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Elfreda Barrick
I sent my sister an unlocked iPhone that I had bought new, unlocked and used in the states with AT&T and tmobile. She had been using it fine for over a year when I sent my sister an unlocked iPhone that I had bought new, unlocked and used in the states with AT&T and tmobile. She had been using it fine for over a year when
I sent her another new, "old one". She handed down her good, working phone to my nephew. He took the iPhone to a local store to get the sim card cut to size. There they told him to come back the next day to pick the phone up.I sent her another new, "old one". She handed down her good, working phone to my nephew. He took the iPhone to a local store to get the sim card cut to size. There they told him to come back the next day to pick the phone up.
My question is can they just take the whole inside of a locked or blacklisted iPhone and replace it with the original shell of an unlocked one? That would be the only answer to me because they had to have changed the IMEI from a good unlocked one to a non working IMEI.
I can see why they would do this. They probably buy very cheap unlocked or blacklisted iPhones and switch the innards from good ones and customers that don't know better are told, like my nephew, that it locked itself when he reset it the iPhone.
Here is another question. You mentioned checking the original IMEI, where? Even though I have that phone on my list of owned devices on my Apple support page, it only shows the serial number, not the IMEI. Its there another place to find it?
How was the iPhone originally unlocked? If it was unlocked by the original carrier that it was locked to then it should never relock. However, if it was hacked to unlock it then restoring iOS will cause it to become locked again.
This is very suspicious, however, because there is no need to leave a phone for even 5 minutes to cut down a SIM. It takes about 10 seconds with a SIM cutting machine. I'll bet the shop is offering to unlock it for a fee. Don't let them. Unfortunately, there's probably nothing you can do if the shop is dishonest; in many countries it's the norm.
No. Remember that I said that I bought the phone unlocked from Apple. The phone world with ne for a year in the states, then for a year with my sister. Only after she gave it to her son and he took it to the store it cam back locked.
No, they didn't just swap it. According to my sister there were some marks on the phone that she remembers. But thank you for all the great information. But for future reference I will keep those old backups.
How high is the probability of that ******* flashing the phone and erasing my apple ID? FIndMyIphone is not useful for me (if he does flash) in this case anymore. It is just occupying the apple servers for waste now I assume.
Then comes IMEI into picture, my last array of hope in getting my phone back. Now I hear that they have started changing IMEI numbers! So, the last array of hope is also dying now. How true is the statement? Can IMEI numbers be actually disabled, jailbreak or not, whatever!
To change the IMEI number of a phone, you need professional equipment and a lot of knowledge. Beyond the scope of most thieves. Find My Phone only works if setup/activated & turned on, and the phone is connected to the Internet. It was never marketed as a way to locate stolen phones, only lost phones. Fact is, carriers won't even track lost/stolen phones without a court order, and carriers can see every phone on their network. About the best your carrier will do is Blacklist the phone, if they even offer Blacklisting.
Whats going on here in my country (India) is the cops put your phone on tracking( they call it CDR here wherein your number is not blacklisted, instead, upon registration of a stolen phone's IMEI number, it is tracked down through IMEI number using the triangulation method). Now, my point is, I only had two hopes of getting my phone back
Whether the thief is tech-savvy or not doesn't concern me. They run a gang, and its their only way of earning money I guess. I have seen and heard so many phones gone into disarray and none of them getting tracked thru CDR, such an unsuccessful outcome only makes me wonder whether the police here are stupid or the thiefs are voraciously smart!
Now I believe, Apple should place an Apple ID restriction, upon activating the lost mode, the least apple can do is turn on the location services by default, lock the apple ID forever (so that even flashing the phone wont work), register the IP of the computer it connects to next and send the IP to the cops or the respective person himself. I am being too dreamy, but yes, seeing the resources they have, I think it can be put to practice.
My phone will be in the lost mode and I will keep on using apple's resources untill they allow me to, this idea can be efficient both in terms of resource utilization and positive outcome to a problem.
Well, the fact is. virtually every Mfg. of anything...cars, boats, phones, toasters, etc., have no desire to get into the business of tracking lost/stolen products. They are not the police & there is simply more downside than upside. If someone steals your car, the car Mfg. won't help you.
If the police care about tracing the IMEI and it isn't changed it can be found. Friends of mine had their phone returned (in Italy) after 8 months. The new user wasn't the thief, but handed back the phone upon police request.
Same is the case here. I am very much hesitant to buy a phone myself! Forget Apple, I don't want to buy any smartphone now. But, still, it would be great to get my phone back. Lets hope for the best. I hope you find your phone soon.
I too have lost my iphone 5 three months back... even m following the same procedure since 3 months .. but i guess its of no use ... Find my iphone app doesnt help us out in any way. Police have been telling me that your phone is still not switched on.. i dont think so because than its no point in stealing the phone for the theif..
i just have one request to make to apple .. that switching off the device is very easy and it can be done even if the phone is under a passcode lock.... please give some kind of lock that your device cannot be turned off untill you enter a passcode... so that atleast v have some hopes of getting it back through find my iphone app...
Recently i saw that the IMEI no of the phone also gets changed...if thats the case than i dont think so i have any chance to find it ... its a real loss for me .. i love apple products but because of this reason i am very hesitant to buy them again..
hi Rishabh... brother even i lost my 5 few days back..
had some nice contacts with Delhi Police and they have surely put it on trace.
am also trying with some policemen on personal levels if something is possible.
Bro itz a bit late i guess but i hope you would have got ur iphone back meanwhile about all that discussion relating FIND MY IPHONE i wanna make you all clear that this is one powerful tweak deployed by apple in ios7 and above in addition to this the scenario is very sophisticated nd u dont even need cops cyber crime cells police in india or any political relation here u juss need INTERNET
i owns a soft+hard repairing shop completely for iphones and while conducting unlocking and jailbreaking i discover several stolen devices and **** dese thief's dey bring such mint conditioned phones dat i feel a peanut in my pocket inplace of my iphone 4s.
But if u implemented security features or in other words if your FIND MY IPHONE app was switched on then no matter what u can take pictures from your rear camera or back one anytime even if it is switched off sooner or later its gonna be wireless it juss needs internet that it and here you go you can not even accquire its location even generate sounds through it by accessing you icloud account from www.icloud.com
I would like to point out that 99.9 % of the time a user misplaces there phone or leaves it laying somewhere. which is not considered stealing if you happen to come across a phone that was lost. I have tried to no success to find out how to get a phone back to the customer and the response I received was very shocking. I was told by the apple support team that they cant give out or contact the owner of a lost phone. so with that in mind what is a person suppose to do if they have no way of returning or even finding out who the phone belongs to.
my idea is to make the phone have a if lost and found info screen that can be activated by the owner so that they can be contacted if there phone is found. but that is not going to happen because the makers of the phones will lose money if you did not lose your phone in the first place. think about it.
I would like to make a request that if someone finds a lost iphone (or any valuable belonging of someone else) and is kind enough to try returning it to the owner, but don't know how, they can always hand it over to the local police lost and found.
HELLO, I RETURNED MY OLD PHONE AND BOUGHT A NEW IPHONE 15 PRO MAX INSTEAD. I HAD RECORDED THE IMEI NUMBER THAT I RETURNED IT TO YOU. NOW I NEED TO REGISTER WHEN I BUY A NEW ONE. FOR THIS REASON, CAN WE CHANGE THE IMEI OF MY OLD PHONE AND THE IMEI OF THE NEW PHONE?
Provided you have not changed carriers, your existing phone provider should be able to transfer your old phone number from the previous IMEI number (which I suspect they have in their records) to the iPhone 15 Pro Max IMEI. That is what I just did at T-Mobile and it took a whole ten minutes at no charge.
How to change the IMEI number on an iPhone? How can one change the IMEI number? What are the consequences? What are the pros and cons of changing the IMEI number? You will find out if you are able to modify the IMEI number at all, and if so, what methods are used. Additionally, we will determine if changing your IMEI number is legal. Furthermore, we will teach you how to find IMEI generators and how to use them.
The IMEI number cannot be changed in countries such as Africa and Asia. However, it is illegal throughout Europe and you can of course check if it is legal in your country. Doing so is at your own risk, and as explained above, it is possible to change the IMEI number. However, we do not encourage anyone to go through with this. It is explained in this article that such changes are possible, but we do not encourage anyone to go through with them.</p