Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Burner Phone 101

rebeccawilliams.info

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 198 posts

Re: Burner Phone 101

#21

Post by lazide »

cedws wrote: post #20
4gotunameagain wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> which means burners do not really exist in those places. This is very wrong. In Germany you can go to any shady kiosk in a big city and buy a pre activated SIM card invariably registered to some Arabic or Pakistani name. You can buy it in cash. Completely untraceable if you take care of CCTV.

IMEI + cell tower triangulation easily makes it traceable. If the authorities want to find you, they can.

Once they know to look for you, sure, which is why you use a disposable phone and actually dispose of it before anyone has a reason to look for that specific one. That’s literally the whole point.

They might go an ask Achmed some hard questions later, but he’s long since left the country and never met you anyway.

Re: Burner Phone 101

#23

Post by asyx »

CryptoBanker wrote: post #19
tim333 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silent link esims are quite good for getting your phone to work on any country or network. I have one, not for privacy but more for better phone coverage and it works pretty well. No ID and you pay in crypto - btc/monero etc. ( https://silent.link/ ) For me the main use is that I'm on o2 in the UK, but if in some dead spot with no signal I can flip the sim settings and connect via EE or whatever.

>For me the main use is that I'm on o2 in the UK, but if in some dead spot with no signal I can flip the sim settings and connect via EE or whatever. Why not just get an EE SIM if that's your main use?

Not from the UK but in Germany we have the same issue where there is T-Mobile (best coverage), Vodafone (good coverage) and o2 (worst coverage) and there are simply some remote areas where anything but T-Mobile doesn’t have coverage.

And the easy answer is that T-Mobile, or rather the parent Telekom, is a terrible company best known for right now for getting the government to agree that they can cancel your existing internet contract to make switching easier when they want to catch you as a fiber customer but actually all they’re doing is sending a marketing company around Germany (Raider Marketing) to lie to your grandma to sign contracts for the Telekom or just cancel your existing internet contract because they think with a bit of pressure they can get you to sign up with them.

Alternatively, they are also known for the worst peering on existence because they have the crazy idea that they can charge tenfold what other ISPs take for peering because they are the Telekom…

In summary, the Telekom is such a terrible company that I’d rather not give them any money and if I needed T-Mobile coverage I’d rather get a foreign eSIM and rely on roaming than giving them a single cent.

Re: Burner Phone 101

#24

Post by Ccecil »

One thing I didn't see covered is to never have your "real phone" and your "burner phone" on you (or in the same location) at the same time while powered.

Easy enough to say "Gee...these 2 phones are always together or nearby when activated" or "this phone shuts off right before this one powers up".

Although, I suspect there are a few other ways to determine identity easier. Such as tracking the device identifier and then looking up nearby public facing cameras.

Re: Burner Phone 101

#25

Post by eptcyka »

blitzar wrote: post #7
theothertimcook wrote: post #6

In many countries you need a valid government ID document to activate a mobile service which means burners do not really exist in those places. Unless you bought a pixel, graphene’d it and then paid a homeless person to activate a pre-paid data only sim which you would top up with vouchers paid in cash and used a von and international voip service… A lot of effort though

Just track the hardware. A couple of days of normal usage and should be able to assign a 99% probability on you being the owner of that phone.

You should never turn on your burner in a place where you use your regular phone, duh.

Re: Burner Phone 101

#26

Post by rootsudo »

theothertimcook wrote: post #6

In many countries you need a valid government ID document to activate a mobile service which means burners do not really exist in those places. Unless you bought a pixel, graphene’d it and then paid a homeless person to activate a pre-paid data only sim which you would top up with vouchers paid in cash and used a von and international voip service… A lot of effort though

True on the Government ID document but most of the times the portal to activate would allow for any sort of numbers as long as it was in a proper format - whether or not it was valid.

These allow for self activation, have a lockout of 5 failed attempts or so and can be done via sim card codes (not SMS, but you interact with a program on the simcard and low level carrier services.)

Re: Burner Phone 101

#27

Post by forgotusername6 »

theothertimcook wrote: post #6

In many countries you need a valid government ID document to activate a mobile service which means burners do not really exist in those places. Unless you bought a pixel, graphene’d it and then paid a homeless person to activate a pre-paid data only sim which you would top up with vouchers paid in cash and used a von and international voip service… A lot of effort though

I was surprised when a SIM I purchased on Amazon was not only able to connect in China but was also able to bypass the great firewall. I wonder how these travel sims get round the government regulations.

Re: Burner Phone 101

#28

Post by hopelite »

theothertimcook wrote: post #6

In many countries you need a valid government ID document to activate a mobile service which means burners do not really exist in those places. Unless you bought a pixel, graphene’d it and then paid a homeless person to activate a pre-paid data only sim which you would top up with vouchers paid in cash and used a von and international voip service… A lot of effort though

Seems like an excellent business model for the homeless.

Re: Burner Phone 101

#29

Post by escaine »

aja12 wrote: post #10
madethemcry wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you please give any sources? While it sounds plausible and interesting it's nothing more than a wild conspiracy theory without some background information.

Baseband SoC running their own OS independent from Android/iOS and staying asleep (while still listening for incoming signals) is very much no longer in conspiracy theory territory and more an established fact now. I don't have the source at hand but it's in one of the standards. And the purpose is very clear: LEA like Interpol must be able to locate any IMEI at any point if in tower range, regardless of the power st…

Surely this is really easy to prove by putting a phone into an anechoic chamber and using a spectrum analyser to show that it's still TXing?
Post reply on HN