New iPhone OS 3.1.3 Jailbreak & Unlock Scams

It never ceases to amaze us how many “unlocking-sites” emerge every other month. The two most recent such sites we’ve found go to great lengths to advertise themselves as being legit. Don’t be fooled, they’re not! Although Softpedia does not condone jailbreaking and / or unlocking the iPhone software, it’s certainly worth mentioning that the tools these scammers sell so you can hack your device (which, half the time, goes wrong) are available completely free of charge, right from the people who coded them.

“With Apple's continued attempts to reverse your unlock, it is essential you choose an unlocking partner who will guarantee that your phone remains unlocked,” a banner over at iPhoneWorldwide.com, a site charging money for unlocking and jailbreaking iPhones, reads. It includes a shopped image of two Apple store employees and some Apple promo material with the message, “Used by Applestore employees.”

Other tantalizing annotations include: “It is no surprise we are the industry leader,” and “iPhoneWorldwide has been chosen by Telemina.com, one of the leading global mobile phone unlocking companies as their preferred supplier of iPhone unlocking solutions.” In fact, Telemina.com is just as big of a scam as they are, at least when it comes to its iPhone “unlocking” services.

iPhoneWorldwide goes as far as stating, “We are constantly being contacted by more and more people who have been conned by scam sites claiming a guaranteed unlock for 3G & 3Gs iPhones running version 3.1.3. If a site claims this they are intentionally out to mislead you,” although it is just as rotten.

“Accidentally updated to 3.1.3 & lost your unlock status? Use our solution to regain your unlock & guarantee it doesn’t happen again,” another banner reads. Regardless of whether they actually get the job done when a naive customer approaches them, the tools to hack a device running iPhone OS 3.1.3 are already available as free downloads to everyone on the planet. Although Softpedia doesn’t condone hacks, if you’re going to do it anyway, here’s what you need to know.

The infamous iPhone Dev Team is a group of hackers best known for providing the most reliable jailbreak & unlock solutions for iPhone and iPod touch owners worldwide. Its free PwnageTool application can effectively hack a stock IPSW file downloaded from Apple’s servers, making it bootable on most iPhone and iPod touch models. Following the process of hacking the iPhone software, the user can find additional uses for the device.

If an unlock cannot be retrieved using these guys’ tool, the likes of iPhoneWorldwide.com surely don’t pack the necessary goods either.

There’s also a hacker notorious for his Blackra1n tool that also jailbreaks the iPhone and iPod touch. Provided free of charge, just like the iPhone Dev Team’s PwnageTool app, George Hotz’ Blackra1n does the job both for Mac owners, and for Windows PC users.

IF iPhoneWorldwide.com even offers any piece of software to unlock a customer’s device, it’s likely one of the two (PwnageTool or Blackra1n).

An app called QuickPwn is also available from the iPhone Dev Team. It targets Windows PC jailbreakers. The software hasn’t yet gained support for the latest iPhone software.

“Our solution includes an additional application which allows you to add fantastic extra applications only available on unlocked & jailbroken iPhones...1000's of extra's, ABSOLUTELY FREE,” another message on the respective fraudulent website goes. iPhoneWorldwide.com is talking about Cydia or Icy, two installers included when jailbreaking a device using either of the aforementioned tools. So, it’s not a benefit that they throw in, but something that comes with the jailbreak.

Either way, Apple device owners are advised to steer clear of sites like iphoneworldwide.com, as well as dev.macgeekblog.com, iphoneunlocking.com, unlockiphone22.com, the-iphone-unlock.com, and telemina.com. All these sites (and many others) trick users into paying for otherwise free tools that aren’t all that legal to begin with.