IMEI number dangers?

[sabre252]

i've heard conflicting things...is gving out your IMEI # dangerous? (such as hving someone unlock your phone) some ppl say IMEI numbers can be stolen...but why would someone want a copy of my phone? (as I understand it, your service numbers, phone number and even contacts are stored on your SIM?)


j/w

thanks
-Sabre

[MOTOhooligan]

Originally Posted by sabre252 i've heard conflicting things...is gving out your IMEI # dangerous? (such as hving someone unlock your phone) some ppl say IMEI numbers can be stolen...but why would someone want a copy of my phone? (as I understand it, your service numbers, phone number and even contacts are stored on your SIM?)

They wouldn't have access to your contact information with the IMEI and I don't know if it can be used for "cloning" or not. I think the SIM & IMEI combination were introduced to prevent the "cloning" of handsets. Back in the day, when AMPS ruled the world it was possible, with a visit to Radio Shack and some limited electronic skill to produce a device which would read the MDN (Mobile Directory Number... your mobile phone number) and ESN (electronic seriel number... specific number that identifies your phone) and with this information and some more easily obtainable electronic equipment one could reprogram a phone with the MDN & ESN of another phone, use the phone and all charges would go to the legitimate user of the phone, whose information you have stolen. With the advent of digital TDMA, CDMA & GSM technology, "cloning" was pretty much wiped out because you needed a lot of expertise and expensive software & hardware to read and unencrypt digitial signal but if you had the MDN & ESN from a phone it can still be done. What the IMEI/SIM combination does is put all of your user-specific information in a card so that even with your phone number and IMEI your service cannot be used in an unauthorized manner. You will still want to be careful about who you give your IMEI out to but in a lot of cases the unlocking code is based on your IMEI or the ESN of a non-GSM handset.

[sabre252]

cool, thanks for the info!