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Phone(s):
1: LG VX5500 X2 - Nokia 6030b - 2720
2: W490 X2 (unlocked quadbands)
3: LG410
Provider(s):
Page Plus X2 - T-Mo2Go(GR) - Tracfone
Joined: Aug 2007
From: Rio Grande Valley - SPI
Posts: 2,143
Buying used phone = strange things
I bought a phone off Craigs List yesterday. The seller was 17 years old and driving a car worth less than the price of the insurance premiums he pays on it. He was unkept looking with his hat on sideways and his baggy britches hanging low.
I put my SIM in, turned it on and made a call - it worked. The phone was in very good condition so I bought it. The price was very reasonable.
I started playing with the phone when I got home. Upon opening the contact list I notice every name listed is Arabic sounding...lots of Mohammads and others with odd spellings I could not pronouns. In the video file is 3 videos, all were shot from behind people watching a man on TV wearing a turban who was speaking a foreign language.
I can not imagine where a 17 year old anglo boy in Kansas City got this phone.
Phone(s):
1: LG VX5500 X2 - Nokia 6030b - 2720
2: W490 X2 (unlocked quadbands)
3: LG410
Provider(s):
Page Plus X2 - T-Mo2Go(GR) - Tracfone
Joined: Aug 2007
From: Rio Grande Valley - SPI
Posts: 2,143
What strikes me as odd is there are no Arabic TV stations around here. I'm not sure there are any in this country. I've emailed the seller asking if he could explain what was on this phone. I do not expect a reply.
I kept his name, phone number and email address. If the phone gets killed I'll take that information and a copy of the emails during transaction to the police.
Can they kill a lost or stolen GSM phone with a different SIM?
Phone(s):
1: Samsung Stripe :: Samsung T239 :: Samsung t349
2: Samsung T319, Nokia 2720
3: LG VX 4500,
Provider(s):
::T~Mobile to Go :: Pay By The Day :: Pay As You Go :: :::: Page Plus :::: But not for much longer
Joined: May 2009
From: Earth
Posts: 298
Quote:
Originally Posted by 25jive1
What strikes me as odd is there are no Arabic TV stations around here. I'm not sure there are any in this country. I've emailed the seller asking if he could explain what was on this phone. I do not expect a reply.
I kept his name, phone number and email address. If the phone gets killed I'll take that information and a copy of the emails during transaction to the police.
Can they kill a lost or stolen GSM phone with a different SIM?
I live in the Detroit metro area and we have a few Arabic television stations here. So there are some in this country, I know in the L.A. area there are some as well. NYC so I've heard.
No idea if there are any in the state where you are though. Any major metropolitan areas near where the guy who sold the phone to you is?
Phone(s):
1: LG VX5500 X2 - Nokia 6030b - 2720
2: W490 X2 (unlocked quadbands)
3: LG410
Provider(s):
Page Plus X2 - T-Mo2Go(GR) - Tracfone
Joined: Aug 2007
From: Rio Grande Valley - SPI
Posts: 2,143
Quote:
Originally Posted by SnowyWhite
I live in the Detroit metro area and we have a few Arabic television stations here. So there are some in this country, I know in the L.A. area there are some as well. NYC so I've heard.
No idea if there are any in the state where you are though. Any major metropolitan areas near where the guy who sold the phone to you is?
He has a local Kansas City cell phone number. His CL listing said "KC north" and he seemed to know the area where we met, he even spelled the name of the street correctly (its a french name). So I think he is from around here.
I'm suspicious because no charger was included... "burnt up" (I have several mini USB chargers), he said he used a AT&T SIM in it but did not know it was unlocked although it is a T-Mo branded phone. So I doubt that he bought the phone new.
I don't know if its possible to kill a GSM phone with a different SIM in it.....time will tell.
The phone works great so far, great voice quality and everything I checked in the menu works.
Provider(s):
AT&T (Tracfone / Net10) Boost iDen AT&T Go Phone
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 2,923
Quote:
Originally Posted by 25jive1
He has a local Kansas City cell phone number. His CL listing said "KC north" and he seemed to know the area where we met, he even spelled the name of the street correctly (its a french name). So I think he is from around here.
I'm suspicious because no charger was included... "burnt up" (I have several mini USB chargers), he said he used a AT&T SIM in it but did not know it was unlocked although it is a T-Mo branded phone. So I doubt that he bought the phone new.
I don't know if its possible to kill a GSM phone with a different SIM in it.....time will tell.
The phone works great so far, great voice quality and everything I checked in the menu works.
It is possible (Rogers does it in Canada) but I haven't heard of any cell companies killing GSM phones here. Since the phone says T-Mobile I doubt that is a problem -- unless you think the phone actually came from Europe and you intend to travel there (Germany also has a T-Mobile and if the phone is quad-band it would work in both countries).
Phone(s):
1: Shuttle
2: LG 3280 (retired, still has service)
3:
Provider(s):
Virgin Mobile Tracfone
Joined: May 2008
From: belleville, wisconsin
Posts: 126
I really don't think it matters what you found on your phone. If your phone continues to work, there's no problem. unless the videos on your phone were of people doing illegal things, it is completely irrelevant to anything. why do you have a problem with arabic people?
Provider(s):
T-Mobile, Page Plus, T-Mobile 2 Go Prepaid
Joined: Dec 2003
From: Denver
Posts: 931
Quote:
Originally Posted by rossmosis
If they were white would you still have cared enough to make the post?
If "they were white" it wouldn't have seemed incongruous. I think the OP's point was that this dopey white kid in Kansas City who sold him the phone, wasn't the original owner, considering the video images and ethnic names in the phone book. If the names and videos had been Asian, Russian, African or Indian, I think the OP might have come to the same conclusion. Maybe I'm naive, but I didn't get a racism vibe from the OP, but more of an "obviously the phone didn't belong to this kid" vibe.
A better question than crying racism, might be to ask the OP if there was a "Home" number in the phone book and if he called it to see if the original owner of the phone lost it or if it was stolen.
Weirder to me are the people who don't bother to erase personal information. I bought a 6-year old Windows Mobile smartphone on eBay last year to use on PagePlus, that had about 200 phone book entries of a prior owner's family, friends, and collegues, his calendar and complete schedule for late 2003, as well as his email.
__________________
--
Todd Allcock, Microsoft MVP: Mobile Devices
Phone(s):
1: Shuttle
2: LG 3280 (retired, still has service)
3:
Provider(s):
Virgin Mobile Tracfone
Joined: May 2008
From: belleville, wisconsin
Posts: 126
the kid probably found the phone, if the phone works this thread shouldn't have been made. i find so many phones in downtown areas, the kid just decided to be a punk and make some money off of it. plus saying that they were Arabic is unnecessary information. this is a cell phone forum so i'll stop, but i had to say something
09-13-2009, 16:54
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