Yeah Right....
if you don’t care about the story and just came here looking for the short answer: you can bypass the social security number by using the following number instead: 141-11-1111. this is the number at&t uses internally for cases where they want to permit customers to bypass the ssn field. your phone will be registered but you have two options: either you can pay a security deposit of $90 to $1000 ( since they can’t run a credit check without a ssn) or you can register for a pre-paid plan.
for those interested in the story, a friend of mine bought an iphone last week but when he went to activate it (he didn’t want to jailbreak/sim-free it), he ran into a problem: the registration process requires a social security number b...
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for those interested in the story, a friend of mine bought an iphone last week but when he went to activate it (he didn’t want to jailbreak/sim-free it), he ran into a problem: the registration process requires a social security number b...
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So you're upset because AT&T won't just give someone cell phone service without requiring a credit check and SSN?
iPhones cannot be used on a prepaid account unless it's the original 2G.
Your friend does not have to have a contract since he did not purchase the iPhone at a 2yr contract price. With that being said, the "security deposit" will be held as basically an advanced payment in case the accout becomes past due.
If you have nothing to hide, why wouldn't you give a service provider your SSN?
iPhones cannot be used on a prepaid account unless it's the original 2G.
Your friend does not have to have a contract since he did not purchase the iPhone at a 2yr contract price. With that being said, the "security deposit" will be held as basically an advanced payment in case the accout becomes past due.
If you have nothing to hide, why wouldn't you give a service provider your SSN?
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Apple is not asking for the SSN, AT&T is. All service providers use this information to preform credit checks, and the SSN is used to link your account to a collections agency should you decide not to pay.
Creating an account with no SSN makes it impossible to tell if the person creating the account is who they say they are. There would be no way to check credit, or to turn the balance back on the customer if the account went delinquent. What would stop such a customer from adding a ton of lines, ordering expensive phones, and then running away with them?
Creating an account with no SSN makes it impossible to tell if the person creating the account is who they say they are. There would be no way to check credit, or to turn the balance back on the customer if the account went delinquent. What would stop such a customer from adding a ton of lines, ordering expensive phones, and then running away with them?
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$1000 deposit *per line*. AT&T would make money. Phones can't be billed to accounts so you would have to put some money up. And it will only go 60 days with no payment before being suspended. So at most, 60 days of service would probably cost AT&T $100 or less (cost remember, not billed), and then the subsidiary on a phone would be more than covered by deposit.
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