IMEI blacklist - how to go about it

Forums › New Zealand Mobile and Wireless › IMEI blacklist - how to go about it

KellyP

1245 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Subscriber

#295204 12-Mar-2022 09:25

Good morning,

My friend had both his phones stolen yesterday from his vehicle. All caught on CCTV, 105 Police report has been logged.

We have the IMEI of one of them, not the other. It's a VF Smart N9 Lite but there's no SIM card in it.

I set up this phone back in 2019 and it's running Google Find my Phone, looks like they have turned it off. Can the IMEI be blacklisted and how do we go about it?

The other phone is just a dumb Nokia handset and he will block the card and get a SIM replacement (2Degrees)

Thanks.

1 | 2

3848 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2885282 12-Mar-2022 10:35

No sim card in it would make it a little hard. Can you remember the telco and number it use to have? Normally you would talk to the telco to add to blacklist and need to supply the police report. If you know the number that was in the device and that sim/number has not been in another phone they should be able to ID the IMEI and block the device.

Linux

11399 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2885283 12-Mar-2022 10:41

No SIM card in it you will not get it blacklisted unless you find the box the phone came in with the IMEI on it

MaxineN

Max
1772 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#2885300 12-Mar-2022 11:29

Linux:

No SIM card in it you will not get it blacklisted unless you find the box the phone came in with the IMEI on it

And this is why you keep the box!

Apart from resell value ;)

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

1024kb

1167 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2885327 12-Mar-2022 13:00

Find My Phone is useless without a network connection. How is the system going to search for a phone that's not connected?

That's the quandry for anyone who's had a phone stolen - as soon as you cancel your SIM card, any chance of finding your phone disappears. Unless it's connected to a known Wifi network of course, in which case it's more likely lost than stolen.

Megabyte - so geek it megahertz

KellyP

1245 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Subscriber

#2885512 13-Mar-2022 09:48

Thanks for the replies team. Yup I thought this may be the case.

Aucklandjafa

395 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2885601 13-Mar-2022 16:35

James Bond:

Good morning,

My friend had both his phones stolen yesterday from his vehicle. All caught on CCTV, 105 Police report has been logged.

We have the IMEI of one of them, not the other. It's a VF Smart N9 Lite but there's no SIM card in it.

I set up this phone back in 2019 and it's running Google Find my Phone, looks like they have turned it off. Can the IMEI be blacklisted and how do we go about it?

The other phone is just a dumb Nokia handset and he will block the card and get a SIM replacement (2Degrees)

Thanks.

Has the phone, in question, ever had a sim card in it?

Linux

11399 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2885604 13-Mar-2022 16:54

I am sure logging in LSHS only goes back about 6 months

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

Shoes2468

785 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2885611 13-Mar-2022 17:06

1024kb: Find My Phone is useless without a network connection. How is the system going to search for a phone that's not connected?

That's the quandry for anyone who's had a phone stolen - as soon as you cancel your SIM card, any chance of finding your phone disappears. Unless it's connected to a known Wifi network of course, in which case it's more likely lost than stolen.

AirTag??

gareth41

742 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2907942 28-Apr-2022 16:00

If the device is running Android, I wonder if you can get it blacklisted with Google also. If that's possible, they should be able to ban it from most streaming services also - since majority of them Netflix etc... use Googles widevine licensing system for their content - each Android device has a unique widevine device ID which I know they can blacklist as ive seen this happen before (not for stolen devices though but for other reasons I wont explain here)

1024kb

1167 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#2909869 3-May-2022 22:48

gareth41:
If the device is running Android, I wonder if you can get it blacklisted with Google also. If that's possible, they should be able to ban it from most streaming services also - since majority of them Netflix etc... use Googles widevine licensing system for their content - each Android device has a unique widevine device ID which I know they can blacklist as ive seen this happen before (not for stolen devices though but for other reasons I wont explain here)

No, Google don't blacklist, manufacturers don't blacklist, telcos do. It's their network that blacklisted phones are rejected from.

Although the Google services are dominant in the Android landscape, they are not essential nor have they ever been. Cyanogenmod was a widespread example of an Android OS sans GMS in stock form that installed on multiple makes & models, giving them all an identical UI. Adding Google services was a matter of personal choice as to which services / apps you required from Google or alternative solutions.

Although locked bootloaders have largely ended the Android rooting / independent OS scene, as I type this on my Huawei P40 I'm living the Google-free dream as enforced by US bully-boy tactics. I bought this phone specifically to beat the ban, to do what the Orange Idiot decreed I must not. Wasn't too hard to acheive, & it did involve synthesising a Google Services Framework Identifier (GSF ID) to access the suite. GSF ID is easily changeable, far easier than the IMEI repair required to beat blacklisting locally. (Of course you can always send blacklisted phones overseas, they're only blacklisted here, nowhere else.) After a while I went back to stock firmware, abiding by US law & ditching each & every one of their data-gobbling, information-harvesting services & products. The end result? Well, I'm currently figuring out how to privately import a P50 from China, there isn't yet any plan to retail them locally.

Google's FRP lock, which prevents activation on handsets that haven't been correctly reset, has largely been left to individual manufacturers to implement their version of. Sometimes it's a staunch lockdown - Oppo devices when combined with Oppo ID are a brutal security implementation - but more often FRP locked devices simply provide a steady income stream for FRP unlock service providers. Samsung devices, all of them, phones & tablets, are bypassed via remote USB connection within 5 minutes.

On top of that, the vast majority of Android handsets can have their IMEI changed, permanently & successfully again via remote USB connection. So long as it fits the algorithm, any IMEI will do - a blacklisted latest model Samsung Fold can report as a 5 year old Moto Z without issue after just a few minutes specialised work repairing the IMEI. Once the IMEI repair is complete, the device is entirely new to the network & cannot be blacklisted using previous details.

Megabyte - so geek it megahertz

gareth41

742 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2909874 3-May-2022 23:18

I didn't explain properly in my previous post, all Android devices contain a unique "Content Decryption Module" known as a CDM which is used with Google's Widevine licensing service, and is in turn is used for authorization of streaming Netflix and content from other major streaming providers. Long story short, bad actors use older less secure Android devices to facilitate unauthorized activities on said streaming services using these CDM's which I won't into details here due to forum rules, however as a result the unique CDM's for those Android devices end up getting blacklisted by Google - resulting in that phone/device never being able to stream Neflix ever again - so with this in mind - it is theoretically possible for Google to block certain devices from streaming services if they wanted to, just by revoking the unique CDM that a particular device uses.

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13765 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2909939 4-May-2022 07:38

Maybe I've mis-read earlier information etc about blacklisting......

I thought long as you had proof of ownership/police report and the IMEI, you could get the telco to block the phone from being connected to their network again, regardless if it had SIM in it or not.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

LinkTree

MaxineN

Max
1772 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#2909941 4-May-2022 07:48

xpd:
Maybe I've mis-read earlier information etc about blacklisting......

I thought long as you had proof of ownership/police report and the IMEI, you could get the telco to block the phone from being connected to their network again, regardless if it had SIM in it or not.

Yep.

It’s really important to have that police report number.

To expand a bit. You’ll be asked for the police report number, the IMEI and when the phone was last used in a call and the number you dialled(if this had a sim in it). If it didn’t have a SIM in it you may get asked additional questions to prove that it’s yours(you may find it easier to visit a telco’s retail store).

You’ll also have ask the original network provider to unblock it once found(again you’ll need all of the above details again and you’ll also need to ask whoever the telco was to unblock it, spark will only unblock/block on spark network but the list is shared across all of our telcos)

Hope this helps!

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
13765 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2909957 4-May-2022 08:41

So why are people saying in this thread, no SIM, no blacklist ? Am I missing something ?

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

LinkTree

MaxineN

Max
1772 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#2909960 4-May-2022 08:47

xpd:
So why are people saying in this thread, no SIM, no blacklist ? Am I missing something ?

Because if there’s no sim it makes harder to put it through(and to find it because if it had a sim in it you can search via ph no and you’ll get all of the IMEIs from each call). It can be done. It’s not a common scenario.

Edit: if thief was smart they wouldn’t put another sim in it after taking your one out. Again the scenario I’m mentioning is that if it’s never had a sim in it, it might be harder to put it through but it can be done and the IMEI can be blocked even if it’s never had a SIM in it.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

1 | 2