My IMEI got blacklisted when I came back from travel

[Skoub]

Hi everyone,

My phone have stopped to connect to PublicMobile network. The message in the notification area is "Emergency calls only".  This happened exactly when I came back from Europe. I tried everything that I can: restart the phone, on/off airplane mode, reset mobile networks settings, etc.

I've read that my phone could be blacklisted. I checked on 2 websites and they confirmed that my phone is now blacklisted but I don't know why because it happens at the same time as my travel. This is a bad coincidence in my point of view. Here's the timeline:

• I bought the phone used at the beginning of July of this year from an old woman. Everything worked correctly on the network.
• Beginning of September, bought an eSIM for my travel to Europe from getnomad.app website. I activated it the day of departure and deactivated my local SIM but let my physical SIM card in my phone.
• September 22, arrival to Montreal. Deleted the eSIM and activate my local SIM with PublicMobile but no network.
• Today, searched for my IMEI and found that I'm blacklisted.

Is it possible that something got wrong during my travel and some algorithms detected something and requested automatically that my phone should be blacklisted? Is it possible to know which provider requested a stolen/lost phone? What can I do?

I dougth thst my phone was stolen from the beginning. It was from an old woman and took it at her house. I checked the IMEI before leaving and everything was clear. Can someone declare that easily a stolen phone 3 months later?

Thank you for your help!

UPDATE

If I want to select the mobile network manually, I get an error message "error while searching networks". Can it be related on the blacklisting?

 

[Skoub]

It is not clear what the problem is. The SIM slot seems to work perfectly because it detect the sim card and show the phone number and the name of the network but no connection "Emergency calls only".

- https://www.devicecheck.ca/consumers/ and one other site says that my IMEI is stolen/lost
- others IMEI checker sites says that my IMEI is clean
- PublicMobile says that my IMEI is clean

So what is wrong with my phone? It's not clear but at least, the eSIM work.

[slusagm]

yes, we suggested you try using the other slot

so, the physical slot is broken instead of blacklisted?

[Skoub]

Here's the last news. I switched my SIM to eSIM and now the phone can connect to the network. So everything work ok now but a SIM card will never work again on this phone I guest.

[Skoub]

Here's the last news. PM confirm me that the IMEI is not blacklisted on their network. I have switched the sim card on another phone and it work perfectly. I've put another sim card from another provider in the phone and it doesn't work. I factory reserved the phone and no luck. So now it seems that it's my phone that has a problem.

What is intriguing is that if I scan for networks with the sim card, I have an error message but if I scan with the eSIM card, it finds the networks (see screenshots). This is like if I had 2 antennas and the one that the SIM use is broken.

So now I have opened a ticket with Samsung but I'm not sure I'm on warranty. Last solution will be to ask PM to convert my sim to eSIM. Hope they will accept.

 

 

[Skoub]

They don't want to answer if the phone is blacklisted because they don't sell phone. They say to call Samsung to have help. I think they I've got a person that don't want to help that much.

[sheytoon]

You can download multiple eSIM but only one can be active a time.

[slusagm]

don't ask them if it is stolen or not, just ask them if it is on the blacklist and if it is blocked on the network because of that.

[Skoub]

I asked PublicMobile to confirm if the phone is stolen or not. They answered that I must do this verification myselft! 

[Skoub]

The eSIM IMEI is not blacklisted. But if I use the eSIM, will I be able to add another eSIM in the future for travel or i'm limited to 1 eSIM?

[slusagm]

when you check blacklist, did you check both IMEIs?  you have two IMEIs, one for physical slot, one for esim

and if just one of them is on the blacklist, you can use another one instead

[Skoub]

Galaxy A54. It's possible to have eSIM.

[slusagm]

what phone is that?  is it a Samsung?  what model? i want to confirm if it has esim

[hTideGnow]

hi @Skoub 

the devicecheck site is only a site for consumer to check and it does not update as fast as we would hope for, it usually as a delay of 2 to 7 days.  Also, Telus process to update the blacklist also has a short delay, so new change might not reflected yet

if you are are still unsure if the phone was on the blacklist or not, ask PM support to confirm

 please submit a ticket with CS Agent using this Chatbot link:  https://widget.telus.tiia.ai/publicmobile/publicmobile.html  Type the question "Submit ticket", Then click the following in order: "Contact Us" ,  "Other",  "Log In".  
If any issue with ticket submission, you can  submit by direct message:  
      https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437 

[Skoub]

https://www.devicecheck.ca/check-status-device-canada/ doesn't report the phone as stolen. I check on other web site and the one that reported it blacklisted is not blacklisted anymore but others says it still is.

Well.. I guest the problem is elsewhere.

[Skoub]

I discovered that if I want to select the mobile network manually, I get the error message "error while searching networks". Can it be related with the blacklisting too?

 

[sheytoon]

It's likely because the previous seller reported the phone as lost or stolen.

It's not related to your travel.

[slusagm]

try a different sim card from another service provider, borrow one from your friends

check the blacklist here if another sim does not work still
https://www.devicecheck.ca/check-status-device-canada/

I am not sure if PM can tell you who put the phone on the blacklist but you can try asking them

open ticket with PM using the Orange Chatbot icon on the lower right. Type the question Submit ticket and select Contact Us to get to ticket open screen       

or message them using this link:
https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/notes/composepage/note-to-user-id/22437

But one more thing, does your phone has esim? Usually service provider only put one of the 2 sim slot (physical or esim) onto blacklist, the other one will still work.  So, if you are lucky you are the other one, that would be the workaround

[hTideGnow]

hi @Skoub 

you checked the blacklist here?
https://www.devicecheck.ca/check-status-device-canada/

it is true buying from people privately is dangerous.  It is is probably nothing to do with your travel.  The one you bought might have a bill dispute with her carrier and the phone was not fully paid and hence the lady's old carrier and put it on blacklist