topic Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge in Devices

Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

BobGreen — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 18:54:41 GMT

My phone stopped having signal and after the usual off and on, etc for 2 days I connected Three. They told be my phone had been blacklisted but couldn’t give me be reason why. I had to wait 48 hours to have it unblacklisted. This repeated 2 more times with no progress and new requested being put in to unblacklist my phone every 48 hours. After 6 days of waiting and 8 days without signal, use of mobile data, texts or calls I was told I had to send proof of purchase and wait 5 days. I have sent this 2 days ago but have had no reply to my email to confirm receipt, etc.

My question is how do I know anything is being done to unblacklist my phone as nothing was done for the previous 6 days. Do I wait 5 days to find out nothing has been done and I am told to do something different and wait longer? How can I chase this request with the email I sent to proof@contact.three?

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

PeteG — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 19:50:28 GMT

Hello, Bob.

Hearing that your phone has been blacklisted is disappointing, I'm not sure why that wouldn't have happened. Normally when you send emails to that address, you should get an automated reply within 48 hours. To confirm though, the full address is proofs@contact.three.co.uk. If you've sent it to the address you noted above, it won't be received by the right team.

Pete.

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

BobGreen — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 20:38:51 GMT

Hi Pete,

I have sent it to the address you have stated more than 48 hours ago and have not received anything yet. But I am not at all surprised considering how poor the service has been. 8 days waiting now to have my phone unblacklist that was done without my knowledge.

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

jr0 — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 20:58:35 GMT

Hi I'm just wondering how your IMEI was blacklisted and by which UK operator? If your phone is brand new I can only think of someone doing a typo, and this could have happened in any of the UK mobile operators that can blacklist/report stolen devices

I'd try to chat with three support team.

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

BobGreen — Fri, 13 Dec 2024 21:21:06 GMT

I got my phone in April 2022 and had no issues since then. Three have put in 3 requests to have it unblacklisted but made no progress. I have no idea how it was blacklisted, three just tell me they don’t know.

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

PeteG — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 11:04:08 GMT

It might be worth checking in with the Support Team to see if they can confirm if the email was received and see if any actions have been taken on the back of it yet.

Pete.

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

BobGreen — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 13:54:58 GMT

Hi Pete,

Emails have been sent so fingers crossed for a response and a speedy resolution.

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

BobGreen — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 08:09:48 GMT

I had an email asking me to contact Three, so I did was was just told Three didn’t blacklist the phone so the only option was to call every phone provider there is to see who had blacklisted it and ask them to unblacklist it.

Is that the normal response to this? Or is there another option?

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

jr0 — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 10:34:26 GMT

Hello

I've been reading about CEIR in GSMA (which is the central database of blacked IMEIs that countries and operators use to swap information about stolen devices). From what I know and understood from GSMA and Ofcom, UK operators are only swaping information of stolen devices within UK (it sounded they are legally imposed to do it by ofcom) and because they swap information through GSMA, looks like every blacklisted record contains the ID of operator who did the action. The operator ID or organization ID or PLMN ID for Three is 234 20 but for instance O2 has more than one, google will tell you all about it, I used https://mcc-mnc.com/ , so Three UK does know who blacklisted your phone.
what I'm guessing is that the Three support/chat agents are defaulting to what they know and are shown in their systems ( no offense to anyone but probably it is not much). I think you could ask them to raise to a more technical team which probably can easily find who and when was done.
The other option, and this is assuming you have been with Three for awhile, is to use the purchase proof and make it very clear that you have been using this phone since XYZ date, and maybe Three Technical team can find records of usage of your phone. Then push it for them to unblock it.
I also think that Three agents are just following the script and making sure this is not stolen phone (no ofense) and because it was not Three who blacklisted maybe there are assuming they cannot unblacklist (again maybe because of fraud policies). But I also reckon Three could reach out to the operator who blacklisted the phone and try to clarify it and maybe liaise this with them for you.

another option is for you to be provided who blacklisted by three (again Three must have this information) and you go speak to the other operator and inform them of their mistake and ask them to unblacklist, but you are on your own as you are not their costumer 😕

last option, make a complaint with Three and also with ombudsman https://www.commsombudsman.org

good luck

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

JonathanB — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 10:41:48 GMT

Hi @BobGreen,

I'm sorry to hear about this situation with your phone being barred without your knowledge. Just to clarify, was the phone supplied to you by Three originally, by another network provider, or did you get it from a retailer?

Thanks,
Jonathan

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

BobGreen — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 13:34:38 GMT

I bought it second hand from Music magpie. I spoke to them and they said they said they clear all their phones and didn’t report anything. I was told by a Three adviser that if I bought the phone from Three they would help but as it was a sim only contract they wouldn’t.

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

BobGreen — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 13:39:30 GMT

Thanks very much for the information. I had been trying to have my query escalated but have had a couple of operator end the chat when I asked to speak to a supervisor.
Today I managed to get through to the complaints department but was told they didn’t have any information and then that they wouldn’t give me any information as it would cause a data leak. Then ended the chat. Not very helpful. They show no interest in resolving the situation.
I think the only option I have left is the ombudsman.

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

jr0 — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 13:49:04 GMT

soz

and https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/mobile-phones/lost-or-stolen-phone/ in case you decide to try contact the operators on your own

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

JonathanB — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 12:42:36 GMT

Thanks @BobGreen that clears things up somewhat. I'm really sorry to have to say this but it's likely that despite this being sold through a reseller 2nd hand, either the original owner has reported the phone stolen, or insurance has been claimed against this as a lost or stolen device.

I appreciate that as far as you were concerned this was being supplied to you as a legitimate 2nd hand device, but it's highly unlikely that a network provider will be able to reinstate the IMEI.

I'd recommend that you approach the reseller again, they claim they won't resell any lost/stolen device so you may be able to obtain a replacement or refund if you show them evidence that they've sold a blacklisted device to you.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

BobGreen — Wed, 18 Dec 2024 13:22:43 GMT

Hi Jonathan,

You may be correct, but it seems unlikely as I have had the phone more than 15 months. It seems unlikely that it would reported stolen now, unless the seller held the information for this long. It was only blacklisted 2 weeks ago.

I have contacted the seller and they are at least trying to be helpful, so that’s some movement forward, and a nice change from what I was receiving from Three.

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

JonathanB — Thu, 19 Dec 2024 11:25:39 GMT

Thanks for clarifying Bob,

That is really odd, and I can see that making it more difficult to deal with through the reseller. I can only speculate in public forum, but the phone could have been on a finance agreement which since defaulted, or perhaps the person who supplied the phone to Music Magpie wasn't actually authorised to do so but this wasn't discovered by the original owner till a later date.

I'll do what I can to help from my end, at the very least I can enquire about whether we are able to disclose which provider would have raised the blacklist request.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

JonathanB — Fri, 20 Dec 2024 17:04:54 GMT

Hi Bob,

I've checked this out with our fraud specialists and the internal systems do unfortunately only tell us that a device has been blacklisted when this has been reported by another provider, our customer facing teams don't have access to where the request came from.

It may be worth getting some independent, impartial advice on this situation, I can only speculate, but the Citizen's Advice Bureau may be able to direct you to relevant info or support.

Thanks,
Jonathan

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

blankuser — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 16:58:04 GMT

i have experienced this same situation, and i can tell you all right now, Three will lie to you for weeks that they can unblacklist, while you call back after every time you're told it'll just take 48 hours, only to eventually be told that actually they can't do it.

i'm beyond furious at being lied to.

time for the ombudsman.

Re: Phone blacklisted without my knowledge

JonathanB — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 16:40:50 GMT

Hi @blankuser,

I'm really sorry to hear that you've been experiencing difficulties with getting a device unblocked. Usually this would be a case of a lost/stolen phone being recovered and it's a relatively straightforward situation to resolve within a day or two, so that's really odd to hear this has been a drawn out situation for you.

In the case of the OP it looks like it was a 2nd hand device. Did you also purchase from a reseller such as Music Magpie mentioned later in the replies to this thread?

Thanks,
Jonathan