Stolen cellphone

[cathyb]

My cellphone was recently stolen. I reported the stolen phone to verizon and they have the electronic serial number logged. They assure me that no one will be able to use that phone for service. however, I recently saw a co-worker using a "new" cell that is exactly like the one I had stolen and has all my special ringtones. Is there a way to obtain service without that electronic serial number being traced?

 

[Carmon355]

On Verizon each phone has an ESN (electronic serial number) that is unique to that piece of equipment. That is how the cell towers register your phone with the network and say oh thats 555-5555.

Unless your co-worker has figured out a way to hack around that, I highly doubt it is your old phone he is using unless the Verizon person you talked to did not put your ESN in the stolen file. Im sure there are methods of convencing the system to believe the esn on the phone is different then what it really is, but thats alot of trouble for a cell phone.