Permanent unlock - con or not?

[briangriffin]

Hello all,

I've been using & abusing iPhones since the 2G and am fully aware that 'unlock scams' have come and gone.

Recently though a number of UK sellers (these people for example: unlock_iphone-Factory-Unlock) have started to offer permanent remote unlock services for 3G, 3G-S and 4 models on Orange, O2, Tesco and other official UK iPhone carriers:

Supply the seller your iPhone's IMEI and it's added to the official Apple-maintained database, sync with iTunes and the phone becomes unlocked in the same way it does when one chooses to unlock from O2 - a big friendly 'Congratulations your iPhone is unlocked!' message in iTunes (I've done this myself).

What does the community think about this? Is it legit? Anyone tried it? There are some eBay resellers also offering the service, taking payment by PayPal so presumably if it were a scam then buyers would be protected so it wouldn't be worth trying the scam?!?

Cheers,

Steve

[RetiredBilly]

Bump....

We're all interested. I'd certainly pay a "reasonable" amount not to have to go through the Ultrasn0w hassle with every new jailbreak.

[Simon]

I am pretty sure if your iphone applies to this method then you should be able to contact the carrier (O2 or whichever) yourself and not have to go through a third party to do it.

[Madman604x]

pay by credit card. if they scam, chargeback. never use paypal for dubious purchases

[briangriffin]

I guess 'contact your carrier' option is fine if say you purchased the phone from 02 / Orange / etc. If the 'buy your permanent unlock from me' route works then picking up a network-locked Orange phone from eBay etc. would also be a route.

As I say, I went through the 'contact your carrier to get unlocked' route with my own 3G (02) and it worked fine. But the process involved all manner of questions which if I'd not been the original owner of the phone I'd have found difficult to respond to.

Steve

[iYeow]

It is a scam, don't fall for it. You can get all the help here.

Once you have paid, they will never reply .

[Orby]

While technically possible, I highly doubt they've got a viable legitimate Apple tool--never mind a working exploit.

I do know that many British carriers (and I imagine any other carrier who sells subsidized locked iPhones that can/must be unlocked later) are entrusted with a tool to unlock phones tied to their network at will, but for obvious reasons this tool is closely guarded (and probably has multiple layers of security against unauthorized use).

In short, probably a scam.

[eyeRobot]

If you can't contact the carrier yourself and have it unlocked then I don't think anyone else can. I vote with scam.