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So, what would these guys be doing with 600 phones? Rich wonders if they’re making money off of illegal immigrants.
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August 12th, 2006 at 11:50 am
These are base model GSM phones with custom Tracfone firmware. You can buy them at Mall-Wart for $20 each, but the firmware locks you into buying minutes from Tracfone. The phones are subsidized. It’s like giving away the razor handle just to get someone hooked on buying the special quintuplet flex head aloe enhanced beard scrapers.
I’m pretty sure that they are buying the phones (sold as a loss leader), wiping the firmware, and then ebaying them for a bit of scratch. That turns a locked phone into a phone that will work on any GSM system. You don’t really sign a contract, so you really aren’t breaking the law here, but Tracfone sure doesn’t like it.
http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004414.php
Another scheme involves buying cigarettes in South Carolina (with a tax rate of 7¢ per pack) and reselling them in New York city where the tax rate is $1.50 for the state and $1.50 for the city. Smuggling is illegal, but a case could be made that the oppressive NYC cancer stick tax, and by extension New York City itself, is supporting terrorism.
August 14th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
[…] Actually no, it’s simpler than that. I left the same comment over at SayUncle and Shots Across The Bow, and at the latter, someone was impressed enough by my insight to revise their own post (though apparently not impressed enough for him to link to my blog, or at the very least mention me by name). […]