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My dad found some smartphones. Can he use them?

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Theocnoob

Theocnoob

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Joined
Dec 1, 2007
Location
Near Toronto Canada
My father is a cab driver. In the back seat last week, he found an iPhone 4S and a Galaxy S3. He has a crappy flip phone and would like to switch his plan to one of the smart phones.

My only question is, is this legal? It's been a week and nobody's claimed the phones. He's leaning towards using the iPhone.

I'm in Canada. What are the legalities surrounding changing the SIM card on a found phone?

Thanks
 
I think the only thing that tracks them is the SIM card, so if you swapped that? I would say, give it a month, though? That would weigh on my conscience :-/
 
Yeah, I'd say after two weeks give it a shot.

I would just take them to your phone provider and tell them the situation and see what they say.
 
Smartphones are tracked through their emei number as well.

So they can be locked by the service provider.

Thing is it has to be reported to the police with proof of robbery with physical aggression. Almost never done...

Your father should be fine ;)
 
It%s not like it's that hard to find the owner of a phone. What's wrong with being honest and send the phones back to their respective owner?
 
you don't if you haven't gotten a call about them then clearly they've moved on personally I would have noticed instantly instanty so id say you got the go ahead on using them.
 
Theocnoob said:
:screwy:

But I'll bite. How do you guys suggest we track the owners down?
Click to expand...

You don't have to byte or play stupid. Oin these phone you will see all of his accounts, facebook, twitter and so on. Just send him a meesage on one of his accounts or email and he will grt in touch with you.

It is extremely easy to find the owner of the phone.
 
and if you cant access anything on the phones, couldnt you also just turn them over to the police or cell carrier.
If the owners reported it stolen to their carrier they have probably already blacklisted the imei number.
 
I agree on checking on the phone data to find the owner. While if you return it tothe police or a carrier, I am sure you'll make the day of either a cop of a sales rep!
 
Look for some guides on XDA developers on how to root/unlock the Galaxy S3. You should be able to easily boot to recovery mode and do a wipe/restoration of the OS. You would still need to unlock the phone if you want to use it on your current carrier, there are guides out there everywhere if you have the initiative to learn.

As for the iPhone, there are guides to jailbreak those things too but I've always found it more complicated for Apple products. Can't give you any advice on that one.
 
glussier said:
You don't have to byte or play stupid. Oin these phone you will see all of his accounts, facebook, twitter and so on. Just send him a meesage on one of his accounts or email and he will grt in touch with you.

It is extremely easy to find the owner of the phone.
Click to expand...
Exactly. It is much harder to get these phones working for you than it is to get it back to the owner.

Do the right thing. :thup:
 
Don't be sad. A iPhone 4S is:
A: A crappy phone by todays standards.
B: Cheap.

If daddy really had his mind set on one, pick a cheap one up for peanuts. If your dad had been living anywhere near my area i could have hooked him up with a free one in exchange for a cab ride or two. With cab fee's at what they are, around here, thats about 20-30 Euro. Or, 200-300 SEK.
B!
 
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