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I Phone Cloned Twice

kizmazz

I have Verizon and my Son purchased a new white I Phone. His phone has been cloned twice and he visited the Apple store and they wiped it clean both times. It has once again been cloned and he feels helpless. Verizon's response was that they could not give any information about who cloned it and he would have to hire an attorney and request that Verizon provide the information. Does Apple have have a problem with the I Phones or is it that Verizon has a hole in their system.

Is anyone else having this problem? If so have you been able to get it resolved? It is not a great situation to purchase a high end cell phone and not be able to use it without all your communications being intercepted. It is even worse that Verizon will not assist him and just gives him the run around. I would appreciate any help. Thanks

Accepted answers

unknown

Wow! I understand your frustration and agree this is a very confusing situation. First, I just want to clarify a few things. Cloning is when someone is using your number to make and receive calls, access data, etc. You would see charges on the bill that did not come from your son's phone, and our network would show calls coming from a different serial number. In order to clone someone's number you would need their 10 digit mobile number, 10 digit mobile identification number, 11 digit electronic serial number and 26 digit authentication key (which changes every 24 hours). With that being said, it is extremely difficult to clone a digital phone. Based on your explanation of this issue, this is not cloning.

This sounds like someone has downloaded an application to your son's phone that is allowing them to remotely control his phone and view his text messages. The only way to do this is directly through the phone itself. Normally, doing a full restore of the phone will erase any such applications. If he is still having this issue after the restore, we can replace his phone. I would suggest putting a password on his phone and not allowing anyone to use it.

As far as the social security number being wiped out, I would need to look at his account. No one, even the account holder can call to remove the social security number from the account. Even if it was incorrect, our credit team would need to review his credit in order to verify it and correct it. You can have your son send me a PM directly to further research this issue.

All comments

dbbrass

Has your son been jail breaking his iPhone? I'm not sure if this would open the door for this type of security issue or not, but if he is jail breaking it, I would cease.

kizmazz

He has not done anything to phone including not approved apps. Apple has wiped it twice and it gets cloned. What can be done without getting an Attorney and spending money to get something resolved that Verizon should be responsible for. It is my opinion that Verizon has a security breach in their Network.

Jax_Omen

What makes you think he's being Cloned? Cloning is a pretty severe form of cellular fraud where the fraudster has a phone that has been hacked to have your son's MEID number, and uses their phone on the VzW network, with their usage getting billed against your son's line. Is that what is happening?

keezy

From what I've read online, the cloner needs to be somewhat near you or have access to your phone to get your information from it. I would suggest getting a replacement from Verizon (to change the MEID) and change your son's phone number. I'm also getting the impression from what I've read that the iPhone needs to be jailbroken for this to work?

kizmazz

Thank You very much for your response and opinion about the I Phone. He did not jail break the phone so there must be a way to clone it without doing this. This is an unfortunate case of Two Contractors who say that it is not their fault and talk to the other guy. It is apparent to me that Verizon was not fully prepared to start selling an Apple phone. We haven't found that a I Phone on AT&T Network that can be cloned this easily.As I said before there is a hole in Verizon's Security Network that they have not found or if so they aren't correcting the issue. We are still wasting for a Verizon moderator to address this issue which will probably never happen for obvious reasons. Thanks

Spiral

Why are you waiting for a Moderator to address the issue? Their job is to MODERATE the forum site activities (insure terms of service are met, edit any foul language, etc.), not to answer your questions. If you want help on this illegal activity (cloning, fraud, identity theft) you should contact Law Enforcement for help.

mdram4x4

wiping the phone wont help

you have to change the esn

heck, they may not even need to be near him if they know the esn

if he saw them order pizza, then he should have an address

1 call to the police and its taken care of

call history online from the phone? police can use that too

kizmazz

Okay we will call and see whast they say. We thought Verizon would be more helpful but they aren't and could care less.

mdram4x4

kizmazz wrote:
Okay we will call and see whast they say. We thought Verizon would be more helpful but they aren't and could care less.

theres not alot they can do with an iphone

apple just wont allow it

keezy

kizmazz wrote:
Okay we will call and see whast they say. We thought Verizon would be more helpful but they aren't and could care less.

They can't really do anything except change his number and give him a new phone (which should definitely be done) They don't have the information of who is cloning it, so they can't take further action.

Also, not to point fingers or anything, but tell your son to make sure none of his friends has his phone's information. I don't know his age, obviously, but I'm sure teenagers could get ahold of a phone and get the information they need to do this.

kizmazz

Okay thanks

kizmazz

I like your idea but he would have to file a false police report. If they found out they don't look on that favorably and they could put him in jail. I don't think thst the term jail break would work. Lol

kaebfly

kizmazz wrote:
I like your idea but he would have to file a false police report. If they found out they don't look on that favorably and they could put him in jail. I don't think thst the term jail break would work. Lol

Have you actually contacted the police at all? Not to file a false stolen report,but to report ID theft if what you are explaining has happened to your son's phone has happened. Also, is the account in your name or your son's? If it's in yours you need to file the report and be the one actually talking to VZW if this isn't what's already happening.

kizmazz

The phone is in his name and I will go the identity theft route. Thank you

keezy

Reporting the device as stolen with Verizon has nothing to do with the police. It is also not a false report, as it technically IS being stolen. His phone's information and number have been stolen. All this does is put his ESN on a blacklist so no one can use or activate it. Within Verizon only, nothing to do with police.

kizmazz

I appreciate you defining that for me

kaebfly

vereyezuhn wrote:
Reporting the device as stolen with Verizon has nothing to do with the police. It is also not a false report, as it technically IS being stolen. His phone's information and number have been stolen. All this does is put his ESN on a blacklist so no one can use or activate it. Within Verizon only, nothing to do with police.

If they provide them with a different iPhone and ESN then this would be great, but if they don't then it would render the phone completely useless to them also (unless I am mistaken).

keezy

kaebfly wrote:
vereyezuhn wrote:
Reporting the device as stolen with Verizon has nothing to do with the police. It is also not a false report, as it technically IS being stolen. His phone's information and number have been stolen. All this does is put his ESN on a blacklist so no one can use or activate it. Within Verizon only, nothing to do with police.

If they provide them with a different iPhone and ESN then this would be great, but if they don't then it would render the phone completely useless to them also (unless I am mistaken).

Exactly... They're stealing his son's ESN and iPhone information, so they would have to report HIS ESN so the hackers couldn't clone it anymore... That's why I suggested they activate an older Verizon phone on his line for a bit.

djc6

There was recently an issue with the Verizon iPad 2 where they were issuing duplicate MEIDs. Maybe something similar is happening with the Verizon iPhone? :smileyhappy: Maybe there are two iPhones out there with the same MEID:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/digitaltrends/20110612/tc_digitaltrends/verizonipad2recallorderedforsmallnumberoftablets

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