Database Develop

bought my diamond second hand off some guy 2 months ago..

and today when I was looking into unlocking my phone, I noticed that the system IMEI is different from the IMEI label on the back of the phone.
I am using a deep shining ROM. did the ROM flash over the IMEI or was my phone just messed up to begin with?
also is there a soft method of finding out whether or not my phone is already unlocked?

Sorry to say but that guy messed your over by changing the IMEI. Flashing a rom doesn't do anything to IMEI, special tools and software CAN change it, and that is what this guy did. You can't do anything to change that, as changing IMEI is downright illegal and you dont want to get caught up in that.
As for finding out if its unlocked, take another companies SIM CARD, ie if you are with ATT, go and get a Rogers, or whoever else uses a SIM CARD, and find out if it will work in the phone.

so, it is quite possible that this phone is stolen? damn... what are the potential consequences of that? if he switched the original IMEI to the current one that I have, what if someone legitamately uses the imei on the same network, am I going to be screwed?

SUBLIMINALLYINC said:
so, it is quite possible that this phone is stolen? damn... what are the potential consequences of that? if he switched the original IMEI to the current one that I have, what if someone legitamately uses the imei on the same network, am I going to be screwed?
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No you will not get screwed. {Unless you really want to; then I'm sure we can arrange for it}
IMEI {International Mobile Electronics Identification} Numbers are uniqe to every phone, but the network does not {& I believe Cannot} read the IMEI. ESNs {Electronic Serial Numbers} are a different thing, as the CDMA networks use this # to Identify the devices network authenticity {in other words: Whether or not it's authorized to use the network}. GSM {Global SIM Management} Phones rely on the SIM card to authenticate the devices access to the network. An IMEI is never sent thru the network! That's like posting your social security # online {Mine's 420-69-840} About the only time that a false IMEI is a problem, is when you need to get it unlocked {as you are trying to}; or if you need to report it stolen/lost. If the latter is the case then you will need to provide the authorities with both IMEIs. This is in case the person that has it removes the label in the back. For unlocking the device, you need to give the # that's in the software; as this is the only # the phone knows. Oh yeah, You can't send it in to get HTC warranty service either
Have you tried asking the person you bought it from about this? I would!! I would want to know why he did it, how he did it, & where the other # came from. It is a possibility that he had replaced the Mainboard with another unit, but he should have changed the labels at the same time. I have done this with a few phones {combine a couple bad ones to make a good one}, but I always ensure the IMEI or ESN matches on the back & in the software! If you believe you were defrauded, then contact the authorities & explain it to them. If there is another phone with the same IMEI, they should be able to tell you.

It might either be that he changed the main board or the cover itself.. (hopefully he did not steal it..)
I wouldnt worry too much about it though. Just go with the IMEI that is displayed on your screen not on the back of the phone.

well i tried to get an unlock code by using the IMEI read off the system page on my diamond and the guy couldnt get aan unlock code; is there anyother way to get the correct code>?

SUBLIMINALLYINC said:
so, it is quite possible that this phone is stolen? damn... what are the potential consequences of that? if he switched the original IMEI to the current one that I have, what if someone legitamately uses the imei on the same network, am I going to be screwed?
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Hi,
Maybe it is or it isn't (but it is possible). It depends on which country that person bought this phone and maybe he used warranty service. I had this issue myself.After 2 month My Diamond didn't recognize my simcard, i sent it for warranty and when it came back GPS didn't work. so i sent it again , when i received it, at repair center they said that they replace mainboard, so imei changes and i received written document that they replaced mainboard (my back panel imei and the imei that phone shows are different now).
for checking it , Goto this site : http://www.numberingplans.com/?page=analysis&sub=imeinr
enter both imei and check them, if both are for diamond i think your mainboard is changed before, but if the imei that phone shows is belong to another handset (for Ex : a nokia one or another htc model) i can say 99% percent your phone is stolen.

i'd probably bet he's bought an "original" housing from auction site. i've done it many of times but i usually rip the imei sticker off, bear in mind the imei on the diamond is only on a metal plate, he may have forgot to change this part, he may have damaged his old imei sticker/plate, as stated above he may have changed his main board also, there is many possibilities.
don't worry about it, if your still a bit worried try the CheckMEND online service here:
http://www.checkmend.com/uk/
It costs £1.99 per go, (which you'd want to do both imei's) but you get a certificate telling you wahts dodgy or not about your phone.
it a great service if you feel a little worried.

[Q] Why Do I Have 2 Different IMEI Numbers?

While a new member, I've been following the community a bit and have flashed my Captivate successfully several times.
It started acting weird earlier this week (lagging and shutting itself off) so I decided to re-flash it and re-apply SRE with all the goodies it brings.
Since my last flash, the phone works fine (calls, messaging, and Internet) except for one problem - the Android Market.
I can access the market but am unable to download anything. I've tried many different solutions, ROM's (JF2, JH2, and JH3), 3G/WiFi, internal settings, clearing the Market cache, Dalvik cache, etc., using Market Access and going outside of AT&T's allowed applications, all to no avail. It's the same whether I attempt to download after a fresh flash or after applying SRE. I've also tried Unleash the Beast.
Finally I decided to call AT&T to find out if there was a problem somewhere on their end.
Here's the weird thing:
The IMEI I have on the sticker under my battery is that of a Captivate and matches what they have on record. The representative I spoke to told me that the IMEI I have in my phone's menu is an iPhone IMEI.
With all that being said, I have two questions:
1) How did this happen?
2) How can I fix it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

FrstdOne said:
While a new member, I've been following the community a bit and have flashed my Captivate successfully several times.
It started acting weird earlier this week (lagging and shutting itself off) so I decided to re-flash it and re-apply SRE with all the goodies it brings.
Since my last flash, the phone works fine (calls, messaging, and Internet) except for one problem - the Android Market.
I can access the market but am unable to download anything. I've tried many different solutions, ROM's (JF2, JH2, and JH3), 3G/WiFi, internal settings, clearing the Market cache, Dalvik cache, etc., using Market Access and going outside of AT&T's allowed applications, all to no avail. It's the same whether I attempt to download after a fresh flash or after applying SRE. I've also tried Unleash the Beast.
Finally I decided to call AT&T to find out if there was a problem somewhere on their end.
Here's the weird thing:
The IMEI I have on the sticker under my battery is that of a Captivate and matches what they have on record. The representative I spoke to told me that the IMEI I have in my phone's menu is an iPhone IMEI.
With all that being said, I have two questions:
1) How did this happen?
2) How can I fix it?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does your imei start with?

madjsp said:
What does your imei start with?
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Click to collapse
The one in the software starts with 004999
The one on the sticker starts with 351863

Iphone imei starts with 011. That rep doesnt know what hes doingp

did you ask them to update youe imei number? would likly fix it, could have just been an accident, from what i have read about 10% of imei number are not unique so somehting could have gotten messed up server side

vinunleaded182 said:
Iphone imei starts with 011. That rep doesnt know what hes doingp
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Click to collapse
also a quick google of the 0049 imei shows that there are several iphones with that imei

The rep who I've been working with is off today but she said she'd call me tomorrow. I'll ask her to update the number and hopefully she can.
Unfortunately, while I'm pretty much a noob to all this, I've found that I still know more than most of the people on the AT&T side and the rep I've been working with is the most knowledgeable of the group.

Did you go from an iphone to the samsung if so, it could be a translation issue on atts side which means the billing system never updated the imei to the switch because it errored out on the billing side happend all the time when i use to be a switch tech for att simple to fix just need to file a ticket with a certain department but can be a pain if the rep is new.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

I thought the phone read its IMEI number from its own hardware. This thread implies that something on the network is telling the phone what its IMEI Number should be.
I know there are a lot of Ebay phones with bogus stickers - the stickers have one SN/EMEI number, but the phone internally says another.
Where did you get your phone?

I've never owned an iPhone and I purchased the Captivate from a corporate store, not from an authorized reseller or ebay.

wait cant this be useful if we can change the imei to a vibrant one we can get money off of data or would most of you feel bad for doing that (one good thing about that though for 10 dollars we get unlimited data)

labbu63 said:
wait cant this be useful if we can change the imei to a vibrant one we can get money off of data or would most of you feel bad for doing that (one good thing about that though for 10 dollars we get unlimited data)
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You gotta pay to play. If you don't want to pay smartphone fees, don't get a smartphone. I'm sure we'd all like a break on price, but when it comes down to it, we can't get one, so we make do.
And unless the modmyi forum was wrong, that's illegal.

yeah i know but im just saying if someone isnt scared to go to jail

If the IMEI shows as 004999010640000, you might check out this thread. Good luck.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=777288
PS: you might want to look at this specific post in that thread.....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8060884&postcount=33

BigJayDogg3 said:
You gotta pay to play. If you don't want to pay smartphone fees, don't get a smartphone. I'm sure we'd all like a break on price, but when it comes down to it, we can't get one, so we make do.
And unless the modmyi forum was wrong, that's illegal.
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Click to collapse
actually i was just looking at the library of congress's recent ruling on the DMCA and their new excemptions and read this
"
(3) Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable used wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telecommunications network, when circumvention is initiated by the owner of the copy of the computer program solely in order to connect to a wireless telecommunications network and access to the network is authorized by the operator of the network.
"
sounds like to me that changing the imei is legal as long as the only reason you are doing it is to connect to a network that you are already authorized to use

xatrekak said:
actually i was just looking at the library of congress's recent ruling on the DMCA and their new excemptions and read this
"
(3) Computer programs, in the form of firmware or software, that enable used wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telecommunications network, when circumvention is initiated by the owner of the copy of the computer program solely in order to connect to a wireless telecommunications network and access to the network is authorized by the operator of the network.
"
sounds like to me that changing the imei is legal as long as the only reason you are doing it is to connect to a network that you are already authorized to use
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Changing The imei is illegal and has nothing to do with the DMCA. changing The imei is fraud like changing a car's vin number.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

alphadog00 i was wondering that, you wouldn't happen to be able to point out to me which law that is contained in, i have heard it was illegal like a million times but havn't seen the law yet. but i have always liked reading the actual laws that make the things i want to illegal

how do you know its illegal the DMCA was changed and said it was legal so until you find something that says its illegal we will never know

labbu63 said:
how do you know its illegal the DMCA was changed and said it was legal so until you find something that says its illegal we will never know
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Click to collapse
You are confusing unlocking with changing your IMEI. It is legal to unlock and hack, it is not legal to change the phone's network id.

xatrekak said:
alphadog00 i was wondering that, you wouldn't happen to be able to point out to me which law that is contained in, i have heard it was illegal like a million times but havn't seen the law yet. but i have always liked reading the actual laws that make the things i want to illegal
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I can't point to you an exact law, but cloning phones has been considered fraudulent for years and people have been prosecuted. In changing the IMEI number, you are in essence cloning a phone - it may not exist yet, but it could. So once a new phone is made with the new EMEI number you created, you have created fraud.
After doing some research - this is the section of federal code that is used to prosecute cell phone cloners:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/usc_sec_18_00001029----000-.html
U.S. Code: TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 47 > § 1029
§ 1029. Fraud and related activity in connection with access *devices
You may not get arrested for changing your IMEI (not one person anyway) but at some point the carrier will probably just black list your device or your account.
Changing the IMEI or ESN basically makes your device a counterfeit access device. Some debate that if they own 3 phones they should be able to let them all share one IMEI if only one is active at a time.
Personally, I can see no valid reason to change your IMEI - swapping sim cards is easy enough.

root a unclaimed phone

I work at a bar people leave lose misplace phones regularly, I have a galaxy s been sitting there for months, can you root a phone and port a new number to it if it has been locked by the carrier putting aside the stolen or not crap, cause its besides the point, cause I throw away phones on a regular basis and im just looking for an answer not a lecture as I received a fee already in other forums

IMEI locked phones are not unlockable by a finder. The purpose is to prevent theft etc, and would be pretty pointless if a thief could get around the lock with some technical know-how.
I believe it's blocked by the network across all carriers - The true owner can contact their ISP to unlock it when they recover it, so don't throw them away. I'm sure there's some space at your bar to keep a few phones for a month or so.

Normally when I unlock a phone by IMEI from an internet site I use they ask for the IMEI number,carrier,make,model and an e-mail address to send the info to.So if you know the carrier I dont think it would be that hard to do.Ive unlocked phones for my mates using the site I go to and all they do is give me the phone and tell me what carrier it belongs to.I use my e-mail address and all works fine.All you need is the phone,carrier and IMEI number.Its not that hard otherwise you wouldnt be able to unlock a phone that you bought from some else would you.

The OP asked for carrier Blocked situation, not carrier Locked.
Sent from my GT-I9000

it's completely possible, as you can spoof a new IMEI, and I believe ICSSGS is doing that by default. Simply open up ODIN and throw the rom onto it.

[Q] What benefit from IMEI change?

Ok, My old SGS3 finally gave up the ghost and I purchased a Z3c. I trimmed the SIM card from my SGS3 to fit the Z3c, booted up setup the phone and am on LTE (At&T) able to make voice calls, send and receive sms, check voicemail etc...
I noticed when I log into my ATT account page online it shows a generic phone picture now instead of the SGS3 picture it used to. What benefit do I gain from calling in my new IMEI number? I ask because for the moment everything appears to be working great... and if there is no strong negative to not updating my IMEI I was wondering why do it (as I assume they may attempt to hit me with an upgrade fee or I have read a few threads on other sites about how when they provided the new IMEI suddenly LTE or other service issues cropped up that weren't there when using the old IMEI...)
Thanks for any responses that might be helpful in allowing me to understand why I should update it or why it may or may not be important (pro's and con's)

At&t doesn't care about the IMEI change, if things are working well, including LTE, then just leave it as is.

cschmitt said:
At&t doesn't care about the IMEI change, if things are working well, including LTE, then just leave it as is.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, sounds simple enough and it was sort of what I thought! Now on to more important things...like figuring out what case to get that works with my DK48 charging dock

If you did not get ur phone from them there's no need to do it. I think it's only required on iPhones because Apple always has a way to make activating everything harder.

I called AT&T and went to 1 of their authorize offices and got a LTE sim card and everything works great. If you already have a IPhone that sim card has LTE enable. So don't worry about it...

Emergency calls only after stock room flash

Hi. I flashed a stock room with Odin in my Samsung S10 (SM-G973F). The phone is made in Argentina so i installed a free carrier ROM from there, then after i flashed the ROM from my country but in no case i can get my SIM to work on it. What i can do?
Edit: Aparently i have a imei status: NG.

IMEI status NG likely means that the carrier has blacklisted your IMEI, and is refusing the activate it. IMEIs are often blacklisted because the phone is stolen or for various other reasons.
In the USA, carriers will work together on IMEI blacklisting, but I don't know how it works in other countries...

schwinn8 said:
IMEI status NG likely means that the carrier has blacklisted your IMEI, and is refusing the activate it. IMEIs are often blacklisted because the phone is stolen or for various other reasons.
In the USA, carriers will work together on IMEI blacklisting, but I don't know how it works in other countries...
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The phone it's from Argentina. I'm almost sure that it's not stolen, but i supose that it was unlocked by someone else before i got it into my possession, and then when i flashed stock rom i messed up the unlock. The imei doesn't appear in any blacklist page (even the one from my country). There is a way to restore the unlock with Samsung Tool Pro or changing the IMEI? (changing IMEI en my country it is legal)

I don't know about the Samsung Tool Pro. I also don't believe XDA allows discussion about IMEI changing, but yes I think it can be done. You may need to find another place to discuss this.
If you're reasonably sure that the IMEI is fine, you could call your carrier and ask them what is happening. Maybe they just need to fix something on their end?

I got the same problem too when I tried upgrading me S10e G970F to android 12, it started showing "Emergency calls only"

Roi_emeka said:
I got the same problem too when I tried upgrading me S10e G970F to android 12, it started showing "Emergency calls only"
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Have you fixed it yet, I'm having same issue, anyone help pls

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