# iPhoneunlocking.com....A scam?



## Duramax (Jul 21, 2007)

Ok I think I got duped. I got overly excited after reading on here that they were going to release a software unlock and I landed up giving them my IMEI. How screwed am I?


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## genuineadvantage (Mar 14, 2007)

Duramax said:


> Ok I think I got duped. I got overly excited after reading on here that they were going to release a software unlock and I landed up giving them my IMEI. How screwed am I?


The IMEI is just used to identify the phone on the network. It is not an identifier of the subscriber (you). Its used to ensure that only valid devices, not stolen, can access the network. The SIM Card is what is used to identify the subscriber to the network. So in short there is not much he/she can do but I would still recommend calling your wireless network.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

There are a few things they can do with the IMEI but it is extremely unlikely that they are at all creative enough to do so, or care to be.

To address the post above, let's say someone reported their phone stolen, and identified your IMEI. If you are on Rogers, which seems likely, Rogers will do nothing with the information. They don't blacklist handsets. They do record IMEIs but since GSM means that you can switch phones any time, it doesn't mean anything to the network.

Did you share $$$ with that source as well?


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## Duramax (Jul 21, 2007)

Whew! I feel a little better now. No, I didn't give any money to them. I wouldn't go that far. 

Thanks for the help guys 

Nick


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## genuineadvantage (Mar 14, 2007)

Duramax said:


> Whew! I feel a little better now. No, I didn't give any money to them. I wouldn't go that far.
> 
> Thanks for the help guys
> 
> Nick


hehe no problem buddy!


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## MACinist (Nov 17, 2003)

I bought a couple of iPhones over the weekend and am waiting on the one that Engadget was advertising: http://www.iphonesimfree.com/

Please let me know if you get your software and if it works... I know they were having legal issues yesterday.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

Actually, iphoneunlocking.com is _apparently_ having legal issues (a 3AM phone call from a lawyer representing AT&T).

There has been no further word from iphonesimfree.com since Engadget's post on Friday.

While iphoneunlocking.com _could_ be legitimate, the reality is that their unwillingness and/or inability to actually _demonstrate_ a solution (despite having been contacted by several press agencies I'm sure) doesn't speak well for the legitimacy of it, particularly in the shadow of iphonesimfree's announcement.

What will happen with iphonesimfree at this point is anybody's guess. They apparently have a working unlock solution (according to Engadget -- a relatively reliable source), but there's been no further concrete announcements beyond a vague "sometime next week" (this week now) timeframe.


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## raiden (Aug 26, 2010)

Hey guys. I was being stupid and I gave them my credit card information. How screwed am I?


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## Nik_Ars (Mar 22, 2010)

raiden said:


> Hey guys. I was being stupid and I gave them my credit card information. How screwed am I?


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## raiden (Aug 26, 2010)

should i stop and change my credit card? or are they just scamming about the imei? however they did take me to the jailbreame.com website.


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## jhollington (Jan 29, 2007)

This thread is actually three years old, so it's hard to say what the current status of iphoneunlocking.com is today, or even if it's still the same company. The domain registration says the domain name is been around since February 2006, but that's a GoDaddy registration so it's entirely possible it's changed hands in that time (and 2006 would have been a speculative registration, since that was a year before the iPhone came out).

IIRC there was never any definitive information about whether iphoneunlocking.com was actually doing things like stealing credit card numbers of IMEI's -- that was merely speculation. The "scam" appeared to be that they were collecting money without offering a solution, likely planning to offer somebody else's solution once it was discovered. Consider that when this thread was originally posted, iPhone unlocking solutions were virtually nonexistent and a number of company's were trying to capitalize on claiming they were the first to be offering an unlocking service.

That said, it sounds like iphoneunlocking.com is _still_ a bit of a scam if all they're doing is taking your money and sending you to jailbreakme.com which is a _free_ service. This is what a lot of people suspected they were doing in the first place -- collecting money, waiting for the jailbreak to be more freely available and documented, and then provide the "solution" that would otherwise become freely available all over the 'net. 

No real surprise there though... scammers have been doing that with other "solutions" for a long time: Pay money for a "big secret" and then get redirected to a web site that provides what is otherwise common knowledge.


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## ruffdeezy (Mar 17, 2008)

They are just charging people for free information and software. There are a lot of people that are unaware and are willing to pay.


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