ESN's of CDMA phones (Sprint & Verizon, for example) will be marked as 'bad' if the previous owner lost the phone, it was stolen, or they didn't pay their bill. That ESN will be marked as bad in carrier's systems. The only way around this is to pay the bill, or change the ESN.
To change the ESN requires some special software, like
CDMA Tool. DFS software. www.cdmatool.com . (you also have to know what you're doing with the software). It also requires that you have another ESN of a similar phone on hand.
This technically makes the process illegal under 18 USC § 1029 - Fraud and related activity in connection with access devices, since you are, in effect, cloning a phone.
Specifically, under 1029.a.1 the process of cleaning an ESN
is illegal if you "Knowingly and with intent to defraud produces, uses, or traffics in one or more counterfeit access devices;"
(access device = the phone with changed ESN)
The process of changing an ESN is
not illegal if you get permission from the original carrier that the phone was activated on. In this case the carrier will provide the ESN, which in a lot of cases comes from a cheap donor phone, which is destroyed afterwords.
There are "services" out there that will change the ESN for you, but beware, what they're doing is illegal, and who knows where they are getting the donor ESN from.
[langtitle=fr]Vente de voitures[/langtitle]
in Chit Chat