Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

The short answer is you will not be able to spoof your IMEI over the cellular network - as long as the network is using this number as an access control method, your only option will be to buy compatible hardware.

For sure you can modify the IMEI value in parts of the application engine (operating system), but on the cellular side, not going to happen unless you have your own chip fabrication plant : )

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

So hypothetically speaking here.

If I tried to get a phone out on contract (because I never wanted to wait until I had saved up to buy a phone on P&G which would have been outdated buy the time I had all the money together) and my credit check failed because I lost my job and car so I was black listed for anything on credit,

Then I asked my partner to get the phone for me on T-Mobile, then when I have paid the first 6 months of the contract coming from my bank account then when I ask for a "change of ownership" they say they can not do it because my credit check has still failed.

So I'm left with a phone which is in my parters name, no wait now my "EX" partners name and I'm still paying the bill because I need to use the phone to for calls/texts/internet. On day she decides to go ape sh*t at me and go "Oh I know how to pi*s him off, I'll phone T-Mobile and because he couldn't get it changed into his name I'm the account holder so I'll report it stolen" (Baring in mind that the bills have been paid from my account and the address is registered to mine too.) The she goes along and does that, I can't unblock it not being the account holder. I'm shafted really aren't I???

So if I wanted to avoid this situation from happening again for a 3rd time. How could I Mask/change/clone it to my friends N900 which he is happy for me to do (It's on Vodafone), so I could avoid being barred and not being able to use my phone when ever the "BiG bAg of crazy" decides to throw her toys out of the pram.

Just to neaten that up
Bill Payer: Me
Phone: Me
Registered Address: Mine
Account Holder (Contract): Ex

T-Mobile are aware of this I've tried may thing to get it changed. I have even challenged them writing into the the accounts department. Still They don't care so long as they are getting the money.

If no one is willing to PM me or contact me on how I could change the IMEI of my phone, is it possible that someone in here works for T-Mobile or better still have any other suggestion to try and help me out on this one. Thanks

P.S. As most of you may have gathered from that, it's a true situation that currently happening. :(

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

How about this. Stop paying the bill. Get a PAYG SIM from somewhere and put it on the phone.

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Teach your ex - stop paying bills.

But seriously - you should talk to lawyer, he can explain you that fix some injustice with avoiding law is Not Good Thing. In life there are many situations which can be resolved just jumping the law... at least for some time. What happens if your EX file the lawsuit against you because phone is listed on her? Judge, not you would decided - is you bill payment for phone service is a prove that you own a phone. In my understanding the law would be against you here, you don't own the rented car. If your partner have chance to present her point of view I suspect it would be a perfect case of your attempt of stealing her phone which she rented to you.

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Nice way of looking at it, but your forgetting that T-Mobile can block my phone by adding my IMEI number to the National Blacklist, so when it sends off the IMSI and IMEI number It will be block on any UK network considering all the APN's around my are UK lol. I thought of it myself but then I'd be cause more hassle.


Humm never really looked at it like that I suppose, well I may play the dirty and make sure I don@t pay on time just to muddy up her credit lol.

& Hope fully instead of T-Mobile saying "we're not interested. We got the money coming in" it will be the case of "Danm, we ain't getting paid, we should review the account holder and find out whats happening." Either way a IMEI cloner would be great.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

The thread about using additional frequencies with the FM transmitter not only explains how to do somthing that is illegal in many countries but actually provides links to binaries to achieve that goal, and yet no one has asked that thread to be closed nor anything, why is it different here?

I'm not condoning the purchase of stolen goods, i'm just trying to understand the (apparent) double standard.

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

you have a nokia n900, aka RX-51
it is built on the nokia bb5 (base band 5) platform
it contains security known as sl3 (sim lock 3)

I see the products "dm3" and "atf" (advance turbo flasher) advertise support for this device. i don't know if they would actually do an "IMEI repair", however.

they cost hundreds of dollars, more than a new phone, but perhaps you can find a store advertising "IMEI repair" that have this equipment available. or just contact the manufacturer of those products. they like to advertise all over the internet, i'm sure you can figure it out.


it's silly to compare the two, it is not a double standard.
which one do you think would cause more problems -- a million cloned cellphones, or a million radios transmitting at a slightly higher power level or wrong frequency.

a cloned cellphone is more likely to be linked to crime, benefiting criminals, and causing problems for other users of the network.

a bad radio isn't going to do anything unless someone 20ft away is trying to use that frequency for something else.

plus, the imei is logged by your network. they probably won't do anything, but how safe can you be? all they have to do is send the cops after you to check if the sticker on your phone matches.

oh yeah, why don't you just sell your phone to someone in the USA or Canada? apparently the providers over here are too damn stupid and lazy to pay any attention to your list of bad IMEIs. they can only handle blocking phones on their own networks...

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Wouldn't it just be easier if you did what every other law abiding citizen did?

Keep your damn @ss out of trouble. :p

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Guys,

I am in a situation...... i got ganged up by a bunch of guys and got beaten up real bad and they took my iphone 32GB!!! this is pure injustice and the police in uk will not find them.

i am planning to take things in my own hand. i got insurance on it the following day however if i give the insurance company my imei number then they will see i reported it stolen the day before i took out the insurance

my plan...i got a cuz in ny. could i claim i lost my phone and give his imei number??? would the brits b able to track it and get me done for fraud???

this is just an idea and I emphasise I am not planning to do this for legal reasons ;)

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

I think they'd be suspicious enough with you just having bought the insurance, oh and look a few days (or even weeks) later it gets stolen.. hmmm. You could just give up and accept **** happens; get a new phone and be more careful with it/yourself - oh, and put the security codes on it (both the phone and the sim card if you're paranoid).

Hope you didn't have any lasting damage from their attack. Did you report the attack to the police? I believe most insurance (in UK at least and many other countries) will want you to report the theft to the police before they'll accept the insurance claim.

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

talking about security code, how can i set the N900 to ask for a password/pin when the sim card is swapped/removed?

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

IMEI changing is illegal and for good reason and all those cloaked twisted reasons kicking around this thread that suggest a justifiable excuse to change a device imei are just ********.

People want to know how to do it for one reason only, to cheat the system. Ultimately that means someone who has lost their phone or had it stolen, loses out and I for one (who paid full cost for mine) do not support that.

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

I guess its makeable with the phoenix service software on older Nokia Phones. If it will go on the N900 - i dont know. Also there ist software for other vendors (Siemens) to change the IMEI. I Guess i saw such an option on the Nokia E70 and/or Nokia E90 via the phoenix service software. :p

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?d
 

no you're WRONG haider93
it only asks for imie so only people with n900's download it. its like capcha.
its not that easy to change imie.
do some reasearch before posting wrong things

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

You are quite near sighted to say things you don't know well too boldly. If a phone is reported stolen, its IMEI is locked, then changing the IMEI is supporting stealing. I have a different story for you to consider.

I bought a N95 operator locked to Softbank Japan. Softbank does not support Nokia firmware update. Elsewhere in the world the N95s are updated to 3.* firmwares but in Japan, the firmware for N95 just remain the same at 2.* version. I change the regional code to a non-softbank one, update to the new 3.* firmware, and get myself to a delema: the phone nolonger work with Softbank because all pre-configured things like useragent, wap setting for softbank are gone.

Failed to get setting information for N95 from softbank, I bought another softbank phone, a Toshiba T01a, which turned out to be a joke because the windows phone doesnot have english UI.

Frustrated, I put the softbank SIM back to the N95 to find out that its IMEI has been locked by softbank !! I made lots of complaint to softbank but cannot get my N95 IMEI back. So I send it to my country and a new IMEI is implanted in 5 minutes. (That's why I decided to stay away from any Japanese operator-locked phone and get myself a real treat, a N900, anyway).

In this island, even using a non-operator-locked phone is said to be illegal by those stupid japanese phone sellers. They locked my IMEI just because I bring it to them and by a new one from them!

I hope in my case, you don't see that changing the IMEI of MYOWN phone because it has been illegally IMEI locked by operator as illegal.

I am not a phone technician so I dont know how to do it, but I haven't seen any phone with IMEI impossible to be changed. Well, don't support stolen phones, but I love the idea of being able to do whatever you like with the product you own. I hate the idea my beloved one is being tracked. How many stolen phones have found their way back to their owners thanks to IMEI? So why IMEI?

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Yes, IMEI changing is possible via service software such as Phoenix. As a user of nokia symbian phones in the past i had a similar problem as Duy2anh. My earlier cell, E55, was branded. Changed IMEI to general western EU region and was able to flash the phone with new firmware everytime. I'm i little bit sceptic about N900 though.

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Hmm, it sounds like you have changed the phone's regional code, not the IMEI though.

As far as I can guess, Nokia use the regional codes because they pack their firmwares with different language pack for different region. Like if your phone has EU 1 region code, you dont have Chinese language packed in your firmware. Changing your regional code enable you to flash your phone to different language, and possibly different function, sometimes (like the FM transmitter in the N900 case.) Changing that regional code does not affect your IMEI at all.

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

True that. Now i recall it. Precisely as you say. But i remember i did change IMEI once couple of years ago on a symbian device. It is doable with some service software i did find on internet. Hell i even can't remember why i did it, it doesn't bring anything really. I guess experimenting.

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Whether IMEI inside the device is changed or not, there is IMEI written under the battery. If the device is lost, it will be easier for a human to look at paper IMEI than to recharge the device to get electronic IMEI. If the device is stolen, thief will have to erase this paper IMEI, too, and any attentive/suspicious buyer will not like this and might (if he is suspicious enough) start an official investigation.

But I agree, changing IMEI is a shadowy activity. Not always illegal, but it's like: how can I make a plastic mask which would hide my face from passers by and look like normal human face?

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Isn't the product code and not the IMEI what was used on Symbian devices to find new firmware versions?

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Don't wanna ruin anyone's argument, but mobile phone theft is rising and it's got nothing to do with the fact wether you can change your IMEI or not. It's due to the rise in gadget prices and the fact that more people got them. Most stolen phones from the UK will end up in East Europe or Africa where even blocked phones gain new life without any IMEI tricks(which could be and being done as we speak/write) Most thiefs/muggers don't have time reading these forums as they are busy doing drugs. And most of them are not very educated to understand the technical details anyway. So why is it a taboo topic?

Why would anybody want to change their IMEI if they are not criminals? I'm sure ppl heard of the case of some chineese folks having their gmail account hacked... Or people living in Zimbabwe etc.

Ps: I'm very happy with my IMEI and have no intention of changing it or anyone elses and the last time I stole something I was 7 and my Mum beat me very much and I never done it again :)

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

from what i remember NSS options with usb cable is pretty limited, hence changing imei without the real dongle is as such not possible.. but J.A.F might be helpful in this process tho.

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

if it was easy to change IMEI criminal rings in UK would do it when they get stolen devices what have blocked from UK networks instead of sending them over seas where they are worth less

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Yeah it is the product code checked to update the firmwares, not only symbian but all nokia phone I think, at least with my N900. Mine is coded for Hongkong N900 version. Been thinking if I should change the code to EU or US though. Can anyone tell the difference between HongKong N900 PR1.3 and EU N900 one beside chiness input support (which I don't use)?

I reflashed the phone to PR1.3 with the global image because I could not get the OTA update, but infact the global image is a little bit different from the Hongkong firmware (no chinese input). After reflashing the global image, I have to run Nokia Software Updater to flash to the HongKong PR1.3. I don't know if I should do that or it is just a waste of time.

My N900 is not operator locked, so I do not have to worry about changing IMEI though. I don't think my carrier will help me lock the IMEI even if the phone is lost. They will laugh at my stupidity for not buying a properly protected local phone, maybe.:)

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Hi,

There is typically more than one CPU on the phone, one for PDA stuff, the other provides the 3G/2G/GSM etc. stack, and is often connected together via serial lines.

It would not be running Linux, more likely a real time operating system like Nucleus, etc.

The IMSI is stored on the SIM card, but the IMEI is hard coded number used like the phone's MAC address.

I would be impressed if you could somehow figure out how to do it, maybe trying with:
- sending a "special" SMS, like the unlockers do
- fuzzing the 3G stack
- JTAG pads
- use the ARM chip to fuzz the serial line or syscalls.
- etc


Ciao!

Justina B.

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Yes, changing the IMEI on a cellular device is illegal in most countries, however wanting to know how to do it does not mean a person is trying to do anything illegal.

In my case, I am running an android appliance in a virtual machine on my laptop. I have no idea how, but it keeps assigning an IMEI to a NON-cellular device (most tablets do not have this, they should only be assigned an Android Device ID). Thus I cannot play any games on my vm as the IMEI it keeps assigning is actually in use by someone. Thereby causing me to involuntarily spoof someone else's IMEI. I want to change that seeing as how it's not illegal to change if the device does not reside on a cellular network, and I would love to have proper usability on my virtual machine.

Also, it is most certainly not illegal to install an android device in a virtual machine as it is a freeware OS. Thus my interest in learning to change my IMEI.

For example, bluestacks (a well done but INCREDIBLY slow android emulator does not provide cellular IMEI), can be used to create many accounts for any Mobage game (a company that uses IMEI validation), however it is FAR to slow on most netbooks. Creating a VM works amazing, but how to I either remove the IMEI on my non-cellular device or is there another way I can go about this?

Dunno if anyone can help or point me in the right direction? For all I know this could even be the wrong forum to discuss this?

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

I think it’s illegal to change the IMEI of a phone and can lead to legal
action....

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Depends on the country where you do it I belive :D

Last time I looked there are no laws in the world that are universally enforced, in some 3rd world countries it is even legal to kill a fellow human being as a (claimed) self defence!

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

In Turkey, u can not buy phone from outside world.
if you buy u have to register it. if u get out the country within 2 months, u may register if not, u have change its imei!

so i need this because of i bought phone from another country.

any solution for Jolla!!!!!

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

changing IMEI is not possible. except changing the phone board itself (correct me if im wrong)

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

So you call the US a 3rd world country? ;)


We know.

Could you please rephrase. I cannot understand fully.

I know it was possible for older 'dumb phones' (but e.g. for Nokia this was also not possible anymore since BB5 afair). I do not know for Samsung/Apple and so on .....

I am afraid you are out of luck. But you should check in a local shop, ,aybe they already have a solution (which i doubt for this niche device).

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

Don't make me say it aloud :D:D:D:D

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

I didn't understood the Turkish goverment rules anyway. If you live out there and want to do some illegal action on a cellphone just buy a few second handed on the local blackmarket and pay in cash.
I don't have any need to change IMEI, no iPhone 6 plus in the packet, don't want to robbed by some dumbass.

Does anyone knows what the side effect would be when you change your IMEI number to an existing number at the same cellurar network.

Re: Is changing IMEI possible?
 

The IMEI will be blacklisted, and both phones useless

Not that much I think