We operate a cell phone collection and recycling program in the U.S.
We have been approached by individuals interested in purchasing the
used SIM cards we often find in the phones we receive. What would a
used cell phone SIM be used for? Can they be reprogrammed? Is there a
legitimate market for these?

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Clarification of Question by cfd-ga on 08 Jul 2004 13:05 PDT

We operate a cell phone collection and recycling program in the U.S.
We have been approached by individuals interested in purchasing the
used SIM cards we often find in the phones we receive. What would a
used cell phone SIM be used for? Can they be reprogrammed? Is there a
legitimate market for these?
 
This could be a good revenue source for our Company, provided it is
legitimate. We really need some knowledgeable guidance on this.

A Sim card can be used to hack a cellphone , they can be programmed
with another number and no there is no legitimate bussiness for it

Agreed.  Also, they probably contain all of the phone numbers/contact
information of the old user (possibly much more imformation with
modern units) which can be easily accessed by simply taking the card
and plugging it into any phone.

They can be reprogrammed, but there's no purpose in doing do, because
any new phone or new service plan will get you a new card.

As corwin said, it doesnt sound legit at all.....be wary.

Thanks for the input. 

A few points to consider:
- Aside from the odd exception, these accounts have been deactivated,
so it is not clear to me what they would allow you to hack into.
- The phone numbers, contact info, etc. are stored in the phone
memory, not on the SIM card. As far as I know, it only contains the
carrier account information that allows the phone to connect to the
network. In Europe, this can be used to charge purchases, etc, but
here in the U.S. this is not the case.
- New SIM cards have a value of $5 to $10 each and are often in short
supply. Provided they can be reprogrammed, is it not possible carriers
would be interested in them simply as a cheaper alternative to
purchasing new SIM cards?

I would really like to get to the bottom of this. We are not
interested in doing anything that is inappropriate.

CFD

cfd-ga:

A slight correction: contact information CAN indeed be stored on a SIM
card as well as on the handset. For most current SIM cards, this
storage can range from as few as 50 numbers to as many as 250. This
information can be secured by a password if the user choose to do so;
not all users choose to do so.

There are a few uses for previously used SIMs. Some are legit; some
shady; some in a grey area in between. First off, a SIM is used by GSM
mobile phone service providers to easily store and transfer a
subscriber's phone number and Phone book contents from phone to phone.
It is also used to encrypt each call which provides more security than
the older analog cell phones. No personal info such as Name, Social
Security Number, Date of Birth, etc. are stored on the chip.
First.... The legit reasons.
1. A used SIM can be inserted into a phone and although the phone will
not operate fully, you can sometimes see the reception meter which can
be usefull for a customer who wants to check out reception strength in
his/her home before signing up for service. This scenario is doubtful
because they would not need but a few SIMs to do this for customers
and is usually not necessary since all mobile companies have trial
periods to test service.
2. In some instances, previously deactivated SIMs can be reissued for
reactivation. New SIMs can cost between $10-$20. This would be some
trouble for the Mobile dealer but would save them money on each SIM
they did not have to buy new. Note:This would not be an issue for
Mobile dealers who sell new, branded handsets. This scenario would
apply to those who sell many imported or factory refurbished handsets
which do not come with a SIM from the manufacturer. This scenario is
very likely.
Fraudulent Possibilities
3. Collecting all the phone numbers stored on the SIM; some of which
will be unlisted mobile numbers, and selling to telemarketers or other
companies who use SMS slamming which is a shady advertising method
which sends ads to mobile phones via text message. The customer is
charged in most cases for every text message received.
Possibilities "in the grey area"
4. The dealer could be fishing for still active prepaid SIMs. These
can be sold to customers for as much as $50 or more depending on how
much airtime is still active. This has no effect on the original owner
of the SIM or the new purchaser as there is no need for personal info
on a prepaid account

Most likely this person is wanting to do a combination of the previous
scenarios. Use your discretion. The only scenario which could be
criminal is #3. If it were me, I would only sell to someone I trusted.
Hope that helps you make a decision.

Note: This is my first time responding here. This is a really neat
service by Google.

Regarding comment by jstory66-ga on 7/15

Thanks very much for the input. This is most helpful.

This really is a great service isn't it.

CFD

You are welcome. Im not a registered resercher so consider that some
free advise unless a researcher comes up with something more in depth
of course :).  Good luck with your business.
I have a cellphone store and occasionally get people dropping off used
phones. If you happen to operate in the Georgia area, I have been
looking for a place that can use them.

Regarding the comment by jstory66-ga on July 17th.

We would be interested in your used cell phones and I personally would
like to speak with you. You can reach me by going to www.ecophones.com
and clicking the Contact Us. Address the message to CFD and provide
contact information. I have not provided my direct contact information
here because I am not sure the system will let me and I get enough
spam as it is.

I look forward to hearing from you.
CFD

If I may, I just wanted to respond and provide some answers and
correct some that has been given earlier, since I come from the
industry background.

Firstly, the correction and some additional notes:

1. Inserting the sim card to a phone to check signal level of the service provider.
This is not possible when the simcard has been deactivated. Each
simcard has a unique IMSI (International Mobile Subscriber Identity)
numbers, which is a long string of numbers. Not the numbers we see
printed on the simcard. The numbers reside within the simcard?s chip,
along with other keys described below. When a simcard is deactivated,
the home network?s Authentication Center (AuC), a server residing in
the GSM architecture will authenticate, but when the commands go to
the Home Location Register (HLR) and Billing System, the simcard is
not recognized, therefore, rejected. So, when the simcard becomes
alive again, the home network will think that the simcard is not legit
to get any signal. The phone will show no coverage signal on the
meter.

2. Re-issuing deactivated simcards for activation.
This is mainly depending on the GSM service provider. Most networks
that I have work for has a fail-safe feature that does not allow the
customer service personnel or any employee to re-issue commands to the
network to allow simcard IMSI that has been terminated to be
re-issued. Once a simcard is issued the first time, it will stay
legit, until deactivated, and it will not be activated again once
deactivated. If a customer lost or wants to reactivate his/her phone
number, he/she will be issued a new simcard.

3. Collecting phone numbers stored in the sim
This is the only possible reason someone wants the simcards, to
collect information. This is of course wrong.

4. Fishing for still active prepaid simcards
This is another possible reason. Unless the simcard is protected by
the Personal Id Number (PIN), then it is not so useful as the simcard
will locked itself up after 3 unsucessful tries.

Second, there are a few companies that supply simcards, like Gemplus
and Schlumberger. The simcard manufacturing is of high security. IMSI
are issued by the service provider, and embedded in the sim chip.
There are other keys stored in the sim as well, including
Authentication Key (Ki), Ciphering Key Generating Algorithm (A8),
Authentication Algorithm (A3) and PIN. The Ki, A8 and A3 keys are
numbers issued by the GSM MoU for each network provider licensed to
operate the GSM network. They are closely guarded secrets of the
industry, because the keys are used for authentication. Some service
providers lock the information in a vault !

Third, a chip in the simcard has a feature to allow certain registers
to be read/write (for the phone book feature, and sms). And others to
be read only by the phone not the user (keys which are hidden
registers). The only machine that can read the hidden registers are
with the manufacturers, and they are very good at securing those as
well.

In other words, used deactivated simcards are useless in terms of
making free phone calls, unless points (3) and (4) above are
considered.