stolen, but I have friends who have, and anybody involved is the lowest of the low.
Secondly, IMEI changing might be legal where you are (I'm not sure which country you're in), but it's highly illegal in many countries, including the one which hosts this site. Helping you do this could get this site an its operators in a lot of trouble.
If your friend thought he was buying a stolen phone, and got scammed with a non-working display model, I'd say he's had a valuable learning opportunity...
mmannanmasood said:
My friend bought a samsung galaxy s3 i9300 from a thief. After he reached home and checked that phone he come to know that this phone is actually a display phone which is just like a normal i9300 but only cannot be used for GSM purposes becz the imei number of that phone is some thing like 00XXXXXXXXX0000/01 otherwise it works like a charm. i think if only its imei is changed than it can work for GSM purpose. Is there any way to change its imei number with only its data cable. without using any other Z3X like products??
Sorry for my bad english....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If any buddy can help plz email me on my id... [email protected] . i just wanted to make it use able for me. . I owned a s3 which was water damaged... i want to use the imei of my damaged set over that phone.
display phones don't even have the GSM phone or antenna, there is absolutely nothing you can do. Oh, and you're breaking the law, too
mmannanmasood said:
If any buddy can help plz email me on my id... [email protected] . i just wanted to make it use able for me. . I owned a s3 which was water damaged... i want to use the imei of my damaged set over that phone.
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Click to collapse
Cannot be done its illegal do not post such questions .
jje
JJEgan said:
Cannot be done its illegal
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and impossible
Changing the IMEI is illegal in most countries so discussion of it is not allowed on XDA.
Thread closed.
Hi,
I did a job for a Singaporean guy. As payment he gave me a Samsung i9300. The device was brand new, original packed, factory seal. The guy is dealing in mobile phones as far as I know and it was a good deal so I thought its alright.
The only problem we had was that the device showed device modified. We tried to look up the IMEI on imei.info and it says it is a Nokia 1600. Now after having a closer look at the packing I saw that there is a sticker over the sticker with the original IMEI. As it was still possible to figure out the old IMEI we looked it up on imei.info and it shows the right model & specs. The device is as well not reported stolen.
If I look up the both numbers on numberingplans there are no records for both numbers.
Everything looks alright. Even the sticker in the phone is showing the actual IMEI. Its not a fake phone too. The quality is to good. Its working too.
Anybody heard of something before?
How sure it is that the the info on imei.info is correct?
Could a imei get faked?
If the imei is fake, what to do with it? is it safe to use it? Virus ...? I am a totally newbie. Sorry.
Thanks for your advice. I am not really into this.
IMEI can get faked even though it is illegal to do so.
Fake IMEI may not connect to a network.
Fake IMEI can be due to a stolen blacklisted phone .
The phone is not a genuine product you should return it .
It is connecting to the network. This is not really the problem.
My problem is more that the guy is back in Singapore.
Ok, at the end of the day this means I should not use it and I definitely should not sell it too.
What a piece of junk
knuthein said:
Ok, at the end of the day this means I should not use it and I definitely should not sell it too.
What a piece of junk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Donate it to a poor person like me
Dear xda-community,
some months ago I dared myself to root my Samsung SHW-M250S (Korean Version of Galaxy S2) and lost my IMEI on that phone. I couldn't find it and forgot to make a backup of my efs partition because of stupidity and not really reading the manuals properly (I used to have a HTC Desire S which didn't have the efs partition so it's a bad habit thing). Today I found out that I luckily registered my phone with the original IMEI in my google Settings and the developer IMEI on my current Galaxy S2.
My question is: Is there any possibility to insert my old IMEI into my rooted Galaxy S2?
IMEI is device specific.....by law.
Sorry mate, but nobody here is going to help you break the law......
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Take it to a local mobile repair shop, some have the same equipment as Samsung service centres that can write the IMEI back to the device. Normally isn't very expensive (much cheaper than replacing a motherboard for example).
You could buy this equipment yourself, but it would cost twice as much (or more) as paying someone who knows what they're doing to fix it properly, you'd probably never use it again, and if you mess it up, your phone is probably a bin job.
keithross39 said:
IMEI is device specific.....by law.
Sorry mate, but nobody here is going to help you break the law......
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well... Since I didn't backup my EFS and got the develeoper one, does it mean I am owning an illegal phone?
MistahBungle said:
Take it to a local mobile repair shop, some have the same equipment as Samsung service centres that can write the IMEI back to the device. Normally isn't very expensive (much cheaper than replacing a motherboard for example).
You could buy this equipment yourself, but it would cost twice as much (or more) as paying someone who knows what they're doing to fix it properly, you'd probably never use it again, and if you mess it up, your phone is probably a bin job.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Gonna try that in the next weeks, see if it works
No, the device having the generic IMEI is not illegal, it's just in many countries these phones are essentially useless & have no connectivity (they will work in some countries with providers who use outdated telco equipment, though).
Most good phone repairs shops should be able to fix this for you, if not, service centre definitely will.
Edit to add - However, writing a different IMEI into a device is very much illegal in most countries (the EU in particular) and will result in both your device & the device the IMEI came from being blacklisted (rendered permanently useless). The only way you can legitimately get a different IMEI & use the phone OK is if you swap the motherboard with a 2nd hand board from a 'donor' device. When Samsung service centres replace motherboards to fix a whole host of things, in most countries they write the existing IMEI to the new board.
MistahBungle said:
No, the device having the generic IMEI is not illegal, it's just in many countries these phones are essentially useless & have no connectivity (they will work in some countries with providers who use outdated telco equipment, though).
Most good phone repairs shops should be able to fix this for you, if not, service centre definitely will.
Edit to add - However, writing a different IMEI into a device is very much illegal in most countries (the EU in particular) and will result in both your device & the device the IMEI came from being blacklisted (rendered permanently useless). The only way you can legitimately get a different IMEI & use the phone OK is if you swap the motherboard with a 2nd hand board from a 'donor' device. When Samsung service centres replace motherboards to fix a whole host of things, in most countries they write the existing IMEI to the new board.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But what if I can prove that the IMEI I wanted to recover is stored e.g. in my google account? Is it still illegal then?
You didn't comprehend what I said to you.
The original IMEI can definitely be written back to the phone by a Samsung service centre & likely many mobile repair shops; this is OK.
You cannot write a different IMEI to a device, this is illegal.
The end.
MistahBungle said:
You didn't comprehend what I said to you.
The original IMEI can definitely be written back to the phone by a Samsung service centre & likely many mobile repair shops; this is OK.
You cannot write a different IMEI to a device, this is illegal.
The end.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, that's what I wanted to know. Gonna search for a repair center in around me then... Thanks!
this is straight from a pageplus chat
nothing special just standard procedure for activating an "unknown device" that...well read below.
4G LTE devices (with MEIDs starting with 256 or 99000) are not compatible with our system.
They are able to be activated by dropping the last digit of the IMEI (99000)
they are not able to be programmed with OTA (*22890 or *228) and unable to be manually programmed.
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Click to collapse
i might have chopped it i cant remember but i always keep the good parts
so are you saying a verizon network is breaking the law because it is their policy that dictates pageplus and straight talk in this procedure heck even verizon prepaid
dropping the last digit like they are telling me to do is what?
i dont think its illegal like you say.
no way they would tell 1000's of people to do it
i just tried to ota *22890 my note 3 after they gave me those directions along with my mdn/min/sid and "normally" i get voice/text/mms and data at this point
i just tried without successsfully changing mine and it wont OTA
the step in the directions above is REQUIRED i believe
Changing imei talk is not done on xda. :thumbdown: We all know what can be done with this but we can't talk about it here. Illegal or not info is out there, software is out there. but like I said on xda we don't talk about changing imei or modding it.
andrewwright said:
Changing imei talk is not done on xda. :thumbdown: We all know what can be done with this but we can't talk about it here. Illegal or not info is out there, software is out there. but like I said on xda we don't talk about changing imei or modding it.
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Click to collapse
agreed
BTW at op. Don't go to a service Centre mate. If I go to a local shop they would only charge me £20 in the UK. Have a look as its much cheaper than ss.
So a friend of mine found a S5 laying in the grass, the phone was in spanish and we were unable to find the owner. So he offered to sell it to me for a reallly cheap price.
Now i have questions abou this, If I reset the phone to factory I can just put the sim card in and it should be good togo, however I am assuming since they lost the phone and most likely its on a payment plan that tmobile will block the imei.
Now my questions are, Can i take an IMEI from a Galaxy S2 (no longer in use) and use the software to put that imei on this so tmobile wont block the phone? That would be ideal
If that wont work, would i be able to use the IMEI from my current galaxy S5 (that I currently use). Since it is the same phone? (well not exactly the same, mine is black the one that we found was white).
Would that screw up my current Galaxy S5 if i put the same imei on the new phone? And both being used under the same family plan?
If I use the phone as it is with the same IMEI that it has, and they wind up blocking it, would i still be able to change the IMEI after it is blocked? (I rather just change it right away to avoid it being blocked in the first place.)
So what do u guys think? Could I use the IMEI from a S2, if not could i use the IMEI from an S5 that i currently use? (IDK if they could tell if 2 IMEI is on the same network at the same time and it will block both which would really suck because I am still paying my S5 off.
Thanks
piffdaddy420 said:
So a friend of mine found a S5 laying in the grass, the phone was in spanish and we were unable to find the owner. So he offered to sell it to me for a reallly cheap price.
Now i have questions abou this, If I reset the phone to factory I can just put the sim card in and it should be good togo, however I am assuming since they lost the phone and most likely its on a payment plan that tmobile will block the imei.
Now my questions are, Can i take an IMEI from a Galaxy S2 (no longer in use) and use the software to put that imei on this so tmobile wont block the phone? That would be ideal
If that wont work, would i be able to use the IMEI from my current galaxy S5 (that I currently use). Since it is the same phone? (well not exactly the same, mine is black the one that we found was white).
Would that screw up my current Galaxy S5 if i put the same imei on the new phone? And both being used under the same family plan?
If I use the phone as it is with the same IMEI that it has, and they wind up blocking it, would i still be able to change the IMEI after it is blocked? (I rather just change it right away to avoid it being blocked in the first place.)
So what do u guys think? Could I use the IMEI from a S2, if not could i use the IMEI from an S5 that i currently use? (IDK if they could tell if 2 IMEI is on the same network at the same time and it will block both which would really suck because I am still paying my S5 off.
Thanks
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I was further researching and i am hearing that changing the imei is illegal, and if this is the case i do not want to do it. i am not trying to break the law for a phone lmao. it is not worth it.
i looked up the number and it is infact blocked, so i guess he has nothing but a useless paperweight. I wish we were able to find the damn owner, at the very least could score some karma points.
Okay I bought a blacklisted Samsung Galaxy s5 T-Mobile phone. From eBay there told me it has a clean imei. Come to it an phone has been reported lost or stolen. So I bought a new imei an now when I got try an register the phone to MetroPCS service. They said that the I me I is already registered. So I got another imei an they said the same thing.
Can anyone help please!!!!
SquidMane said:
Okay I bought a blacklisted Samsung Galaxy s5 T-Mobile phone. From eBay there told me it has a clean imei. Come to it an phone has been reported lost or stolen. So I bought a new imei an now when I got try an register the phone to MetroPCS service. They said that the I me I is already registered. So I got another imei an they said the same thing.
Can anyone help please!!!!
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Click to collapse
That means your imei is cloned.... which means you're in possession of a federal felony.