T-Mobile Wins Judgment Against Pre-Paid Traffickers

go into TMO, Buy a phone, and unlock it, then go to ATT? Personally, I don't see the infatuation with buying a bottom line prepaid phone and going through the hassle anyway. It's not like they're state of the art devices. In fact, most prepaids are almost the same models on a different network. Just buy one from the company your with and activate it. I guess I am old school and don't understand it.

damn lol, poor dealers hahaah....it isn't surprising...a lot of dealers were buying tons of these prepaid packaged phones in Walmart and stores like this and selling the Sim Kit at around $25 which was the cost of the whole package then sell the phone on the side....

I guess it took T-Mobile long enough to catch these few guys but there are still tons out there.

Wow, you got a whole $5 million outta it...and in turn, potentially lost that amount or more in prepaid and postpaid customers being offered a different service at these dealer locations.

Bravo 🙄

"The traffickers would buy T-Mobile
pre-paid phones in bulk, open them,
unlock them, and then sell them at a
higher cost to unsuspecting customers."


What kind of delusion is this author under? The buyers KNOW what they are getting. They are getting an unlocked phone for less than the inflated no-contract price all carriers try to charge.

This text is making it sound like the end-users are somehow getting tricked.

so, had they spent a minimal amount, they could have put a new "generic" housing on the units so they don't bear the T-Mobile name. Problem solved for the guys in NY.

Consumers are harmed and may be misled about the source and origin of their mobile phones, and they are sold phones without their manufacturer's warranties, accessories or user manuals. Because the phones may still carry T-Mobile's brand, consumers may believe they are purchasing handsets manufactured for T-Mobile and covered by original warranties.

So basically T-Mobile won the judgement not because their phones were being purchased and resold, but because their brand was still being associated with the resold phones.

It appears to be a case of harming the brand name, which is pretty much what I figured it had to be since the buying and reselling is perfectly legal if done properly.

Why don't we all go buy a $10 prepaid phone and smash it?

$10 loss to you, but about $30-50 loss to the fascist carriers. That's a good chunk (maybe even all) of your monthly bill they will lose.