Throwaway here. This bit me in the ass. (I think) Quite a while ago I was on an AT&T family plan with my aforementioned family. An unexpected death in my famil

Throwaway here. This bit me in the ass. (I think) Quite a while ago I was on an AT&T family plan with my aforementioned family. An unexpected death in my family caused a falling out/estrangement situation which jeopardized our cellular service, along the lines of an intestate inheritance, forfeited property, decades of fraud/extortion...and my borderline personality mother becoming enraged at the fact that we would now be reassessing my family's troubled history in the wake of this tragedy. The result of these events were that my (quite old) AT&T smartphone service was unexpecgedly cancelled, leaving me out in the cold. I needed service fast, and got a sim card ASAP but I did not reckon that my (fully paid for) cellular device would be carrier locked. This is my mistake of course, but the result is that I was, late at night, caught out with no functional device to use with my sim card, and a brand new MVNO service agreement. I took to the internet in order to find a solution, and ended up using my privacy.com account to pay for a rather sketchy Samsung unlock service, which worked like a charm. Eager to forget this entire affair, I moved on with my life. One day about a month or two ago, my Samsung handset began demanding a carrier unlock code. Confused, and in need of service, I shelled out for the nearest used smartphone thing I could find. This was rather alarming as I was cut off, yet again, and until this day I had no idea how my handset had relocked itsself! my MVNO CSR couldn't help, bless his/her soul, insisting I would need to contact the carrier for the unlock code. Instead, I hit that thing with a hammer and called it a night. After I used the dodgy unlock software which I paid a 20 for, I had monitored my handset for malicious activity via my personal security gateway but could never identify anything unusually malicious. Now I have a backup plan, and carry a spare flip phone. If your mother has access to lexisnexis, I might consider a restraining order if your situation sounds familiar. I concluded that AT&T has rescinded these unlock codes, leaving untold numbers of legitimate users without a way to conduct business. Carrier locked devices should be outlawed. AT&T appears to my naive eyes as a malevolent shitshow, much like verizon and comcast and other rent seeking walled garden extortionists. The history of these telephone companies precedes them, but gosh i wish that my real life didn't feel like it existed in Eve Online.