December 2013
I am familiar with the new IMEI blacklist that has recently been rolled out by the national carriers and I support the move as an effort to curb phone theft from consumers. But I have some concerns about potentially massive holes that would allow abuse of the initiative.
As I understand it, if I buy a phone from a carrier and it is subsequently lost or stolen, I can call my carrier and have the IMEI blocked by adding to a blacklist. Further, this blacklist is shared by all of the participating Canadian carriers and by many international carriers, so it will be blocked on those networks too. So far so good.
Now, I have a few additional questions and I'd really appreciate it if someone from Fido could answer each one separately.
The scenarios I am imagining for abuse (and have now read about) are:
I understand that it may be in the interests of the carriers to discourage buying from anyone but their stores, but the fact is that sales to occur outside of the carriers. The answers to these questions is important in order to determine whether the new blacklist is being used or could be used to undermine confidence in buying phones from outside the carriers, which was never the intent of the blacklist proposed by the CRTC.
Thanks very much for any formal answers Fido can provide.
***Edited to add labels***
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January 2022
My phone was blacklisted due to non payment but fido here is claiming they do not do that? so what is it, is it only the owner of the phone can list a phone as blacklisted or can fido list it for non payment too?
January 2022
Hello Joemm210,
Welcome to the community!
Are you sure your phone was blacklisted due to non-payment? Fido can, and does, suspend services due to non-payment (see Terms of Service; section 2h). However, that suspension is for services and not an actual blacklist on the device. Is it possible your services were suspended?
If your services were suspended due to non-payment, you will likely need to contact their Credit Operations team to have them remove the suspension and make a payment arrangement. It should be mentioned that a payment arrangement may not be available in some situations.
Hope this helps ๐
Cheers
October 2016
Hi,
I got question after reading this thread:
What if I buy a 'sealed' and not yet activated phone from a third party. And the phone is locked with Fido cause it was bought from Fido by the original person. Is it possible that after purchasing the phone, original owner blacklist the IMEI? even though the phone was sealed and the first sim card used in the phone is my own sim card?
October 2016
@mrf wrote:
Hi,
I got question after reading this thread:
What if I buy a 'sealed' and not yet activated phone from a third party. And the phone is locked with Fido cause it was bought from Fido by the original person. Is it possible that after purchasing the phone, original owner blacklist the IMEI? even though the phone was sealed and the first sim card used in the phone is my own sim card?
Hello Mrf,
Welcome to the community!
Perhaps this thread will also answer some of your concerns.
Hope this helps
Cheers
October 2016
@Cawtau Thanks! It helped a lot. So basically I am fine because the phone I bought was sealed and never activated by original owner.
It also seems that after 90 days, I can call fido to unlock it for $50. Right?
October 2016
Hey @mrf!
FidoPierre jumping in here.
That's correct, any Fido device can be unlocked for the cost of $50+tx, in this case the phone would need to appear in your account for a minimum of 90 days.
October 2016
@mrf Yes it is possible the original owner can have the IMEI blacklisted, the best way to do it is have the original owner call Fido and let them know he/she is transfering the ownership of the phone to you then have Fido add that IMEI to your account.
October 2016
@KAPABLE-K Thanks for your reply.
I already bought the phone,. I hope this never happens.
I talked to a fido agent yesterday and she told me once I put my sim card in. It gets activated into my account.
What about now that I already got the phone and have no access to the seller. Do I need to call and ask them to put it into my account ?
October 2016
July 2015
January 2014
this is the site I used to check (I don;t know if there's an other or an official one)
http://www.protectyourdata.ca/check-the-status-of-your-device-in-canada/
December 2013
Hi 10yearfido,
Answer to Q1: If the Fido phone or non-Fido phone has been used with your Fido SIM card, we are able to blacklist the IMEI from our end.
Answer to Q2-3: If you have used the phone with a Fido SIM card, we are able to blacklist the IMEI from our end as we verify the equipment history. The initial user has 60 days after his last usage to blacklist the phone. The seller may blacklist it within the first 60 days to prevent any usage on the device, but after 60 days this cannot be done. Though once used on your account, you may blacklist the IMEI at any time as well. Therefore there is an uncertain period of 60 days if you choose to make a private purchase.
Answer to Q4: The new rule is designed to help eliminate the black market for stolen devices in Canada and abroad. When you say illegitimately added it is harder for me to answer as it is not specific enough. We are only able to blacklist an IMEI when we have records that it was used by this person. For example, your friend cannot add the IMEI to their account and request a block, if they have never used the IMEI with their SIM card.
Answer to Q5: When an account is defaulted, the price of the hardware subsidy is charged onto the account. The account will go into collections if ever the payment remains unpaid. Only by customerโs request an IMEI may be blacklisted.
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Scenario 1: The same rule will apply, there is 60 days where the initial user can blacklist the IMEI. The new buyer will have the 60 days uncertainty. When someone reclaims another device through the device protection plan, we do not blacklist an IMEI, as this is only done when the user request this.
Scenario 2: The account holder will have control over the blacklist of the devices. This is not an IMEI blacklist only policy, the account holder may decide to cancel the line, change the plan, or even suspend it after a break up as well.
I hope I was able to answer your concerns.
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January 2014
hi Amanda
i have previously lost a "non fido phone" but used with a fido sim card and no matter what fido did not wanted to blacklist the imei of the phone i lost since itโs not a phone purchased at fido.
why is it the opposite as what youanswered for q1?
or can you blacklist it on your end? i still have my box so i have the imei of the stolen phone.
thanks
January 2014
@hpl912 wrote:
hi Amanda
i have previously lost a "non fido phone" but used with a fido sim card and no matter what fido did not wanted to blacklist the imei of the phone i lost since itโs not a phone purchased at fido.
why is it the opposite as what youanswered for q1?
or can you blacklist it on your end? i still have my box so i have the imei of the stolen phone.
thanks
How long ago did you lose your phone and try to have it blacklisted? The Canadian carriers only started their blacklist fairly recently, I think last September. If it was before that, then almost none of the blacklisted any phones at all (except those stolen from their own stores and warehouses).
July 2015
April 2016
Hi there !
I purchased my iphone 6 almost 4 months ago from an individual.
I had no problem up until yesterday, and out of the blue I lost my Network at 14:00.
After calling FIDO the agent told me that my phone had been blacklisted !!
This hit me as a shock and I cannot express my frustration at the moment.
After talking two hrs on the phone I managed to talk to a SVPR and he told me that he could associate my IMEI with the phone and he would go ahead and request to have it unblocked.
I am currently within that 24 hrs period and looking forward my phone to being removed from this list ! - No success yet.
I have few hrs left before i placing another full-blown call to FIDO.
It is non-sense to block people w/o investigating what might be really happening in the background.
In my situation, person i purchased my phone is obviously into some fraudulent activity hoping to get a free phone from FIDO to re-sell.
April 2016
Hey UtkanH! How are you today? Welcome to our community forums
It's a real shame that this happened to you, that's not really cool of them.
There is a risk when purchasing a used phone from a 3rd party, since this 3rd party can keep a record of the IMEI, which is normally only available when you have the phone itself or the box it came in.
Removing an IMEI fromt he blacklist takes about 24 hours, usually. If you're still within that delay, don't be alarmed if the phone hasn't been removed from the blacklist yet.
If you'd like us to look into this together, let me know and I'll send you a PM
April 2016
Hi Kevin !
Unfortunately, this didnt go as expected.
I have talked to 3 different supervisors located in Montreal (funny it's impossible to locate to the same supervisor therefore I had to repeat my story again and again)
As of this AM (April 27 2016) the president's office refused me being removed from blacklist w/o any explanation. They keep asking proof of purchase as if I must buy phone brand-new.
I dont understand how hard is it to associate my account to the device and for the last few months and remove me from this list.
Obviously whoever sold me the phone reclaimed it stolen/lost and i have to pay for it !
I would appreciate if there's anything you can help.
I need a proper explanation since this is not a convenience but more of a burden.
Note : I have my card on secondary phone which i can be reached at for the time being : (
April 2016
Hey @UtkanH
Unfortunately getting a used phone from a third party has it's own risks. If the original owner of the phone asked to have it blacklisted and reported it as lost or stolen, we can't remove the hold on the IMEI unless he gives us permission to do so.
April 2016