// How to get out of your contract on 
// Cingular / AT&T / T-mobile / Sprint / Nextel / Verizon
// Without early termination fees.
//
// by Lucky225
//
// http://www.oldskoolphreak.com

There I was sitting around on Buy Nothing Day (The day after
Thanxgiving for those of you not in the know, "black friday",
the day you are to buy absolutely nothing, it's chaos out
there!). Anyways, after checking T-Mobile's website, I was in
total aww. Now, I generally would not want anything to 
do with T-Mobile, considering Paris Hilton and various
other celebrities have gotten their voicemails and call
logs, and Sidekick pictures pwned. Their security is fairly
weak, and they are very vulnerable to Social Engineering. Not
to mention they were hard up about not letting me get a contract
without a SSN, which I was able to resolve with a bogus number,
not currently being used by anyone, but also doesn't show up
in the SSDI. Now, what would lure me back in to this trap
you ask? 1500 minutes for $39.99/mo, or $49.99/mo w/ unlimited
nights and weekends baby -- that's what! I could not pass this
up. I currently have a very limited income and my current cell
bill is way too much every month. Not to mention I need a 
new phone. My speaker isn't working and the phone now only
works in speakerphone mode and I'm not about to pay $35
for another piece of shit phone. So it seemed clear as day,
I need to switch to T-mobile. But there was one problem --
I'm currently locked in a 2-year contract with Cingular 
Wireless, and the only way out is to pay a $150-200 termination
fee.

// The Social Engineer :-)

There's no way in hell I'm going to pay almost $200
just to turn off my phone -- and I'm not going to 
keep paying this highway robbery monthly rate. So
like any good SE, I started thinking about how to 
get out of this termination fee. Then it dawned on me,
as I was speaking to my friends over at Greatcalling.com.
They live in a small rural city -- Royal, Iowa, 51357.
This particular city does not have coverage by *ANY*
of the 6 major cellphone carriers. I hopped on the
phone to speak with Cingular, I told them I was
moving to Royal, IA and wanted to make sure that
they had service in that area, since I'm on the 
nationwide plan and all. Sure enough, they told
me no service was available there. I told them
I'm being forced to move there because of my
living situation, I'm moving there for a new
job, surely I won't get charged a termination fee
if I port my phone number or terminate the account?
The representative assured me because of the
unusual circumstances, the termination fee could be
waived. I had the rep note the account, I ported
my cellphone number to T-Mobile, called back to verify 
that my account was noted, this rep gave me a hard time
saying there WOULD be a termination fee, but after she 
checked the notes "on another system", she noted
the account "thoroughly" this time that because I had
been informed previously I wouldn't be charged, that
it can be waived, but that I will probably have to call
back to address the situation when the bill gets cut.

So there you have it, Social engineering can get you
out of anything!