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??? Locking phones should have been illegal. You can enforce contracts through other means, all locking does is prevent the owner from switching carriers at t

??? Locking phones should have been illegal. You can enforce contracts through other means, all locking does is prevent the owner from switching carriers at the end of a term or legally reselling the phone after it's paid off and they get a new one... Unblocking stolen phones I can understand but carriers got away with locking phones for far too long.

tablespoon 4y ago
> Unblocking stolen phones I can understand He also was apparently phishing T-Mobile employee credentials to do the unlocking/unblocking.
nulbyte 4y ago
TFA states after T-Mobile terminated their relationship with his business, he social engineered their help desk to steal credentials from other employees. It also states he made $25MM from the use of the stolen credentials. Not that I disagree that telcos should stop locking phones. Then again, this is why I don't buy telco branded phones to start with.
- cyberphobe 4y ago
  but it doesn't seem like he did anything (morally) wrong with that access. Just helped people dodge T-Mobile's abusive practices. It would be one thing if there was like SIM swapping or something, but it doesn't look like that happened here.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    > Just helped people dodge T-Mobile's abusive practices. I would not call T-Mobile offering to subsidize a device in exchange for a $x per month for a y months as abuse by T-Mobile.
  - Beaver117 4y ago
    Nobody is forced to use T mobile, there are tons of smaller MVNOs that are cheap and no-contract.
lotsofpulp 4y ago
> all locking does is prevent the owner from switching carriers at the end of a term or legally reselling the phone after it's paid off and they get a new one... All US mobile networks unblock phones once the contract term ends. Although, it should happen automatically rather than the phone owner having to request it. https://www.fcc.gov/general/cell-phone-unlocking https://www.fcc.gov/general/cell-phone-unlocking

tablespoon 4y ago

> Unblocking stolen phones I can understand He also was apparently phishing T-Mobile employee credentials to do the unlocking/unblocking.

nulbyte 4y ago

TFA states after T-Mobile terminated their relationship with his business, he social engineered their help desk to steal credentials from other employees. It also states he made $25MM from the use of the stolen credentials. Not that I disagree that telcos should stop locking phones. Then again, this is why I don't buy telco branded phones to start with.

cyberphobe 4y ago
but it doesn't seem like he did anything (morally) wrong with that access. Just helped people dodge T-Mobile's abusive practices. It would be one thing if there was like SIM swapping or something, but it doesn't look like that happened here.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  > Just helped people dodge T-Mobile's abusive practices. I would not call T-Mobile offering to subsidize a device in exchange for a $x per month for a y months as abuse by T-Mobile.
- Beaver117 4y ago
  Nobody is forced to use T mobile, there are tons of smaller MVNOs that are cheap and no-contract.

lotsofpulp 4y ago

> all locking does is prevent the owner from switching carriers at the end of a term or legally reselling the phone after it's paid off and they get a new one... All US mobile networks unblock phones once the contract term ends. Although, it should happen automatically rather than the phone owner having to request it. https://www.fcc.gov/general/cell-phone-unlocking https://www.fcc.gov/general/cell-phone-unlocking