Changing IMEI number is problematic in most countries, because it is in conflict with the law. It is the same as if you wanted to change the serial number of your car. If they catch you doing this you can go to jail.
With older phones it was easier than with new phones because new phones have better security and also one time programable chips. As you can read on some forums, some people change the phones motherboard instead of programing chips.
For changing IMEI you also need professional equipment and a lot of knowledge.
Why to change IMEI number then?
There are different reasons for IMEI changing:
- to delete tracks about stolen or lost phone (this reason is used mostly )
- to delete tracks about phone manufacturer and model
- for researching
- other reasons
How can manufacturers prevent IMEI changing?
Actualy there is no 100% security just as all other problematic things on the world. Manufacturers can do their best but still you can change chip and reprogram it if you have the same knowledge as manufacturers employees.
Database
How to check if phone is stolen or lost?
You can call mobile operators in your country and ask for IMEI number or you can also check the database of Stolen, lost and found mobile phones.
Tips when buying used mobile phone
You can also read some tips when buying used mobile phone on this link
http://www.squidoo.com/tips-for-buying-used-mobile-phone
hi I want to change my IMEI no so ple tell me what type of procedure for changing IMEI no pls ply ……….
Hello,
we do not offer IMEI number change. In most countries it is against the law. On most devices it is not possible to change it with software only. You should avoid changing IMEI number.
Kind regards
is it possible to delete IMEI no using JAF. because it seems that i can detect my IMEI no in JAF bt now it can’t detect any more bt when i press *#06# its still there. so will u please tell me that i have deleted the IMEI or not
thank you very much
You need to check this with JAF support.
i have a iphone4s and i need my IMEI number changed how do you do that?
We do not have anything with IMEI changing. If you have good reason to do this, better ask your authorized service or GSM service shop.
hi i got a iphone 4s but the imei no. on phone is different then the imei written on the box it came with…..the difference is the last digit is 0 on phone and on box its 3. will that be a problem if in future i claim if i lost it??? thanks
Hey rishabh,
as far as I understood the IMEI the last digit is just a checksum for the other digits. It is not transmitted when the IMEI is used. As long as the last digit you are shown directly on the phone is not 0 you will be fine. But it sounds kind of strange that the box is labeled with a IMEI with the checksum being 0.
See wikipedia for more information on IMEIs.
Hi what is the software that you need to change the IMEI number please and thankyou
Hello,
we do not offer IMEI change and we do not know which software can change it. We are sure that new phones have higher security which prevent easy IMEI changes.
Regards
WE SHOULD HAVE THE ABILITIES TO CHANES THE IMEI NUMBER JUST LIKE ANYONE CAN CHANGE A PHONE NUMBER BECAUS EOF THE OF HARASSING SITUATION AND PRIVACY ISSUSE AND TIME WE CAN DO THIS WITHOUT DOING ANYONE HARM .
Hi,
Would i be correct in saying that when i send my phone for repair the second time and they type in the IMEI number to require the proof of purchase and it comes up with a different name that is obviously not mine, it would be because either they gave me the wrong persons phone or they can change the IMEI number?
I am really confused and feel like im being stuffed around.
i would really appreciate someone helping me out.
could you email me on shantelle.hodgkinson92@hotmail.com
Hi Shantelle,
it is hard to say anything about this case. I am sure that mistakes are possible and I know that no case is excluded.
It could also happen that your phone came with different IMEI in the box when you bought it.
Check with them again and find the best possible solution.
Regards
Hi , I have a similar situation. I bought an HTC Desire HD (in Germany) after being heavily persuaded away from the IPhone. I dont like the phone at all, and have barely used it. Then I decided to resell the thing, for half price, since its still practically new anyways. A girl came to buy it, and now a few weeks later, wrote to me that the IMEI number in the phone is not the same as the one on the phone, and it is an illegal deal. I actually purchased the phone from o2 in one of the shops. Not sure who to believe — and what to think. Did o2 actually sell me a phone with a different number on the receipt as on the phone? if so what does this mean? or has this girl taken the phone and changed the IMEI number, and what does that mean? Any advice you can give me would be very helpful, since I never even heard of IMEI number until yesterday, thank you
Hello Ty,
this could be a lot of possible scenarios.
1.) Person put a wrong stick on the box while packaging
2.) O2 person gave you wrong box (I doubt about this as they usualy work with BAR code reader in shops)
3.) O2 person changed the phone on the desk if there were multiple identical phones on the desk
4.) Buyer of your phone made some illegal stuff or had phone in service centre or unlocking it and the guys changed something in the phone but did not tell anybody
5.) Buyer changed this phone with some stolen and want to bring it back to you to get money back and keep phone which is regular
6.) Buyer want some money back from you and keep this phone
7.) and there could be also more cases but we don’t remember any other…
Solution in this case could be that the buyer had all chances to check the details of the phone while bought it and you are not responsible what happened in those few weeks.
Another solution: If you want, you can also refund money and sleep like a good man.
There is no special things in our view to do.
Regards
Thank you very much for the response, and some insight in the “con” that could be going on. I have both of the imei numbers now (I never thought to look before selling her the phone) , but I don’t think returning the money will necessarily let me to sleep like a good man. There is already an issue at stake here, which I am in the middle. If the error was in the O2 shop, which I am inclined to believe, then maybe that is fine. I call them tomorrow, give them the other IMEI number and maybe it was an honest mistake, somehow they change in their system, and then the girl is fine. But I don’t understand, what advantage there is to either changing the imei number on the phone I gave her, or her trying to return to me a similar phone but stolen phone with a different imei. What can she do? if she can do something, then shouldn’t i at least inform o2, because if I give her the money back and take a stolen phone, then she has my good phone and I guess can somehow use that, with my imei number on it?
on the other side, if the problem was in the o2 shop, would she need the imei number on the receipt to match the one on the phone? in theory I think its always a good idea to have a valid receipt, but what good is that for her, since the phone is a bit more than 6 months old anyways. Also, would the imei number have an effect on her ability to use the phone with a different service provider? I just can’t see what the “angle” is here?
Thanks for you input,
Ty
Those are only possible options. We don’t like to say that she is guilty. Maybe she wanted only to unlock the phone and the guys in service center killed her/your phone and changed motherboard in the phone to not recognize that something is wrong.
Maybe you should ask her how it came that she checked IMEI. If you didn’t know about IMEI, she also should not know about it… why did she need to check it? Further steps are of course to call O2 and check with them.
Possible scenario about mentioned option 5 is that there could be a group which is handling lost or stolen phones and now she want to give you one of them and keep your regular one for her own because she can copy documents and use it with different operator/service provider.
There are many options and ways in such cases.
You can start from your operator.
Ive got a strange issue, ive lost my phone and it is insured called to stop sim etc and they rekon ive not used phone since may and I’ve put sim in different phone, I am on contract and have been with same provider for 15 years, all phoned are obtained via upgrades I have no other phones neither have I used another phone. The insurance is deliberating. How could this be? Could a system upgrade change anything as this is all that has changed?
Hello Claire,
we do not have access and lookup in their systems. For same reason we are not able to reply correct answer. Anyway, every mobile operator and insurance company has their own strategy and procedures in such cases.
Regards
hi
my previous phone imei “353662014842546″ and turned into “12345601654321?”
how to make it normal again?
thx
Hello,
it would be nice if you specify more details:
and then we can maybe find a solution.
i HAVE SAME PROBLEM. tOOK IT TO SERVICE PROVIDER AND WHEN RETURNED, FOUND THIS PROBLEM AND NOW HE ASKS FOR MORE CHARGES..tHANKS IN ADVANCE
As we do not know the details it is hard to say but anyway you need to check with your service provider where you left the phone.
Hi.I face the same problem.My handset is Nokia 5130 express music.its turn IMEI number into 123456789.. Now local mechanic say that its have to change imei & buy a new imei.so i want to buy a new IMEI & run my handset with new IMEI..can You Help Me in This case??
We do not change or sell IMEIs. Your IMEI seems to be corrupted or changed or something. You should ask for IMEI repair at official NOKIA service center.
Hi want to ask about apple iphone 4s that i bought from a friend I check the serial no in apple web and it verifies but the IMEI no is invalid. What does it mean? is it fake? what is more reliable to check? Serial or IMEI no?
Hi! How change imei on Nokia C5.00.
Hello Vova,
on new phones it is hard to change IMEI and in most countries this is illegal. We do not have any information about such thing and we do not offer such services.
Regards
Dear sir,
Just for knowledge sake, i would like to know few things,
1.Why is it not advisable to reveal the IMEI number in any website or to anyone?
2.What can (most devastative) thing that an illegal person can do with other people’s IMEI number?
3.There are billions of mobile phone in the world today, and an IMEI number is only of 15 digits, How infinife permutation(combinations) of just 15 digits can be unique for billions of mobile phones? i mean how the uniqueness of the an IMEI number is maintained?
I shall eagerly wait for your reply,
regards,
Jojo
Hello jojo,
1. I am not really sure, but people are suspicious and careful about such information just as giving their bank account number to anybody.
2. He/She can use your IMEI while changing its own stolen IMEI because he/she knows that this IMEI is valid and should have no problem using it
3. Just as you said… there are a lot of IMEIs but if you see one which is valid then this one is used rather then one which is guessed. There is also algorithm which checks if check digit is correct and then you know if IMEI is fake or not. Try yours with IMEI validation tool on our site in menu.
Regards
Thank You…
With regards to question 3 – 15 digits offer 10^15 possible combina
tions of numbers. Or1000000000000000 or 1 million billion numbers. That means theoretically every single person in the world could have 100000 phones before they might consider adding another digit to the imei code
Thnk you
hi
my name is sam,my phone is drown in water and spoiled. so i thought of applying insurance by saying that i lost my phone and i did but they rejected.
now i dont know what to do. pls tell me what to do.
You have nothing to do here.
i’ve just bought a new original phone.. then i check imei number is not same with sticker imei at the back of this phone.is it true that seller of this phone cheating on me and actually particular in this phone have changes with other one not original??
If you bought it from local dealer or online shop, then it could be that you bought clone of desired this phone.
Example: iPhone is maybe not iPhone but iPhone clone
There are several possibilities. Do not take this argument as 100%.
hiiiii buddy could u please help me all the possible ways to track stolen cell phones ..
Unfortunately we do not provide such service, because we do not have access to operaters databases and do not own equipment for tracking.
i just stole someones phone….how do i change imei number?
…..joking
Maybe you should go to police station and describe this problem
i buyed a new fone and its not picking up any sim when i tried finding IMEI no. by *#06# then it was wriittten IMEI:Invalid
can u plz tell now what to doo
Ask the seller how to solve your problem.
hi….i have a samsung galaxy s2 skyrocket which a family member bought for me when he was in new york..i live in trinidad and it is impossible to return the phone….my problem is i had my phone rooted and i was using an app called busybox….i downloaded busybox pro and installed it and decided to uninstall busybox,i did and it wiped out everyting even my imei number when i pressed *#06# it said IMEI null/null..and i need it to unlock the phone…the technicians in my country cant recover it..help me please,how can i get it back..
This has nothing to do with us. Unfortunately we are not technical support.
ifi change the imei no , is there any chances of geting mobile dead or unusable …. plzz plzz repl my qyeries…thanxxxx
It could be very easily dead if you try to change your IMEI.
Hi, how does one detect if an imei number has been spoofed? Thanks.
There is no general and 100% way. We suggest to call the operators in your country and ask if they have this IMEI on any black list, grey list etc… Also you can check the internet websites.
hi I want to change my IMEI no so ple tell me what type of procedure for changing IMEI no pls ply
Hi, changing IMEI number can be illegal and process is different for different brands. We do not change the IMEI and also do not know exact procedure. You should check this with local service store.
Hi, I just got my phone back from repairs and they said they updated my phone when it was in for keyboard repairs. They said they wiped my phone and some things would be different. The bottom of the blackberry now says telus where it used to say rogers and there is an email saying “thank you for purchasing the blackberry 9700″ from telus. The IMEI sticker number is different than the IMEI number in the phone. Is there any chance they can change the sticker in the phone to another ? There is also random downloaded applications that i have never downloaded which furthers my suspicion that it is NOT my phone
It could easily happen that you phone is changed and given some other. It could also happen that they somehow “killed” your phone and gave you other one. If you press *#06# and you see different IMEI from yours, then something is wrong, but as you said… something is wrong for sure. Check with the repair center.
if we change a phones software to a new one, will its IMEI number change or not…??????????????????????//
It should not change in this case, but you never know what can it bring with update.
I have an iphone 3gs isit impossible to change the imei numbers?? An can it be done with ziphone
We do not have any information about changing IMEI on Iphone or any other device. If you need answer from experts, you can ask on mobile tech forums.
I was robbed of my Galaxy SII. I had activated the SIM card change alert, Lookout tracker… really I had taken precautions that I thought were needed. Been trying to track the phone ever since, with no luck. I think I must now turn to IMEI tracking. Can you help?
We do not have any equipment for IMEI tracking nor access to operators databases.
My iPhone 3GS bought from US with AT & T carreir, but now the IMEI number got deleted (my brother tried to jail break), even after typing “#06#” also the IMEI number is not displaying.
I contacted AT& T unlock my iPhone, but they are saying there is no phone with that IMEI number.
Also i called Apple iPhone cust0mer care, and gave same IMEI number and they said that they were able see the details on phone
Could you tell me what i have do in this regards ?
Visit the shop where you bought the phone and explain.
Why have a site explaining all this and photos of the3 software if your not willing to show or provide anything,
We would like to provide more information, but we do not have access to mobile networks and devices.
I had my iPhone stolen at a rented home in another country. We notified Apple and locked the phone. We reported it to the local police and the owner of the home. Now 4 months later the homeowner emailed us asking for the imei number of the iPhone for the local police to pursue the arrest of the thieves. If we give the imei number to this individual can he make the phone usable and not identified as a stolen phone? The iPhone was iPhone 4.
Ask them who they are and where can you find them to give them IMEI number personaly.
i have lost my imei number from my phone?
what should i do??
You should somehow find it, search more or you can do nothing.
Hi, I wonder if you can advise, I forget my keypad code and took the phone to see if they could unlock it for me. I now find that the phone IMEI number set to all zero’s. I have the original IMEI number, is it possible to change the phone back to the original setting?
It seems that IMEI is damaged. Service shop will can check if they can repair it.
hello admin,
looks like im in trouble!
ive bought lg-p500 a year back! android 2.2.1!recently my fren lost his phone so i started gaining info about mobile security!
then i came across imei no.!
i was going through a website http://www.***.com/ where there was an option to check the imei no.
i posted mine and felt good after reading the response! but after reading jojo’s article on your page!! im deeply worried! can i get into trouble since they might have kept my imei no in their records?? please help !!
Maybe you are not in troubles. If they don’t do anything with IMEIs then there is no problem.
Also, there are forums on the web where users ask for unlocking codes and put the IMEI code publicly in their posts. Usually nothing happens.
Ive lost my HTC One X, my provider has disabled the handset and alerted all the networks of the EMEI number, my provider assures me the handset is dead and no one else can use, can you second that opinion?
It could be used in other countries which are not in the same anti-fraud system as your operator.
hi
i stoled my friends mobile now he is given a police complaint for that mobile the police traced by imei num then now im too scared tel me what can I do plz .nd il never repeat this again.
Return mobile to your friend or at least leave this mobile somewhere on windows desk or somewhere that somebody else can find and return it.
How easy is it to change the IMEI number on the recent Android phones ?
My LG Optimus 2X got stolen this week and I was sure I could track it via IMEI but going through your post this has scared the sh** out of me. The very ease with which you mention that it can be changed with sufficient technical expertise worries me.
I’m an engineering student myself and can understand that there is a possibility of doing so. But as you point out that you don’t provide technical assistance, can you then provide me some statistics as to how often it happens that the IMEI gets changed ?
I want to make a fair guess as to how probable is it for my phone’s IMEI to get changed. Please help me with this. This is really very important to me. Provide me with a reasonably elaborate answer.
Nobody can provide fair answer as you can’t find who changed its IMEI. Changing IMEI is every day more difficult because security is every day better. There are not much people overall who can do this or who would like to risk on new phones. It is not one click operation as years ago.
Man, this forum is rediculous. There obviously is a reason that imei numbers are illegal to change but why even have it if the only response is “that’s illegal”, or “we don’t offer that service”. So what does this site do?. I’m assuming trying to scare people into not getting what is rightfully and legally there’s. Of course there’s the assholes who have stolen a phone and want to do this, but after awhile the phone can be used anyway or a factory reset done and the tracking is over also. I want to use a phone I bought in error and can’t return on a network I pay for using the imei of a phone I have had for 3 years to save 300 bucks and a transfer fee. So…. Let me guess its illegal and you don’t do that here. Well being an educated person (im assuming) there must be a few if not dozens of places to get this done. Simply post a disclaimer about being a sissy and tell people what they are asking. No harm no foul. You are legally not responsible and I don’t have to wade through pools of exploited peoples tears, throw up and eat it just to get a god damn question answered. If this forum for and specifically about imei numbers can’t answer it then it should be disbanded and everyone who had the stupid idea for this pitty party should be shot execution style. But hey what do I know I’m just a part of that pitty party now. Thanks a lot fukkin jerks.
Hi Dubie, thank you for your kind comment. We will publish it. The problem is not only that IMEI changing is illegal in most countries. Next problem is, that new phones has much more complicated process of changing IMEI. Most of the phones has such chip where you can’t reprogram it anyhow, because they are only readable and not writable anymore. Next problem is, that if you want to change it, you should be veeeery experienced in soldering, and you should have pretty expensive equipment to change the chip where IMEI is stored. Next part is, that it is very riski and most of the people in repair centers will not even try to do this. Next problem is, that most of those chips are now covered with some weird material and even if you remove it, it will be sticky and almost impossible to solder it back as it has usually a lot of “legs” to solder. Those chips are also very minimized nowadays. I hope you received the answer you want. There are also phones which have corrupted IMEI 00000000000000 or ??????????????? but there is no easy way usually to solve this.
Now my response is awaiting moderation. Jeeesssuuusss well see you all on the editing floor.
If you knew how many spam comments we receive from people who are trying to get some backlinks this way, you would say that this is crazy. This is why we don’t allow automatic answer. And we receive tons of comments daily. Who have all day for solving comments only? If you have it, we will be happy if you want to look at them all the time and sort out each of them.
Now my response is awaiting moderation. Jeeesssuuusss well see you all on the editing floor.
And its blocking this . Are we in communist China?
I think that not all things can be told communist China. There are things which should be done to have clear stage instead of mess.
i have a problem, i just enterd *#7337# on my Samsung E250i. And now i cant seem to get my IMEI number back. It has been deleted. Now i have 15 ZEROS. Are there codes that i can enter to recover it, because i have the IMEI sticker on my phone?.
Thanxxxx
Sorry, we are not technical support. Try on forums.
Hi I bought Motorola EM326g net10 . My mobile unlocking is not possible because the imei number is starting with zero(0), and the imei number starting with zero is not works in India so i want to change my imei number so that my mobile will works in India. Please help me what i have to do ?
We are not sure how that works so any our help will be maybe missleading for you.
Quick suggestion : change your website’s name to “don’t-change-imei-number”. This ones kinda misleading
Thank you for your comment, but for now it will stay as it is
How to change my imei back to its original number???
We are not aware of such self-service. We propose gsm repair center.
Phones with zeroed IMEI can be purchased on Silk Road for about U$165.00!!!
Hi, I just got my phone back from repair (could’t charge, micro usb gap) and I see on the repair spec. that they have changed my IMEI nr! It is also SIM Network Locked and i am asked to enter a long digit SIM Network unlock PIN. Have I got someone else’s phone? I can’t really tell from looking at it and they do state in the repair spec. that they have changed the IMEI nr, for whatever reason. Needless to say; i will contact the repair service ASAP but maybe someone here have some input?
On the first shot, it seems that they changed phones motherboard. Maybe they destroyed yours, maybe they could not find better way for repairing your phone…
Does an IMEI change after you upgrade a phone? For example if you upgrade a phone from 2.2 to 2.3 android. I just want to know. I don’t want the IMEI changing on me.
It should not change, but you never know what can happen with electronics.
It is said it is illegal to change the IMEI number on a cell phone.
It is also illegal for a black London taxi (a hackney cab) not to have a bale of straw on the roof, but that law has never been enforced as far as i know. The IMEI law was passed or made so by the MP politician David Blunkett – the blind guy.
I can understand the law to an extent. But if i have another cell and i want to put its IMEI onto another cell of mine, is that a major big crime.? Along the lines of tech et’c. It is not against the law to change the mileage on a car or vehicle. But a person breaks the law if they sell the car to a new owner and DO NOT TELL the person. That is what’s against the law with that. As is said above, the memory chip holding the IMEI is a write-once electronics chip. But there are reasons why one should be allowed to without the govt people being so prescriptive. If the IMEI/ cell phone identifier number law it for terrorism type reasons, that is likely daft and useless. In some ‘terrorist’ type places, these people can cycle on a bike and pass someone a note, so the telephone thing is a non-starter.
I have been in countries where the business was a workshop working on many cell phones. They were not changing the cover or the battery, – so i can only assume they were changing the IMEI code, or the internal circuit board of the cell. It looked like it. It is annoying when one has an expenive cell that has never been used, and it cannot used as it was switched off. As the forum admin says, it is not likely that the IMEI can be changed even if one did go ahead to break this telecommunications law.
___
A few years ago i took my Nokia to get unlocked at the shop that does it. When they handed it back it was a different cell, i took the box it came in so i knew the IMEI number matched. The person handed out 2 Nokias of the same model at the same time and i was one of the paying customers. I complained and pinted out that that was not my Nokia, and he replied that ‘it does not matter, it is the same ‘phone’. Stupid attitude. What if the warranty was affected or similar identifying purposes. The unlocking guys swapped the 2 Nokias around as if it was a small matter. I still get annoyed when i think about it. Imagine they handed their car in and parts were swapped – they would be annoyed if they knew. I wasn’t annoyed because they were Turkish, i would have been annoyed if they had been from anywhere.
I want to change one of my cell phones’ IMEI, (a new unused cell that one cannot buy any more and it is brand new) but i can still see the point of the law as there is iPhone type telephones that are £500. I understand the law (understand why the IMEI law is there), i don’t understand why it more ‘serious’ than several other matters. The new stuff is way too advanced anyway. iPhone/ Galaxy/ Note & the Hi Tec Computers ‘One’. I wonder if the west is so keen on serial number registry et’c when they sell armaments and munitions & guns et’c to other countries. It’s Ok to fuel genocides – apparently, but if one changes their own IMEI number on their cell phone. That is serious law breaking, and enforced by police who of course would never dream of snorting cocaine.
I would like to know how to change an IMEI even if i don’t do it. Merely to know how to do it. There are rare occasions when it should be less stringent but it is a blanket law for the cell phone.
Hi Urban,
you are right, but this will not change your IMEI
I am not expert in this but maybe I can think logicaly. If you want to change your IMEI, you shoul possibly change some one-way writable chip which could be secured by different ways in some phones. I just found one link which could maybe tell you where is this chip on IPHONE 3G/3GS. Sorry, but I cannot explain better because I have never done this and don’t have knowledge to tell you correctly.
http://www.hackint0sh.org/iphone-3gs-203/where-imei-stored-physically-199057.htm
Hi.
This is just to clarify my doubt
Does IMEI Changes when it happens to replace the motherboard of samsung galaxy s3 (GT-I9300)
Please help me with this answer.
Thanks
Possibly yes.
*Sigh* It is NOT illegal in the USA to change your IMEI therefore it is a valid question on how to do it and no reason is required. If you live in the USA then you are free to change your IMEI, if you find a method (iPhones can have this done via iDemocracy or ZiPhone – google them). I am currently still looking for ways to spoof or change IMEI on other smartphones.
Youtube has various vids up on how to change your IMEI.