KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little Guy Premium Member join:2000-01-17 Tulsa, OK |
KrK
Premium Member
2014-Apr-21 4:44 pm
It's about time. They also need to go after the resellers who buy stolen...Phones. You see them all over, those phone stores who will buy "used" phones no questions asked and then flash them to restore service and the like.
Regulate them like pawn shops. | |
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Re: It's about time. They also need to go after the resellers who buy stolen...The kill switch will take care of the resellers. No need for more regulation. | |
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Re: It's about time. They also need to go after the resellers who buy stolen...unfortunately a kill switch isn't regulation.. and I don't think any carrier should have the right to control my hardware. | |
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| | KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little Guy Premium Member join:2000-01-17 Tulsa, OK |
to battleop
I doubt it. I think they will just re-flash the phones. | |
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to battleop
Good luck with that... I see this all the time in other countries that have the "kill switch" service.
They take the stolen phone and clone a broken phones imei number too it then sell it off as a used phone. Even the OTP area IMEI number can be hacked... They just flip the bits to raise the IMEI number since the OTP area can only be raised, never lowered. But go head and believe this will help. | |
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formerphoned to KrK
Anon
2014-Apr-21 8:39 pm
to KrK
Re: It's about time. They also need to go after the resellers who buy stolen...lots of stores actually have display cases full of phones marked 'export only' those are the blacklisted(reported stolen) phones. customers also come in specifically requesting 'blacklisted' phones since the price is cheaper and they are just as usable overseas. apple and other really should put the same 'activation lock' on when phones are on the blacklist as they do when 'find my iphone' is set up. | |
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Re: It's about time. They also need to go after the resellers who buy stolen...and both are easy to bypass. Locked iphones can be gotten around and restored easily. you just lose the data. | |
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EliteDataEliteData Premium Member join:2003-07-06 Philippines |
?would this "kill switch" still work if a stolen device from the US is powered off immediately after being stolen, taken overseas someplace like china and then powered on ? | |
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| KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little Guy Premium Member join:2000-01-17 Tulsa, OK Netgear WNDR3700v2 Zoom 5341J
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KrK
Premium Member
2014-Apr-21 5:07 pm
Re: ?No, not likely.... but neither is that scenario. Most phones are stolen and then sold cheap to someone else or taken to one of those phone reseller shops who will buy them no questions asked and then wipe them, reflash them and resell them. Example, while typing this I pull up craigslist and type in "iPhone 5" and one of the very first hits: I will buy any iphone 5/5S/5C, ipad air and samsung galaxy s4 or note 3 I will buy clean esn/bad esn/icloud locked/blacklisted. The samsung s4 must be tmobile or AT&T. iPhones any carrier. Txt or call me anytime 24/7!! | |
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| | KearnstdSpace Elf Premium Member join:2002-01-22 Mullica Hill, NJ |
Kearnstd
Premium Member
2014-Apr-22 3:48 am
Re: ?no that is not more shady than a tree farm.
Sounds about as trustworthy as a guy selling DVDs off a blanket in a subway station. | |
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fiostv
Anon
2014-Apr-21 5:03 pm
give people what they wantSo like everything else it is a tool that could be used for good or evil | |
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Re: give people what they wantYah. Could you imagine if the system in charge of nuking phones got hacked.... | |
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WiFiguruTo infinity... and beyond Premium Member join:2005-06-21 Seattle, WA |
WiFiguru
Premium Member
2014-Apr-21 5:19 pm
Reversed if recovered.Yeah... people will just develop tools that can bypass all of this.
Cloning IMEIs, etc. Cheap donor phones will become the market, rising prices for them as demand goes up. | |
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| jjeffeoryjjeffeory join:2002-12-04 Bloomington, IN |
Re: Reversed if recovered.It's already available. For example, if an S4 is IMEI blocked, simply have the IMEI on the phone changed. No problem. | |
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| | ArrayListDevOps Premium Member join:2005-03-19 Mullica Hill, NJ |
Re: Reversed if recovered.simply have it changed? I'm pretty sure there is nothing simple about it. | |
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Re: Reversed if recovered.Ahmm yeah it's pretty easy for someone with a little know-how and a hot air soldering station. | |
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DataRiker
Premium Member
2014-Apr-22 12:56 am
Re: Reversed if recovered.The fact that you need to solder means 99% of people won't even attempt it, and it would make it costly for shops to do this on a large scale. | |
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| | | | | jjeffeoryjjeffeory join:2002-12-04 Bloomington, IN |
Re: Reversed if recovered.It's a $40 buck service you can find on eBay. No soldiering required as far as I know, just the right tools to do the job. | |
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to ArrayList
Were you around for the heyday of DirecTV hacking???? LOL. | |
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Re: Reversed if recovered.I still have a valid DSS card :P too bad its about as worthless as the dust on it... | |
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robbyglack
Anon
2014-Apr-21 7:03 pm
why not check against the blacklistit seems a fair trade off between making the feature on by default would be that any phone listed in the IMEI blacklist would trigger the same lock. if this works anything like apple's current 'find my iphone' it means the phone will connect to an online server to determine whether or not to pass activation. i am sure it would not be difficult for apple to check the IMEI database and deny activation of reported stolen phones regardless of the 'find my iphone' setting. | |
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Never buy second hand.I will never buy second hand because of what a friend of mine went through. He bought a brand new boxed Galaxy S 3 for something like $400 at launch. He didnt question the buyer because it was brand new in the factory sealed box. The guy said his wife decided on an iphone instead so he was selling the S 3 at a little bit of a loss.
The phone worked for a month and then wouldn't connect. Called TMO, they said the phone was purchased on an account that was never paid on. Most likely some kind of identity theft. They bought 2 phones but that was all the info TMO would give him. Even though he was a customer for over 12 years at the time, there was nothing they could do for him. They ended up letting him buy a phone on contract and pay monthly for it, but he bought the phone because he wasn't up for an upgrade yet.
He ended up selling it for something like $300 and advised it was useless on TMO, but could be used on ATT fine. Someone on ATT picked it up at a steal of a price.
Even with the kill switch, it doesn't stop things like the above from happening. | |
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IowaCowboyLost in the Supermarket Premium Member join:2010-10-16 Springfield, MA |
I buy my phones new and anti-theft ideasI buy my phones new and only from corporate Verizon Wireless stores or Best Buy mobile stores.
I would never buy a used phone.
I personally think a good way to combat smartphone theft would be the existing carrier locks and if the user wants to travel overseas they should have to call the carrier, authenticate themselves and have the carrier lock released to insert a foreign sim.
It's the export black market that drives smartphone theft. I think if there was a way to make the phone worthless overseas then that would curb smartphone theft. Or make it so the user has to enter a PIN to insert a different SIM card to unlock the phone. In other words, if you insert a different sim, then you have to enter your pin to unlock the phone. If you don't remember the pin then you should have to get an unlock code from the carrier which the phone was purchased. That should require the user to go to one of their stores with the phone and prove ownership. Then there could be a system to release the pin if the phone is deactivated, which would have to come as a signal to the phone from the home carrier of the phone. This would allow foreign sims, a user would have to enter their pin to (set by user) to activate the foreign SIM and unlock the phone once the sim other than one issued by the home carrier. The same system could be used if you insert a sim from a carrier in the country in which the phone was purchased, no pin required and if you insert an overseas sim then you should have to enter your pin. | |
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| KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little Guy Premium Member join:2000-01-17 Tulsa, OK Netgear WNDR3700v2 Zoom 5341J
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KrK
Premium Member
2014-Apr-21 10:32 pm
Re: I buy my phones new and anti-theft ideasThe local black market drives far more Smartphone theft then overseas export.
The fact that these guys will buy these stolen phones makes grabbing someone's nice phone free cash. Kill switches can't stop everything but it sure would help. Making it a crime to buy and resell phones that are blacklisted and or kill-switched would also help, but you can't cover every circumstance.
Still I feel they should do what they can. The current situation is ridiculous. | |
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| | KearnstdSpace Elf Premium Member join:2002-01-22 Mullica Hill, NJ |
Kearnstd
Premium Member
2014-Apr-22 3:49 am
Re: I buy my phones new and anti-theft ideasI get a feeling lots of the buyers of reflashed phones are drug dealers and the like. People who need a phone they can ditch if the feds get too close. | |
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NOCManMadMacHatter Premium Member join:2004-09-30 Colorado Springs, CO |
NOCMan
Premium Member
2014-Apr-21 10:19 pm
Double Edged Sword?Could this be used by governments to disable our phones? | |
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| KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little Guy Premium Member join:2000-01-17 Tulsa, OK |
KrK
Premium Member
2014-Apr-21 10:25 pm
Re: Double Edged Sword?The Government could already disable your phone. This lets YOU disable your phone. | |
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to NOCMan
said by NOCMan:Could this be used by governments to disable our phones? Yes. Useful thing if you ever have an anti-government demonstration. | |
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pag plus dlr
Anon
2014-Apr-22 7:26 am
> > "to keep you safe "I am totaly sure that carriers would never use this nuke your phone after you port your number and phone to another carrier - no - Local police would never use mesh networking tech mounted in white boxes to steal phone data over wi-fi - nuke all phones in a give "free speech ' area during a protest - nope
Whats wrong with legit phone resellers who improve and re purpose phones that are bound for the landfill? | |
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SunnyD join:2009-03-20 Madison, AL |
SunnyD
Member
2014-Apr-22 10:01 am
Tin Foil Hat time...Just what we need, a mass-market way for the powers that be to selectively turn off means of communication for legitimate individuals. This will NEVER be abused. | |
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| acadielPress fire to begin Premium Member join:2002-06-22 Atlanta Apple AirPort Express (2012) Apple AirPort Extreme (2013) ARRIS SB6183
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acadiel
Premium Member
2014-Apr-22 11:18 am
Re: Tin Foil Hat time...said by SunnyD:Just what we need, a mass-market way for the powers that be to selectively turn off means of communication for legitimate individuals. This will NEVER be abused. Yep, I'm waiting for the people holding phones hostage for ransom.... You're going to see hackers threatening to erase phones, etc, just like computers. It'll eventually happen; Android and Apple already have kill switches via their vendors, but the bad guys haven't started doing this yet. They will, give them time. | |
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40757180 (banned)
Member
2014-Apr-22 2:47 pm
Not big dealIt will do nothing, and can easily be wiped and the lock can be disabled. This is just talk and nothing but talk. | |
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