Some may see the infamous iPhone Dev Team as an eccentric bunch, but they always do their bit when it comes to what they “signed” for: be at the helm of the
jailbreak community. It generally doesn’t like to be bothered with simple questions like, “Will PwnageTool unlock my phone?” when it usually does painstaking efforts to update its tools,
and provide full details on its blog.
But the Team is very careful to sound the alarm on every possible side-effect involving these practices, and even on those that don’t fall in its jurisdiction. For example:
scammers.
Softpedia posted a couple of articles a while back, talking about websites that tried to push jailbreak & unlock tools onto non-vigilant customers.
iPhone 3.1 Jailbreak & Unlock Tool Labeled as Scam
Another Company Purports to Unlock iPhone 3.1.2 IPSW, Charges Money Sadly, as much as we tried to spread the word ourselves, they’re still in business. The iPhone Dev Team felt compelled to issue its own warning, this time around, posting a new update on its blog: “Scam season.”
“While Apple’s 3.1.3 firmware was minor in terms of new features, it’s had the side effect of opening up a huge market for scam sites,” the team begins. “These sites will promise you a 3.1.3 jailbreak for newer devices like the iPod touch 3G, or a baseband 05.12 software unlock. Those desperate enough to ‘just give it a shot’ will find, 100% of the time, that they were misled,” the iPhone Dev Team warns.
“After money has changed hands they’ll be told ‘well the 05.12 unlock is coming, in the meantime here’s the 05.11 unlock’ (of course the 05.11 unlock was intended to be free, as you all know),” the hackers explain. “They’ll hold your money until one day the 05.12 unlock does come out, even if that’s months later (and of course it’ll be released for free). In the meantime they’ll be able to claim they gave you part of what they advertised, and keep at least part of your money (in actuality they’ll usually keep all of it).”
That’s just about enough warning to make you stay away from these scammy sites forever, we’d say. Of course, Softpedia also doesn’t condone jailbreaking and, while we understand it’s hard to resist hacking your iPhone or iPod touch to access a wide range of free apps you’d otherwise have to pay for, it’s also your choice, and your choice only. So, if you’re going to do it anyway,
at least do it properly.
The Dev Team seems to forget to point out that the real jailbreak & unlock tools that the community relies on are generally its own. They’re always free of charge and they’re the most reliable out there. Sometimes, hackers like geohot will come to the rescue when the Dev Team is unable to find a hole in the iPhone software to exploit it. Geohot himself does “charity” work as well. Bottom line: you will never be charged for the jailbreak & unlock tools for your iPhone / iPod touch.
As you can see, the Dev Team can’t stress this enough: “Don’t fall for these scam sites!” it warns. “None of them have a 05.12 unlock, none have the 05.11 unlock working on 3.1.3, none have a 3.1.3 jailbreak for newer devices like the ipt3G. They’re trying to capitalize on your upgrade mistake, and they only need a very small percentage of people to fall for them to make their money and run.”
If you’re a victim of such scams, or know someone who is, share your story in the comments, so more people learn about the dangers of falling in these traps.
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