Here in the States T-Mobile and AT&T have started sharing IMEI blacklist as they are the only 2 main GSM providers. If an insurance claim is filed in the States either the insurance co. or the provider blocks the IMEI number.
I do think its likely a matter of time before that is the case here as well but as of now it isn't. I think it would be a good idea for there seems to be quite a few robberies of people with cell phones, especially teens I have heard and that would very likely put an end to that situation.
As to the 1-2 persons who suggested I do more than I did to find the owner, well, I don't know you guys I don't know where you are from, if you are from small towns, or the big cities, but I am from a city and I have learned that it rarely pays to be honest and return items you have found.
10 years ago I found a wallet with ID and credit cards in it. I was able to track the person to parents home and from there was given their work number.
Arranged to meet them at a bank in the middle of our two locations and as soon as I got to the bank I handed her her wallet and said my good byes. I was not asking for a reward nor would I have accepted one so we just quickly spoke and i turned around to leave.
As I walked away, I suddenly heard someone call my name and a photographer snapped my photo.
I turned around and was livid. By this point they were getting into a car and driving away so I called her back up at work and asked why on earth she would be so rude to have done t hat after i went out of my way to return a wallet i didn't have to return. I was told that there was money missing from the wallet and IF any of the credit cards had been used, they would have to see if I were involved.
At which point I told her thank you for ensuring that i would NEVER again return an item I found for someone.
3 years ago I did find a brand new $3,500 bike that was left on my lawn one night unlocked, brand new.
I went online onto all of the bike forums and asked if anyone were missing a white bike without giving away the brand or model lest everyone and anyone attempt to claim it.
I tried for 3 months to find the owner to no avail. Week after week I posted new posts and had many write to me thanking me for trying to find the person, against my better judgment after that previous time.
Nothing, 3 months went by and didn't even come close to ever finding the person but one day out of frustration at not finding them I gave a tiny bit more information out but unknowingly that enabled someone to guess correctly where the bike store was that had originally sold the bike.
I then received an email from a store employee who suggested that I give him the serial number of the bike so as he could trace it to the owner.
Long story short, I refused to do so as I knew that would tell them exactly what bike it was, model, year, etc at which point anyone could crawl out of the woodwork and claim it as theirs.
2 days later I got an email asking me if it were a particular bike and they had hit the nail on the head.
I was able to prove, quite easily as they did not cover their tracks, that it was the supposed "store employees" best friend who was now emailing me lying about it being his bike.
So sure, I could have turned it into the store but the chances of it having landed back in the original buyers hands were very slim.
BTW, I had a phone that I left in my bank a few years ago and someone turned it into the phone company that was downstairs where i had in fact bought the phone from. It was just a pay as you go and was turned off for several days but then I found it on twice but no one picked it up when I dialled i.
I phoned the company and surprisingly they were able to give me 3 or 4 numbers that had been dialled on the phone since I lost it and I chose one that had been dialled the most and got a woman, someones mother who told me it was her sons number I had dialled.
Long story short, one of the employees in the phone store took my phone and kept it for himself instead of returning it to me. I told his mother that that phone was mine and I would be calling the police unless my phone was returned back to me. That next night he called me and was very worried I would call the police, but gace me some half assed story about how he was going to turn the phone into the "main" offices that week but had just been using it in the meantime....LOL....yeah right.....anyhow, I got my phone back and he kept his job but hopefully thinks twice about doing that the next time.
So please don't suggest that everyone should go out of their way to return a phone they have found, or any other article for as you can see just from the 3 stories I have offered, it has always been far more trouble than its been worth and I wont ever bother to try again. Perhaps in a small town it might be easier to do so but in the city its just not worth putting yourself in such situations.
Theres a good reason many people keep out of others peoples business and in my younger days i used to believe one MUST get involved and do the right thing but as I have aged and seen life, I am far less inclined to believe that way of thinking any more.
In any event I was able to get the phone working some time ago.
Thanks to the ones willing to help....
