Let me start by saying that I did not just wake up this morning and decide on a career that involves unlocking phones. I’ve been doing this for over seven years and I’ve seen many things and known many people involved in this scene, some via the internet and some through personal meetings.

*I’ve been in this business for 7 years now, and my experience with PayPal is surpassed only by my experience in working with GSM handsets. While this web site is a new venture on my part, I own and run the DaVinci Team for 4 years after solidifying my place in the industry for 3 years before that.

The unlocking business is a major industry; it is mature. An accurate estimation of how much money this industry generates is difficult to come by simply because many aspects of the business are underground (non-claimed income), but I would guess that it is well over USD $100 million per year.

The recent announcement from iphonesimfree.com saying that they now have a software unlocking solution for the Apple iPhone made me an immediate skeptic (see my previous articles). After reading today that they have begun selling the solution to resellers, I really had to scratch my head.  One alleged future reseller, aussieiphoneunlock.com, has detailed the order process of their blog at http://www.blog.aussieiphoneunlock.com.

I have to be honest: this all sounds like one big scam to me. The recent CNN and EnGadget articles allegedly proving the existences of a software unlock really prove nothing at all. We all know that a hardware unlocking solution has been found, and these articles don’t offer any proof at all of a better solution. Iphonesimfree has done nothing to detail how exactly they unlocked they phone; they didn’t do it in front of these article writers (at least it wasn’t mentioned in any of the articles themselves).

I wonder about who has actually seen the process because a similar “testpoint hack” (opening the phone, taking out the metal frame, cutting a track) can be performed on Sgold-based BenQ-Siemens phones by an experienced hacker in a matter of minutes.

Another big flag is the fact that the apparent holder of the hack itself is wanting to accept payment only by bank transfer. The industry norm has always been Western Union; anonymous bank accounts can be purchased in many places around the world for less than $1000, leaving the buyers with zero recourse if they find that this in fact not true.

Iphonesfreesms has apparently had this hack for some time now but has faltered on their release date, changing it often. Let me say this: if I had that hack I’d release it immediately. There is no point is waiting; every minute that goes by brings us closer to a free team such as the “dev team” releasing the hack. If it can be protected they’ll make 500K is less than a month; holding back simply losses the hackers money.

This entire situation smacks of dishonesty, and I truly believe that these guys are simply trying to scam their potential resellers. By the time the buyers figure out that the software hack doesn’t exist, the money is gone and it’s simply too late.

added 2007-09-07 @ 02:02:36