Hey guys, bought a blacklisted phone a few months ago and was wondering if it was possible to change the IMEI number/unblacklist it. The phone is a Samsung galaxy s6 Edge.
In reality, no.
The IMEI/MEID is tied directly to the CPU, which is soldered/integrated to the main board in ways that this is just not possible. Then of course, the black list is held by your provider, which they will NOT change, nor have access to directly change.
The only exception to this would be if someone reported their phone lost/stolen, then later found it, that original owner could then bring it back and reactivate it on the line it was lost on. Of course though, if it was claimed under warranty, then by doing so would void their claim, and make them pay full cost for the device. So again, answer is in reality no.
All this leads me to this final point: wherever you buy a device 3rd party with cash and no consumer protection, ALWAYS have that person meet you at YOUR providers corporate retail location, and have it activated right there and then. Here is why i say this:
1) it is not uncommon for the black list to be universal between carriers, so while it may be black listed one day with one provider, it may take time for that to transfer (if it even does) to another provider
2) people use to sell their phone on craigslist, then a few days later claim it was stolen. That or it just took the original owner more time to claim it as lost/stolen than it took for the theif to sell it
3) by going to a corporate location of YOUR choosing, you have control of the situation. Often private retailers will just lie to you to get you out of the door, or put you on the phone with your provider anyways. Most corporate reps know all this, and can/will check the phones IMEI status if you ask them. They see the craigslist deals coming in asking for this all the time.
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Theoretically you could probably use some tool like Qualcomm QPST, or NV. Idk how exactly to do this with the S6 edge itself and I don't know what radio is uses, but you can find more info here.
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@wolfstrong said the smartest thing i have ever heard regarding this situation.
"ALWAYS have that person meet you at
YOUR providers corporate retail location,
and have it activated right there and then."
This is one small advice that could've saved me 200$ when i bought an iphone years ago.
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i know for certain you can replace a chop on the iphone5 to make it work however no clue as to the s6. better luck next tim buying a blacklisted phone. i ended trading something for a broken iphone, i fixed it and it was still locked. i contacted the guy via text and facebook and he answered my messages but i guess he was too lazy to unlock it. so.... fuck
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I can't speak on about newer phones, but I know it has been done on older android phones. BlueKoda is correct, the IMEI could be edited using QPST or any raw hex editor for that matter. Even then, you'd need a clean IMEI to change it to.. Two devices on a carrier's network with the same ESN raises flags pretty quick.
Can it be done, probably. Is it worth the effort, probably not. If it is a GSM capable phone you are get be better off temporarily activating it with a different carrier and then taking advantage of one of the numerous buyout offers. They'll recycle the flagged phone and you'd still get a reasonably good price on a new one.
Thanks a lot guys. Great advice, I've heard people claiming that they can un-blacklist a phone or change the imei, would you guys happen to know anything about that.
For that, look on the xda irc channel. Ask there, we're just laptop and desktop guys.
writing IMEI's is possible, i used to work as a samsung engineer. we used to have to do it to replace the boards in peoples phone and tablets under warranty. the only issue is you had to approved to do it. which i no longer am :(
I'm not sure why everyone is helping trying to figure out how to change the IMEI on what is clearly a stolen device. The right thing to do would be either:
A) Turn it into the carrier, contact original owner, and return the device. Carriers have ways to do this.
B) Just keep it and use it as a WiFi only device.
By trying to figure out how to unlock/change the IMEI, you are only further hurting the very sad state of smart-phone theft right now. Here is some cold hard truth:
You screw up. You purchased stolen goods. You should now know better for next time. Try putting aside your own personal agenda/interest, and instead of figuring out how to make use of stolen goods for yourself and everyone else, just do the right thing and count it as loss.
EDIT: I'm even tempted to go so far as to say option B, just holding onto it, is even not right. It is stolen property, and should be treated as such. it SHOULD be turned in to either the carrier, or the authorities.
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You can just replace the logic board with one that isn't blacklisted, if you think you're capable of doing so.
Not sure how much you spent on it though, cause logic board replacements for the s6 edge look like they start at 200$. Might not even be worth it.
@WolfStrong is it risky to use the device as WiFi only because its blacklisted? Just a thought, not sure if its legit.
Just make sure you get it with a return policy, as is pretty much my shopping requirement for places like ebay.
Using it as WiFi only is a non-issue, but see my above post about the ethics of it all.
This is assuming quite a bit. The more common reason for blacklisting is for a customer not paying their bill (and subsequently selling it). Since the IMEI is still tied to the delinquent account, there's no way to activate it on the same carrier, unless you want to pay balance. If it's a fairly new phone, activate it with a different carrier/MVNO like Ting or something. Otherwise yes, it's a wifi only device.
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Which is why it is so important to take it to the carrier, because they can also see why it was blacklisted. The reason it is blacklisted is because the original owner technically does not own the phone; rather, they are making payments on it, just as you would on a car. The only reason that a bank will repo your car, and not repo your phone, is simply because there is value in spending the time and money doing the car repo, whereas there is none in the phone.
In the same way, the owner of the delinquent account still owes money for the device they are making payments on. The whole idea behind blacklisting the devices on delinquent accounts is to prevent people from opening up accounts under fake names (or people willing to trash their credit for a few hundred dollars). I've personally had a customer pull this on me, and I knew the it the whole time processing the transaction; the problem is you can't exactly call someone out on it when they are technically following all the rules, just in case they are legit. This is the reason carriers blacklist delinquent account phones, to try and lessen the incentive for thieves to do this.
So yes, it is still theft, just from the company instead of an individual. Companies tend to care a lot less about obtaining that property from a delinquent account when the device is only worth a few hundred dollars at best at that point. They usually just want to recoup their costs from the original owner in the form of cash, as that makes the most fiscal sense. This is the case where it isn't a big deal to use it as a WIFI device, but still should be reason enough not to purchase what essentially is a stolen device.
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Yeah the person told me they wanted the new S7 edge that recently came out, and it was at a good price. Thanks I learned my lesson, great advice from everyone, you guys were so helpful.
Well, you heard it here folks, OP is a thief. Can't deny the wall of text.
Where does WolfStrong call the OP a thief? It seems to me that they are saying that the seller was the thief and that the OP, hopefully unknowingly, purchased a stolen device.
Whether or not the phone was actually stolen or not is a question that can only be answered by checking with the provider to see why it was blacklisted. Circumventing that blacklisting is crossing some legal lines, and telling people how to do legally ambiguous things isn't exactly condoned in these forums.
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if i got burned buying a phone that was blacklisted by a carrier for outstanding payments i for one would mod the phone to make it work for me. i damn sure dont have money to waste and i for one don't care if the carrier never gets payed off. they charge way to much as it is and rip you off for data. on top of it all they make money selling your meta data off to marketing teams and world governments. so if they lose 200 on a phone bill not being payed and they made that much money from the users meta data being sold. then in my eyes that phone is payed for if they want to double dip then they can double dip someone else.