[Q] Blacklisted SM-G900A -- won't work on T-Mobile, but full service on AT&T

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32-bit

Member
Jun 10, 2014
7
0
I am pretty confused.

I bought a used AT&T variant S5 from this lady on craigslist. I ask her questions about the phone, try and get a judge of her character, check the IMEI on Swappa, etc. The important parts checked out and the IMEI appears to be clean so I go ahead and purchase the phone. Since I use T-Mobile's prepaid plan, I have the phone unlocked and it works great - for a few days. Suddenly I get the MM # 6 Error and all network connections cease to work.I return to Swappa and check the IMEI and get the dreaded black box telling me the phone has been reported as lost or stolen. Bleh.

I am either victim to insurance fraud or I purchased a stolen phone from this lady BUT that is not why I am posting here. Fast forward a bit and it has been over 24 hours since the phone has been blacklisted and I am still obviously a little pissed off. I tried putting a GiffGaff sim in the phone but it's been ages since I have used that, so I get the SIM Not Provisioned Error. For some reason I thought I would try my wife's sim in the damn thing next just to see, obviously not expecting much better results (She has AT&T). I get full service. Taking the sim out of her iPhone 5S and putting it into my blacklisted AT&T S5 has returned full service to my phone somehow. I disabled Wifi and got full bars 4G LTE, successfully browse the internet, send text and MMS, and make a phone call.

Has anyone ever seen anything like this? I'm sure there is an explanation, but I haven't heard of this yet. I know when a T-Mobile phone is financed and blacklisted, it will still work with AT&T networks, but I haven't ever run into a scenario quite like the one I am having. Maybe there is a slight delay in AT&T having the device updated on it's blacklist vs T-Mobile, where the device is already not working. I did check the IMEI again and it is still blacklisted. Any thoughts?

TL;DR: Blacklisted AT&T S5 works (currently) on AT&T, not T-Mobile
 
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32-bit

Member
Jun 10, 2014
7
0
I need someone to say they have seen this before...

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32-bit

Member
Jun 10, 2014
7
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Yet the IMEI shows blacklisted for lost or stolen on T-Mobile? And they share the same database.

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32-bit

Member
Jun 10, 2014
7
0
I guess my question is why the hell does this phone not work on T-Mobile? Could T-Mobile have mistakenly put this on the blacklist?

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daraj

Senior Member
Jun 21, 2007
1,751
237
Florida, USA
Are you 100% sure the phone is natively an AT&T variant and not a Tmobile one? Tmobile variants can flash and at&T rom and have the device ID in settings changed as a result. boot to download mode and check the device ID
 

32-bit

Member
Jun 10, 2014
7
0
Well put it this way: The phone has an AT&T logo on the back, at the boot, and the sticker on the inside says SM-G900A. Also, the phone would bring up the NCK Unlock screen whenever I put in a T-Mobile sim prior to me unlocking it.

After unlock things worked great with T-Mobile, until I got the MM#6 error and check the IMEI again to find it was blacklisted.

Taking a picture now of download mode.



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BoostL33k

Senior Member
Oct 27, 2006
64
4
Midvale, Utah
The reason your wife's sim card worked is the imei is not listed on your account. It takes a couple of hours to a couple days for the att network to check the imei and lock the account due to a lost or stolen device (blacklist). Once this happens your account gets locked and unusable until you remove the sim from the device and call att to restore service.

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32-bit

Member
Jun 10, 2014
7
0
So the although the phone is showing up as blacklisted, it will continue to be usable until AT&T notices its being used by my wife's sim, at which point she will be locked out of her account until she calls to restore service? I have never heard of that.

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BoostL33k

Senior Member
Oct 27, 2006
64
4
Midvale, Utah
Just because you may not have heard of it does not make it false. Trust me the info I have shared is the reason why. I have run into this multiple times.

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32-bit

Member
Jun 10, 2014
7
0
Well its still alive and kicking on AT&Ts network. Your explanation would make more sense if it wasn't.

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