We all are aware of the fact that there is no official Unlock for the iPhone by the Dev-Team or some one related to them haven’t yet announced the unlock for the iPhone. The unlock drought started back in 2009 when Apple released a new iOS update of iOS 4.x.x and amazingly it updated the baseband of the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4 on that iOS. When this initial update of iOS 4.x.x rolled out, many of the users were not aware of the fact that they will be locked on to this iOS 4.x.x because it has a new baseband and there is no unlock for this baseband. Unlock was available for preceding baseband, 1.59.00 for the iPhone 4, 5.13.04 for the iPhone 3GS and below.
At that time, it was highly anticipated that the Dev-Team would work hard for unlock and will provide the users with unlock some time eventually. While waiting for the official unlock to debut from the Dev-Team, Apple didn’t waited for unlock to arrive, indeed the tech giant started to roll different iOS 4.x.x updates for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. When Apple released iOS 4.2.1 for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and the iPhone 4, the support for future iOS version for the iPhone 3G were dropped by Apple. Still people were dreaming about unlock to arrive via Dev-Team.
On every release of a new iOS, the Dev-Team used to warn the users that don’t update because they wont be able to unlock their iPhone because they are looking for unlock hole and will make the release of unlock ASAP they find the solution. This ASAP took them about 3 years and yet no solution for the unlock has been found by them.
However, when Apple started to roll out iOS 4.x.x updates for the iPhone with the updating of the baseband, a company called ApplenBerry (GEVEY) jumped into the market claiming that the iPhone unlock on 2.10.02 and future basebands can be done and they showed some proof for the unlock. At first, it was believed to be counterfeit, but upon using it, unlock was proved to working fine and it was given a green signal by the Dev-Team member Sheriff Hashim for the GO. At this time, people switched their faith from the official unlock to this hardware unlock by GEVEY.
Even before the hardware Unlock could arrive for the iPhone Un-Unlockable basebands, there was one mysterious thing roaming on the Internet and is roaming on the Internet freely scamming million of iPhone users in the name of Factory Unlock. Indeed this swindle of Factory Unlock for the iPhone is still roaming on the Internet and millions of iPhone users depending on the Unlock are scammed because of Unlock drought.
Before we proceed on with the complete details and practical experiences with these fake unlock websites and scammers, kindly wear some protective (just kidding) because you can be one of the users who might have got scammed via these websites or scammers regarding the unlock.
How to Identify Fake Factory Unlock Scammers/Websites for iPhone
We will start the topic by pointing out our practical encounter with one of the fake unlock websites and a proposal sent to us by the fake factory unlock website that we rejected. We will start with the old experience that happened with us due to unlock drought.
First Case:
Remembering the era of Unlock drought and having an iPhone 3GS in hand, some one contacted us that he is getting unlock for the iPhone 3GS on iOS 4.1 Baseband 5.14.03 for some bucks online. Indeed, the person had paid for unlock and emailed us the files that he got in return to unlock the iPhone 3GS on this un-lockable baseband.
When we downloaded the files and looked into the .zip file, the amazing thing was that we didn’t found any thing new. Everything included in the file was free and nothing was new. The files included in the .zip were the Redsn0w versions, Blackra1n, and few more things with a small guide on how to Jailbreak the iPhone and install Ultrasn0w after the Jailbreak. At that time, these things were new to an iPhone user, but were not worthy enough to pay for the free software’s.
The original E-Mail from the sender is as follows:
Date: Mon, 10 May 2010 15:11:08 +0200
Subject: Notifica acquisto sblocco iPhone – SOFTWARE IPHONE
To:From:
ENGLISH – ITALIANO – FRANCAIS
ENGLISH
Dear Customer,
thanks for your purchase.
You can download the software directly from this link:
English: www.serviceok.net/sbloccoing.rar
French: www.serviceok.net/sbloccofra.rar
Italian: www.serviceok.net/sbloccoita.rar
Follow the directions contained in the guide to unlock your iPhone, using the correct software for your model.
If you need assistance, please contact us directly by clicking the button on our website, we will try to answer your question within 48 hours.
Sincerely
www.serviceok.net
The amazing thing about this E-Mail is that the links are working at full and they aren’t expired. The download links works fine and the files included in the above download links are sent by the website which claimed to unlock the iPhone. You can download the files as a sample and see them at your own risk. We have pasted the links of the direct download files because we want the world to see what things do these fake unlock scammers provide for money.
Second Case:
Now coming towards an offer that we got from an unknown website scammer to partnership with them and to become their affiliate based on 60:40 ratio, we rejected the offer. At this point, many of you might think that the offer was good and we are dumb ass that we rejected the offer. We will come to this after you have gone through the E-Mail sent to us by the advertiser:
Comments: We would like a partnership where you receive 60% of all revenue. Our banners perform better than adsense or buy sell ads.
Try us out for a week and let us know the stats. We are willing to make changes to your homepage also if you desire to improve conversions.
We are quickly becoming the leader in our niche of Jailbreak Unlock customer support. We want to stand out
from competitors by offering a legitimate, honest, satisfactory service by providing detailed, easy to understand,
constantly updated tutorials and responsive24/7 customer support.
Here is some more information about the program.
The conversion performance is great once the potential customer comes over to
our landing page
(http://www.jailbreakunlock.org/jailbreak-01.html). Largely, it
depends on how the traffic is sent over. Text links work very well
and have up to a 12% conversion rate. Banners get lots of clicks, but
perform lower on the conversion rate. Ultimately though, our
program performs much better than AdSense (when tested side by side in
the exact same location).
1. An average affiliate should make about 1-3 sales per day which is about
$20.00 to $60.00 per day or $600.00 to $1,800.00 per month. Our top
affiliate is doing $30,000 per month.
2. We sell 3 packages. Standard support for
Jailbreaking or Unlocking your iDevice ($29.95) upgraded, ($39.90). The last is an
upgraded package that includes standard support plus 1000s of
wallpapers, unlimited iDevices, and downloadable apps
(http://www.jailbreakunlock.org/public/application-gold-extras/)
($49.90). About 33% of the customers get the upgraded package.
3. As an affiliate, you get 60% of each sale generated.
4. We have full real time tracking, plus we can send the conversions
to you via email in real time.
5. Payment is by paypal. Net 30 to account for any returns.
We would like you to try us out for a week and see how things go. Of
course, we will pay you for any sales that get generated and you will
have complete real-time tracking plus emailed conversions.
The offer sent to us by E-Mail was jaw-dropping offer, no doubt in that. After examining the website, we found something unusual and not worthy enough to go with them because the services that the website is offering are free of cost and the factory unlock cost for the iPhone’s is variable depending on the carrier. The prices are not fixed as mentioned/shown on this website.
Other than this, the website is offering unlock for the iPad’s and iPod’s, where as these things doesn’t require any unlock. The iPad GSM models are unlocked by Apple. The website doesn’t mention iPhone’s on the front page, indeed it says to Unlock the Phones rather than the iPhone series.
Conclusion:
Not “Every thing that glitters is Gold.”
Following the above phrase, we rejected the offer from the website regarding the advertisement because we never wanted to deceive our beloved readers just for some handsome money. Other than this, we were fully aware of the fact that the website providing unlock for money along with Jailbreak are fake and one shouldn’t rely on them. The increasing trend of this practice motivated us to come up with a detailed post regarding this issue.
According to our experience, the website providing you with Jailbreak and Unlock for money are purely fake because Jailbreak software’s are free for life. On the other hand, the Factory Unlock (permanent Unlock) for the iPhone costs money these days and is done by reliable sources. The sources doing Factory Unlock will never sell Jailbreak Tools or Jailbreak methods because Jailbreak tools and Jailbreak Methods are free for life.
Any website claiming to Unlock your iPhone and providing you Jailbreak Tool for some amount of money is fake. The website will provide you with the methods on how to install ultrasn0w and unlock the iPhone that is not in works any more.