Cloning SIM cards?

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Torque

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#23982 12-Jul-2008 13:10

Hi all,

Just curious if what I am enquiring about is possible.

I want to clone my SIM card - a complete clone - onto a blank SIM (IMSI cloned as well). - So that I can have the original VF SIM in one phone, - my day to day phone, and have the cloned SIM in my spare phone, in the event that I misplace my regular phone.

I.e, they both have the same phone number etc.

Whilst SIM card readers and writers are common on trademe, and it ought not to be too hard to import a couple of blank SIM cards, as far as I understand it, my phone number is tied to the IMSI, so I want to clone the IMSI across as well from the current SIM.

Is this at all possible?

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#147103 12-Jul-2008 13:14

This would ring alarm bells on the network even if it could be done.

Trust me don't go there.

John

rscole86

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#147105 12-Jul-2008 13:23

As John has said this is probably not a good idea, especially since both cards would be connected to the network at the same time.

It may be a different story if they were connected at different times, but how do you turn off a phone you have lost?

Torque

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#147129 12-Jul-2008 13:58

Good point. But it would run out of battery eventually.

Looking through what information I could find on the internet, it seems quite difficult anyhow.

On a separate tangent, can calls to 111 be made from SIM cards that have been designated as data only / barred from voicecalls?

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#147147 12-Jul-2008 15:09

Torque: On a separate tangent, can calls to 111 be made from SIM cards that have been designated as data only / barred from voicecalls?

You can make emergency calls without a sim card at all

richms

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#147287 12-Jul-2008 23:37

A friend and I tried with the clone many simcards onto one things,

Didnt work. Didnt try much harder. He killed one of his sims with it trying to get the key off it, had a huge argument at the vodafone store to get it replaced without charge, I wasnt game to try mine in it as a result.

Richard rich.ms

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#147306 13-Jul-2008 08:54

richms: He killed one of his sims with it trying to get the key off it, had a huge argument at the vodafone store to get it replaced without charge, I wasnt game to try mine in it as a result.

I couldn't resist but comment - why wouldn't your friend have a huge argument with a Vodafone store in this situation? He was trying to get a free replacement for a piece of hardware he fried, not at all Vodafone's fault, or something that is covered under warranties.

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timestyles

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#147327 13-Jul-2008 10:41

I would love to clone my sim card if it were easy because Vodafone in their wisdom use sims that have little internal memory, I'd like to have a sim that holds more than 20 texts. Incidentally, when Vodafone first brought out prepay, one of the terms and conditions was that the user did not clone their sim card. I haven't seen that condition for a long, long time, maybe VF was worried that saying that was too inviting for technically minded, or they just didn't think it was necessary.

richms

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#147334 13-Jul-2008 11:10

freitasm:
I couldn't resist but comment - why wouldn't your friend have a huge argument with a Vodafone store in this situation? He was trying to get a free replacement for a piece of hardware he fried, not at all Vodafone's fault, or something that is covered under warranties.

Because its their sim card, not his. It just stopped working as far as they were concerned and yet they still wanted to charge for a replacement, That was back when they cost more then they do now ($35 I think it was - its $20 now)

He was going to pay but when the vodafone shop staff said that they sometimes stop working for no reason and need to be replaced that was like a red flag to a bull with him.

Richard rich.ms

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#147335 13-Jul-2008 11:18

Ahh so we can all feel free to damage/break/play with other peoples property, without their permission, and get it repaired/replaced free of charge because it is not ours?
Sounds like something my 5 year old sister would believe in, even then I do not think she would break one of her friends toys, just because she could and then not expect her friend to cry.

Sorry, but that sort of mentality is what makes genuine users have to pay higher prices, as we have to cover people like your friend who just do not care!

The next time I test drive a car, I will write it off, its not my car so I don't care.

[/rant]

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#147344 13-Jul-2008 11:35

Personally I don't buy the reason for cloning at all. If you have misplaced your phone or have had it stolen, then cloning is just going to open you up to additional liability both in the monetary sense and the unwanted attention from the operator.

The reason why I say this is that you are liable for any charges that originate from your phone/sim card until you inform your operator that it has been stolen. Your best course of action would be to get a bar put on the phone and see if they are able to forward calls to an alternative phone number until you are able to visit a vodafone dealer.

To prevent against any unauthorised calls, its strongly recommended to have a PIN lock on the phone that will automatically engage after a few minutes and also a SIM pin. That way, it will be very difficult for someone to generate charges.

Getting a replacement SIM card is reasonably painless, and if you have insurance, you probably will be able to get that covered along with the phone itself.

Cloning someone elses SIM card on the otherhand... thats why SIM cloning isn't exactly encouraged.

As a sidenote, I heard vodafone do offer multi phone plans but only for installed carphones (not sure exactly)??? I know that Telecom offer tandem which is similar but given the 'reasons' you wanted to clone - both are probably not what you are looking for.

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richms

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#147352 13-Jul-2008 11:52

A replacement sim is not painless at 3 in the morning when someone has had their bag nicked at a bar. Vodafone wont let you purchase a spare simcard to swap over the phone when needed unless you are a corporate customer, and even if you do have phone insure, it means your waiting for the new one to be shipped to you, so thats possibly 3 days without it.

The thing is, if you clone your sim, you cant turn off the one that the thiefs have, so its only any good if the phone ends up at the bottom of a river or destroyed in some other way. If its nicked, you cant use the clone and disable the real sim, so useless for that.

Richard rich.ms

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#147356 13-Jul-2008 11:59

richms: A replacement sim is not painless at 3 in the morning when someone has had their bag nicked at a bar.

Indeed, you won't get much luck getting a replacement at 3am. But nothing is stopping you from calling Vodafone customer service, barring it and then visiting a dealer in the morning/afternoon (depending on how much you had to drink).

If it was a phone for emergency purposes or being on call, then how you look after it is your business not the operators.

To get the phone barred you could make the call from a mates phone, a landline, or from a payphone (to vodafones, 0800 number 0800 800 021).

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freitasm

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#147358 13-Jul-2008 12:00

richms:
freitasm:
I couldn't resist but comment - why wouldn't your friend have a huge argument with a Vodafone store in this situation? He was trying to get a free replacement for a piece of hardware he fried, not at all Vodafone's fault, or something that is covered under warranties.

Because its their sim card, not his. It just stopped working as far as they were concerned and yet they still wanted to charge for a replacement, That was back when they cost more then they do now ($35 I think it was - its $20 now)

He was going to pay but when the vodafone shop staff said that they sometimes stop working for no reason and need to be replaced that was like a red flag to a bull with him.

That's wrong. He broke it so why should the store pay for it?

If your friend borrows your laptop and then breaks it, you think it's ok for him to hand it back to you saying "I broke it, can you have it fixed so I can borrow it again?"

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johnr

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#147359 13-Jul-2008 12:01

Its simple keep a spare SIM somewhere!

paradoxsm

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#147362 13-Jul-2008 12:08

Do not clone, it's classed as illegal hacking activity and will probably result in termination of you connection should you succeed.

The chance of succeeding is very extremely low and you'll just kill the sim in the process., forget it now.

I must agree with the commend regarding SMS memory, Why did 2001 vodafone simcards store 40 SMS messages and now it's only 20?

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