Bad MEID - Can it "spread" to IMEI?

[hematose]

Hi All,

I bought a droid 3 off of Ebay that was supposed to have a good ESN/MEID (the auction was very clear and also said it was good for Verizon activation) from a reputable seller (nearly 10k feedback and 99.6% positive). I usually use this phone with a SIM outside of the USA and it has been working mostly as it should. However, I'm looking at activating a prepaid account with Verizon for when I travel to the US because (as we all know) the US GSM bands are locked out.

Verizon tells me the MEID is bad. I have contacted the seller to see what we are going to do.

Here is my question: The ESN went "bad" only very recently (the day before the auction was posted). Can a blacklisted MEID later "spread" to your IMEI so that you can't use the phone anywhere, or am I pretty much guaranteed to be able to continue using it outside of the USA?

(crosspost from XDA)

 

[Fr33dom]

Who exactly told you that the ESN "went bad"? They don't just go bad suddenly. I'd contact Ebay immediately.

 

[hematose]

This info is from Verizon. Apparently the phone was only first activated in September (no date known). The phone went onto the blacklist on the 20th, the auction was last edited on the 21st and I bought it on the 28th. Took me until a few days ago to receive the phone.

I have contacted the seller on Ebay and will be calling them on the phone later today when things open up on the west coast.

What I'm trying to figure out though is if the phone's MEID is blacklisted and the IMEI is currently good, is the latter in danger of going bad (e.g. in a few months once everyone's lists are updated).

 

[Fr33dom]

Well I can't say, but if the seller doesn't return your money or send you a good phone, notify Ebay.

 

[hematose]

Anyone here that works for the carriers that knows how this works? Since the droid 3 has an IMEI AND an MEID this is a bit of an unusual case.

 

[Saik0Shinigami]

The values aren't "bad" just locked out by the carrier. If the phone was reported stolen to the carrier they have the option to locked the phone out of their systems. It's on a carrier by carrier basis... so just because verizon says it's bad doesn't mean the others use the same "bad" list. You're most likely good on the global front. Just screwed for verizon.

-Saik0

 

[hematose]

From the looking around I've seen, the IMEI blacklist ("Central Equipment Identify Register (CEIR)") is more-or-less globally shared; it's maintained by the GSM Association.

It seems possible that Verizon could add my IMEI to that if they wanted to. I'm just wondering if anyone knows if its their policy to do so.

At any rate, the seller has acknowledged the problem and will exchange the phone; it's just going to be expensive as I've got to ship it across the continent.

 

[technogeek00]

The idea is that every device's IMEI is registered in the CEIR, CDMA phones have an equivalent but I can't remember what it is. Anyway back to the point, each carrier maintains its own list of blacklisted IMEI's or MEID's and pretty much all the major brands and their offshoots communicate with the international database to help combat mobile phone theft.

So if you had kept the phone you could have tried it out of the US and seen if the other carriers cared about the blacklisting, or you could have filed the paperwork with the international databases (which verizon would have to help you with), that states you legally bought the phone and that it was incorrectly blacklisted and then it will be removed based on the strength of your case and evidence of legal transfer, basically prove how the seller originally came across the phone and so on.

So either way its extremely good the buyer has agreed to exchange the phone haha