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Questions about IMEI blacklist

10yearfido
I'm an expert level 2
I'm an expert level 2

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.

 

  1. If I buy a phone directly from a manufacturer, say Apple, and I use it on Fido (and call to have the IMEI added to my device equipment history list), if this phone is later stolen, can I call Fido and have it added to the blacklist?
  2. If I buy a phone from someone that bought it from Fido, would they be able to later call Fido and have the IMEI blacklisted?
  3. As a follow up to question 2, if I buy the phone from someone that bought it from Fido, can he and I call Fido to have the IMEI removed from his account list and added to my account equipment list? Would that prevent him from subsequently being able to have it illegitimately blacklisted? If it removed his account and is added to mine, can he still have it blacklisted?
  4. If a phone is illegitimately added to the blacklist, is there any mechanism to have it removed from the blacklist?
  5. If a phone is bought on subsidy from a carrier and the buyer defaults on their contract (say they "disappear") will the IMEI automatically be blacklisted by the carrier?

 

The scenarios I am imagining for abuse (and have now read about) are:

  • Someone buys a phone from a carrier, sells it, and then calls his carrier to report it as stolen in order to make an insurance claim for a new phone. If, when it was sold to another person, the new buyer was able to have it added to their account and thereby prevent the shady original buyer from blacklisting it, that would close this avenue for defrauding the carrier and the new buyer.
  • A couple breakup. One partner had both phones under their name and calls to have the IMEI of the other person illegitimately blacklisted. Can that be remedied after the fact?

 

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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