Imei Puns

For all intents and purposes, I am considering changing to an IMEI of a phone I own. I would be doing so to be able to access smartphone data plans available to me instead of being locked into a "tablet" data plan.

Is this considered illegal in the US? and if so please cite the law stating the legality of it. Ik we're not lawyers here, but there should be some evidence of the legality of this. Thanks!

Edit: Thanks for the plat, a lot of y'all need to stop being so pretentious and stop trying to start shit I asked a very simple question and a lot of you decided to attempt to shit on my parade and make it seem like I don't know what I am doing. While I recognize this might have been a question better suited for /r/legaladvice I figured they would not actually answer the question and ask why I am even changing it or say I have malicious intent instead of actually answering the question. I thank those of you who at the attempted to answer my question instead of trying to belittle me and discredit my question. If you spent your time trying to shit on my parade know that it had the opposite effect here, people like you are a detriment to the advancement of technology.

For those interested in my methods, you should find a brief description of what method I had used to change the IMEI of my LTE device in the comment section, it should have more than enough info to get you going in the right direction. Also note that my method I used only works for a specific device (or group of devices) as I took advantage of a design flaw involving the manufacturer allowing a telnet connection directly to the microcontroller on my LTE device. The method I used for my device in question here likely won't work for your cell phone or other mobile device, but that doesn't mean that changing your IMEI is impossible as most phones store the value in a ROM, and some ROMs are just static ram chips with the write enabled pin left inactive. In theory you could just open the phone in question, find the rom chip and either attempt to rewrite the data on it if possible, or purchase a donor ROM chip, flash an IMEI you like into it using your favorite MCU (mine is microchip PICs), then solder it in. I left my comments intentionally vague for two reasons, those being: I felt that it's a separate post in and of itself due to all the steps involved, and the second reason is because I am questioning the legality of even performing the act and don't want to get in trouble / get you in trouble

Title. Existing devices that are flagged on another carrier aren't going to be affected right away, but if you swap your SIM to another device and back, the flagged device won't work.

What tools are required? Does anybody know?

I was planning on buying a used T-Mobile phone from ebay to use on T-Mobile, and everywhere I check it does say it has clean IMEI, but the listing states that they're unsure if the phone is financed. (IMEI 3517824605558040)
From what I understand, if it is financed, it may have bad IMEI eventually?
Is there any way to check for sure whether the phone is financed or whether it is fully paid off yet?

Hey all. I am wondering how accurate the Cricket IMEI checker is.

I have a TracFone Galaxy a11 that will be unlocked soon. I put the IMEI though the Cricket checker and it came back as good to be on the network.

Does this mean it's 100% on the AT&T whitelist?

Is there any way to change an IMEI number on an iPhone? I purchased the phone from somebody and it appears the phone's IMEI has been blacklisted by a previous carrier or something, meaning I cannot use a SIM card in it.

Any help would be really appreciated, thanks.

Hi all,

I have a Pixel 6 Pro and want to use it with a Cricket physical SIM and a T-Mobile TNX eSIM - because the eSIM is bound to the primary IMEI, and the fact that the Pixel 6 Pro pushes the eSIM to IMEI 2 when you activate a physical SIM, it won't work with DSDS enabled. I know one person who was able to escalate it with T-Force to get the eSIM IMEI binding changed, but I have failed so far, I´'ve just gotten hung up on by T-Mobile support in Nigeria multiple times. It is infuriating. I can't believe how bad T-Mobile support has gotten vs. a year or two ago. Would any employee be able to help me or point me in the right direction? Who do I need to tweet to make it happen?

Thanks in advance!

My husband has cloned my imei as well as my friends and has been reading every message she’s sent as well as tracked my whereabouts. Is there any way I can prove this? With out getting on his computer? The only proof I have now is shit he’s said to me.

Edit to add: while it might not be illegal, is there anything to stop someone from doing this again?

On day 7 currently of this nightmarish process and I'm giving up. I'm trying to switch to another carrier that needs my att account number. The last 15 digits of the sim doesn't work. I have swapped phones/sims at least a half dozen times over the years so I the original phone with the imei is long gone. I even recall deleting the device from my st account many moons ago. So I can't access the imei number that I need to complete the transfer. Of course straight talk won't give me this number ugh. Am I screwed? Does straight talk own my number forever?

Recently I’ve been locked out of my Snapchat on my phone and I’ve noticed I can’t use this phone for Snapchat. Is there a fix to this or will I just have to buy a new phone (got this phone 2 months ago).

If potential buyer asks for IMEI on unlocked phone...is this just fine? No issues? They wanted a photo of the number from the actual phone.

My phone has an IMEI ban and my account says I have permanent ban. However I have read that due to my account still being visible to friends that it isn’t permanently gone. If I log in to my account on another phone does anyone know if it will work or will it cause that phone to be banned too.

Many thanks for any help

I just ordered a Jetpack MiFi 8800L from Best Buy that will be delivered next week. Is there any way to go ahead and add a Hotspot line online without having the IMEI (eg - is there a generic IMEI I can type in so I'll be presented with the hotspot plans?)

Pretty much the title. I contacted visible and they said in order to send a sim I need a compatible IMEI. But I have seen several posts saying they had a non-compatible phone and somehow still got a sim card.

Hello everyone,

I bought a mobile prepaid sim from Amazon and was going to register it online. As part of the registration process they require an IMEI number.

I have bought a compatible mobile router (refurbished) from Amazon as well. When I go to activate the sim will it become bound to the device whose IMEI number I put in ? I was initially planning on activating the account using my own phones IMEI number but once the device arrives I don't want the sim to be locked to my mobile phone.

Not sure if this is relevant but I plan on using this plan to setup my internet connection in Canada as AT&T works with Rogers coverage here from what I understand. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I appreciate any and all help

Since you have to use an android phone to activate the 100GB free Google storage via Google One app, if I use the website or automated phone support to change the IMEI tied to my SIM to a spare android phone, how quickly can I change the IMEI number back to my iphone? Is there any waiting periods, i.e. 24hrs etc before changing the IMEI again?

If you have a device that works with Visible, but online it says it doesn't (I.E. Some Pixel 6 devices) use this imei to bypass. (given by visible support)

355342080829663

Buenas noches r/mujico, disculpen la molestia pero no se dónde más preguntar. Hace unos meses compre un iPhone 11 por medio de un tercero como un regalo para mi madresita por su cumpleaños. Sin embargo y para no hacerla de largas el teléfono resulto estar bloqueado por IMEI, de esto nos dimos cuenta ya que no salían llamadas del equipo y fuimos a preguntar a una MacStore cercana, donde nos confirmaron mi sospecha. El teléfono se compro a un tercero quien nos aseguro que era nuevo ya que venía sellado y en su caja original (sí, ya sé que esto no es garantía pero pues uno se fue a enterar ya muy tarde). Mi duda es la siguiente, ¿me puedo acercar a telcel e intentar negociar que desbloqueen el equipo aunque estuviera atado a ellos eternamente? ¿Me podría meter en problemas al acercarme a preguntar esto a Telcel?Disculpen la molestia pero no sé dónde más preguntar y pensé que alomejor alguien aquí podría orientarme un poco. Nuevamente y yo sé que no sirve de mucho, pero el teléfono yo no lo robe a alguien más (aunque no puedo saber el origen concreto de este equipo), realmente solo soy el típico pendejo quien por intentar ahorrarse unos cuantos pesos le salió el tiro por la culata. Una disculpa si el tema no va aquí.

With the December 2021 update that just came out a day or two ago, U1 Fold now displays eSIM IMEI.

This is a fairly good indicator that they will follow through and enable eSIM.

Notably, I cannot add an eSIM yet. It just is showing me the IMEI grayed out in About Phone.

Edit: It appears they added it for Verizon configuration. Verizon must have demanded it be hidden.

Hello everyone and thank you for your help.

I've recently bought a Renault Z0E second hand from 2015. When I tried to use the full facilities this beauty has to offer and link it to my phone, I find out I require an IMEI number that is given to the new owner in an envelope, and the previous owner didn't have it to give it to me. So I am in a tough spot. I've been to Renault Representation in my country (Romania) and they had no idea what I was talking about. Electric cars are extremely new in my country and people are untrained and the people at the Rep. just brushed me off, as they can't help me, they had no idea what to do.

Is there any other way I can get that IMEI number? It is used to connect the Renault app to the car.

I have a Xiomi Mi Mix that I love but it won't be compatible with cricket come February.

I didn't want to spend a fortune and after exhaustive comparison between the approved devices list and GSMArena, I bought the 128gb TCL 20 SE on Amazon.

I cost just under $200 and works great on cricket.

I got an unlocked s20+ for Xmas. Was hoping to get a plan with visible but my IMEI is not compatible. I checked with mint mobile and it was compatible. I wanted to see if my phone would still work with visible before going with mint which has the 3 mo free promo going. I'd just rather have unlimited hotspot with visible.

I am buying a used P5. The seller doesn’t have the box but is selling for quite cheap. I want to know the eSIM IMEI to get it verified. Seller tried to look it in the settings but its not there (only Physical SIM IMEI is available).

TLDR: Is there a way to find eSIM IMEI on P5 if I dont have the box?

Hola, me robaron el celular y me gustaría bloquear el IMEI. ¿Alguien podría decirme cómo se hace esto en Perú? Gracias.

I recently got an iPhone 11 that is no power, no sim tray. It doesn't connect to iTunes. Any way to find out the IMEI before repairing it?

I've done some surface level research & from what I can see changing the IMEI is not illegal in the US so long as it's not to leach service from another phone.

Considering Apple & Google now mac MAC randomization to protect against WiFi & Bluetooth tracking, what are the odds that IMEI randomization will be implemented to protect against cellular network tracking. Obviously you're SIM identifiers can still be tracked, but this would make it much more difficult for police to track cell phones through network carriers.

What are the odds this might become a feature in the future? Also do you think it's possible security OS's like CalyxOS or GrapheneOS might implement IMEI randomization?

Maybe in the future with virtual sims becoming mainstream & virtual carrier networks gaining popularity, there will be privacy focused companies that use software to randomly generate new SIM & IMEI identifiers every 60 seconds with cryptographic algorithms making any cell based tracking impossible.

I'm living in a country that charges you through the roof for using a foreign purchased phone. When you first move here, they link your IMEI to your sim and give you three months to pay the tax. If you don't, you're phone is blocked. Is there a way to change my Android IMEI number without root?