Confused about "bad ESNs"

[zrxoa1]

OK, I was under the impression that any phone replaced under an insurance plan will be rendered useless as far as running on any network.

Say for example a phone is lost....replaced under insurance....then found again by the owner. Is that phone able to be used on any network that is compatible?

[JRSCCivic98]

No, generally speaking, the phone is blacklisted and you can't use it. Of course there is that very small minute chance that they'll mess up and not blacklist it, but that's about as rare as winning the lottery.

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[zrxoa1]

Then why are all the ATT people at Howardforums telling me blacklisting GSM phones does not happen?

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[Carlos_05]

Originally Posted by zrxoa1

Then why are all the ATT people at Howardforums telling me blacklisting GSM phones does not happen?

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Because they do blacklist it but in reality they can't because all u have to do on a gsm is swap your sim card into a new device and your ready to go. Only if you walk into a GSM carrier store because you don't know how to swap a device and they run your esn or imei it comes back blacklisted they might question you or maybe not. I know people who have lost there phone and had it reported stolen then they find it and sell it and it works perfectly so I guess its good too have CDMa because at least when you lose your phone yoy have the satisfaction of knowing your lost or stolen phone isn't bein used hahaha

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