Warning unlocking phones

NormanTr

I was recently sent an iPhone my a relative as they had upgraded to the latest version.
When it arrived I discovered that it was locked to the Orange network.
I did some research and found that there several companies that claimed they could unlock it for a fee of £19.99 (the same as Orange charge but with the promise of a result in 48hrs vs up to two weeks).
I selected a company officialiphoneunlock.co.uk and paid my £19.99 by credit card, sat back and waited.
I received a recipt detail my order and then 48hrs later clicked on the order tracker to check the status. It stated the following:

"We have been informed by Orange UK that the unlock is now available for iPhone 4 for £85

You will be discounted the original £19.99 pre-order payment.
Click here to upgrade to full factory unlock

If you wish to wait of course, you may, as the network may offer a cheaper solution later. You will be informed by email if this is the case. Please remember, however, that unlock prices may go up as well as down."

This appears to be nothing more than a scam.
I have asked for a return of my money but so far have heard nothing.

Please beware.

ste_wilko

You should never trust anyone to unlock an iPhone other than the networks. Unless you don't mind jailbreaking it.

The reason is that when a third party company unlocks them they have to jailbreak the handset, then spoof it into thinking it has checked with the Apple servers to see if it can accept the SIM that is inserted. But when the iPhone is updated with official updates from Apple the SIM lock will be reinstated.

Your relative will need to contact EE to request an unlock. EE will then request that Apple remove the SIM lock.

iPhones are a whole new breed of animal when it comes to unlocking, as the phone itself doesn't have a SIM lock. It contacts Apple servers to check what carrier SIM it can accept

NormanTr

I feel like as soon as I picked up the handset it was starting to suck money and the life force from me. At every turn someone wants cash for something.

I might just flog the thing and go back to android.

A lesson learned

Kingsd316

ste_wilko wrote: »

You should never trust anyone to unlock an iPhone other than the networks. Unless you don't mind jailbreaking it.

The reason is that when a third party company unlocks them they have to jailbreak the handset, then spoof it into thinking it has checked with the Apple servers to see if it can accept the SIM that is inserted. But when the iPhone is updated with official updates from Apple the SIM lock will be reinstated.

This is wrong, may have been relevant when the Iphone 3 came out but not now. Third Party unlocker have access to apples database thought rouge employees of various network, the days of Jailbreaking and unlocking are over.

ste_wilko wrote: »

Your relative will need to contact EE to request an unlock. EE will then request that Apple remove the SIM lock.

This is spot on and the cheapest method, its usually a nightmare with Orange and takes at least the 28 days they state but you may be lucky, also if you have had the handset replaced you need to email over that proof to Orange before they unlock the phone. - If you dont do it through orange expect to pay approx £70 on eBay, feedback speaks for itself when looking for a reliable seller

ste_wilko

NormanTr wrote: »

I feel like as soon as I picked up the handset it was starting to suck money and the life force from me. At every turn someone wants cash for something.

I might just flog the thing and go back to android.

A lesson learned

Contact your bank and flag the transaction as fraudulant. They'll get your money back pretty quickly and then send you an indemnity form to fill in, they'll take over getting the money back from the website owner's bank and you won't have to worry about it.

The official unlock of the iPhone doesn't take anywhere 2 weeks. Everyone that I've had unlocked due to upgrades have been done within a day or two. Once you get the confirmation back from the network you just plug it into iTunes and restore it.

The problem is that the networks will only deal with the original account holder. You may be better off going back to Android (I moved after getting bored with iOS). Or you could ask your family member to contact EE to unlock and give them the money for doing it

garynuman

NormanTr wrote: »

flog the thing and go back to android.

This /\

Apple bring nothing new to the market these days that aren't surpassed by other providers before or soon after release.

"God gave rock n roll to you" - Kiss
- But we'll charge 99p! - iTunes

grumbler

ste_wilko wrote: »

Contact your bank and flag the transaction as fraudulant.

They'll get your money back pretty quickly and then send you an indemnity form to fill in, they'll take over getting the money back from the website owner's bank and you won't have to worry about it.

'Fraudulent' means 'unauthorised' that clearly wasn't the case.

Chargeback on some other grounds can be a possibility, but not because it was 'fraudulent'.

The official unlock of the iPhone doesn't take anywhere 2 weeks.

Orange are notorious for taking much longer pretty often.

O2 are famous for doing this very fast.

ste_wilko

grumbler wrote: »

'Fraudulent' means 'unauthorised' that clearly wasn't the case.

Chargeback on some other grounds can be a possibility, but not because it was 'fraudulent'.

Orange are notorious for taking much more pretty often.

O2 are famous for doing this very fast.

It would be fraudulant because the service was offered at £19.99 for the unlock. This didn't happen, once the OP paid the £19.99 they received a response stating that the unlock was £85 and not the £19.99 they advertised. Therefore they obtained the £19.99 through deception

grumbler

ste_wilko wrote: »

It would be fraudulant because the service was offered at £19.99 for the unlock. This didn't happen, once the OP paid the £19.99 they received a response stating that the unlock was £85 and not the £19.99 they advertised. Therefore they obtained the £19.99 through deception

Deception, fraud etc. are criminal actions. It's the police's business to deal with crime. Bank can only deal with unauthorised transactions and process chargeback for the strictly limited reasons. 'Deception' isn't one of them.

As I said above, some other reasons can possibly be relevant, e.g. "service not provided", "not as described".

Chargeback reason codes

You can check that the term 'fraudulent' is used only for unauthorised transactions.

With a credit card you get more protection as you can sue the CC company for pretty much anything. However, this isn't as simple as 'flagging' the transaction as 'fraudulent'

forgotmyname

Trusting a website that says official ?

So official that its registered to an address in the Seychelles?

Although there is a UK company with that name and overdue accounts.