Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Cell Phone Myths Explained 8

by Dan Reilly on March 7, 2008 at 05:05 PM




Hitting a button gets you a number that will help you get your phone back if it's stolen.

Myth: Pressing *#06# will give you a serial number that you can use to prevent your stolen phone from being used and help investigators find it.

True or false? Both. Yes, entering the code *#06# on many phones with GSM (those from T-Mobile or AT&T Wireless) will bring up a 15-digit International Mobile Equipment Identity or IMEI number that is unique to your phone. It's also usually printed underneath the battery. Depending on your carrier, you could use this number, if you wrote it down, to flag the phone as invalid if someone tries to use it with a different SIM card or provider. Unfortunately, this doesn't really do much for you in terms of getting your phone back. The smarter option is to just report the phone as stolen to your service provider, which protects your account from unwanted charges. And invest in some handset insurance since phones just about top the list of most frequently stolen gadgets.



Comments

1

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular