Does this T-Mobile/LG smartphone carrier unlock code ever expire?

Judy Miller schreef op 15-02-2014 in :

Are you serious? Then you better cancel your message. Not only never expires de unlock code, you make it posible to kidnap it, due sending all the codes free into the whole world.

I do not understand. I assumed that the code I received is ONLY for my phone. So, what good would that unlock code be for someone with a different phone?

Judy, relax. Yes, the unlock code will not expire but also it can not be used or abused to kidnap anyone or anything.

Unlock codes are specific to the phone. If one worked for all phones, do you think people would go to such trouble to get one?

It is.

You are quite right: the unlock code is specific to the one handset in the world with the IMEI that your phone bears. Moreover, the procedure the email describes -- the "instructions for unlocking your LG device" -- are specific to your particular model of LG phone. Motorolas, Nokias, etc., have unlock codes of different lengths, and unlock instructions of different character.

Finally, as a general rule, unlock codes -- and unlock instructions -- are good until used -- and beyond (one Motorola phone I had gotten unlock instructions for -- and successfully unlocked -- mysteriously got itself re-locked again when I put in a new carrier's SIM card -- fortunately, I still had access to the old unlock instructions, applied them, and Presto! the phone was unlocked once again :-) .

So don't lose that unlock instruction email :-) ! HTH. Cheers, -- tlvp

They are actually specific not only to the phone, but to the service provider. So if you bought the phone from T-Mobile, it would have a different code than the same phone bought from AT&T.

Some phones can be unlocked by buying the code from various vendors in Eastern Europe. I have unlocked several Motorola phones that way.

Some phones require the code come from the service provider, who will only provide them to current customers and may have other restrictions.

iPhones really need to be unlocked by Apple, who will only do it if the service provider who bought it from them asks them to do it. Then a magical unlock code is sent via iTunes to the registered owner of the phone.

There are many unlock hacks for iPhones, most of them don't work, or stop working if you reboot the phone.

Geoff.

On Sun, 16 Feb 2014 06:19:21 +0000 (UTC), Geoffrey S. Mendelson commented on:

More particularly, an unlock code is specific to a given handset's IMEI. The manufacturers leave it, in part, to the service providers to determine to whom and under what circumstances to reveal the unlock code and directions for its use. But "service provider" is not used so restrictively as to mean cellular operators only, for, as you say,

Mainly, it means Nokia or Motorola won't divulge unlock codes to you or me. Or anyway, that's the impression I've always been under :-) .

Cheers, -- tlvp

Anthony R. Gold schreef op 16-02-2014 in :

The unlock code alone not indeed, but the IMEI code is a unique identifier. But who take care these days for personal securyty? One gives everything away for a free lunch [1]. Apparently Judy is not aware of the transparency of usenet.

Am 15.02.2014 23:04, schrieb Judy Miller:

Look at this:

I still have no idea what you are warning about. Please be specific about what harm anyone can do to Judy by knowing both that unlock code and her phone's IMEI number. Because some number is unique does not make it valuable to anyone else who is seeking to do mischief. The Message-Id of your last post was , which is unique, and that knowledge plus $3.65 will buy me a Grande Latte at Starbucks.

How much does it cost me with out the knowledge coupon?

Jamie

$3.65

Ok, so any retard can get a coffee at starbucks!

:_ Jamie

I think it is possible to track the phone's movements (provided it's on) knowing the IMEI number. This works in two situations: (1) you have a friend at the phone's cellular provider who has access to cell phone tower data. However, if he's got access to the tower data, he can probably do a phone-number-to-IMEI lookup or customer-name-to-IMEI lookup just as easily. and (2) you are close enough to the phone to receive the signal directly, with a "direction-finder" like device. Possibly it could work better by pretending to be a cell phone tower and getting the phone to respond to it. I don't know how common these devices are, but I think law enforcement has them.

I think the unlock code is pretty useless, with or without the IMEI number, unless you own the phone or plan to steal it.

A remotely readable unique number (e.g. cell phone IMEI numbers, RFID tags (in, say, credit cards, clothes, etc.), toll tags, Bluetooth MAC addresses, WiFi MAC addresses, etc. tend to be more abusable in two ways: tracking/stalking someone, and spending their money.

The longer the range and the more related to money it is, the more abusable it is. IMEI numbers are pretty long-range (I suspect providers can do a network-wide international search, although the radio signal probably reaches only a few nearby cell towers) for tracking but don't seem to have much potential for financial abuse. (At least on T-Mobile, the SIM card, not the IMEI, seems to provide the billing info).

Credit cards with RFID chips may be readable for only a few feet, making them not so good for location tracking, but the financial abuse (and mistake) potential is enormous. I've witnessed two people using Mobil SpeedPass accidentally pay for each other's gas, then almost drive off before one of them noticed the problem (my Toyota can't possibly hold 80 gallons of gas!).

Serial numbers are useful to people who steal phones. There is a worldwide database of lost (greylist) and stolen (blacklist) GSM phones. It can only be updated by a service provider and they can choose to use it or ignore it.

Back in the final days of the last century, the UK cellular carriers did not use the data base to encourage people to buy pay as you go SIMs and put them in stolen phones. In those days they were planning IPOs, and the valuation of the company was based upon the number of subscribers (active SIMs) and not revenue.

Since GSM phones were new here (in Israel) and very expensive, I purchased several used phones from a dealer in the UK who took them in trade, tested them and sold them over the internet. When they arrived here, they were blacklisted. Israel Orange used the blacklist.

To be honest, I'm not sure anyone cares though. There was a version of the software to unlock the old Nokia handsets via a computer cable, and every time you ran it, it incremented the phone's IEMI by one. I assume because there were so many stolen phones that it was necessary. :-)

Geoff.

??? IMEI (not IEMI) isn't irretrievably burned into ROM? Anyway the last digit of an IMEI is a check-digit -- what you get from a valid IMEI by merely incrementing it by one is generally no longer a valid IMEI :-) .

Cheers, -- tlvp

In this case I did not have or use the software, by the time there were enough GSM carriers here to matter, you could get unlocked cell phones cheaper here than locked ones. Now no cell phones are sold here locked.

I assume what it did was to add one to the serial number part of the IMEI and recompute the check digit. It worked and was quite popular.

Geoff.

A much nicer state of affairs than allowing SIM-locked phones, isn't it?

OK, I'll take your word for it :-) . Thanks,

Cheers, -- tlvp