Do these phone "tricks" really work?

Factual Questions
1

I received an email listing 5 phone “tricks” your cell can do (tricks probably isn’t accurate, but “hidden features” isn’t either) and I wondered how truthful they are:

From: Your Cell Phone Could Do

For all the folks with cell phones. (This should be printed and kept in your car, purse, and wallet. Good information to have with you.)

There are a few things that can be done in times of grave
emergencies.

Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival. Check out the things that you can do with it:

FIRST
Emergency

The Emergency Number worldwide for Mobile is 112. If you find Yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile network and there is an Emergency, dial 112 and the mobile will search any existing network to Establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly, this number 112 can be dialed even if the keypad is locked. Try it out.

SECOND
Have you locked your keys in the car?

Does your car have remote keyless entry? This may come in handy someday. Good reason to own a cell phone: If you lock your keys In the car and the spare keys are at home, call someone at home on their cell phone from your cell phone. Hold your cell phone about a foot>From your car door and have the person at your home press the unlock button, holding it near the mobile phone on their end. Your car will unlock. Saves someone from having to drive your keys to you. Distance is no object. You could be hundreds of miles away, and if you can reach someone who has the other ‘remote’ for your car, you can unlock the doors (or the trunk).

Editor’s Note: It works fine! We tried it out and it unlocked our car over a cell phone!’

THIRD
Hidden Battery Power

Imagine your cell battery is very low. To activate, press the keys *3370#. Your cell phone will restart with this reserve and the instrument will show a 50% increase in battery. This reserve will get charged when you charge your cell phone next time.
FOURTH
How to disable a STOLEN mobile phone?

To check your Mobile phone’s serial number, key in the following Digits on your phone: *#06#. A 15-digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Write it down and keep it somewhere safe.

If your phone gets stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset so even if the thief changes the SIM card, your phone will be totally useless. You probably won’t get your phone back, but at least you know that whoever stole it can’t use/sell it either. If everybody does this, there would be no point in people stealing mobile phones.

And Finally…

FIFTH
Free Directory Service for Cells

Cell phone companies are charging us $1.00 to $1.75 or more for 411 information calls when they don’t have to. Most of us do not carry a telephone directory in our vehicle, which makes this situation even more of a problem. When you need to use the 411 information option, simply dial: (800)FREE411, or (800) 373-3411 without incurring any charge at all. Program this into your cell phone now.

2

Snopes sez:

  1. Only in some places in Europe
  2. No
  3. No
  4. No
  5. Sure, the service is certainly free, but the call itself may probably still cost you.
3

#5 is true, although you get to sit through an ad before you get your number. The rest sound fake. #1 might be true somewhere, but it’s not in the US.

4

Basically bunk. Snopes cover this.

#4 strikes me as rather silly, in that you can get your phone’s serial number in other ways - going through a menu on the phone to display it, or reading it off a sticker on the phone body (visible in the battery compartment). That trick did work on my phone, and it’s quicker than the other methods, but it’s not like the serial number is a secret that you can access now but couldn’t before.

5

Number 4: That 15 digit number is called IMEI and some providers can block blacklisted phones from getting signal: International Mobile Equipment Identity - Wikipedia

6

It’s called the ESN (Electronic Serial Number) here. Same thing. It’s printed right on the box you bought it in, as well as on a label found usually under the battery.

7

Well, Google has a free 411 service with no ads, but again you might still pay for the call itself.

1-800-GOOG411

8

The first one,

seems especially bad advice to be passing on. If it works (which apparently it doesn’t outside of parts of Europe), you’re advocating a bunch of people “trying it out” and wasting the time of local emergency services dispatchers.

9

It is also called IMEI here, for GSM networks. ESN is for CDMA networks.

10

You’re not supposed to try calling the number, you’re supposed to try entering the number into the keypad with the keypad locked. That part of it works for my phone, I can dial both 112 and the Australian emergency number 000 with the keypad locked.

Er. I actually tried dialing 112 and I was connected to 000 so it certainly works in Australia. (I hung up while it was still playing the initial recorded message advising that I’d called 000.)

11

Yup, GSM operators record both the SIM and IMEI IDs for every call. I wonder if it is possible to change the IMEI using the software tools used to program the phones though. I guess it is probably more difficult or there would be little point.

12

From what I’ve heard, 112 will automatically redirect to 911, in any area where that’s the emergency number, too.

13

I don’t know about 112, but I believe it’s illegal to call 911 just to “try it out”.

14

As noted previously, “try it out” was referring to entering the number with the keypad locked out, not to actually placing the call. It could have been clearer on that point, though.

15

This “feature” annoys me actually. I remember handing my phone to my (then) 3 year old to play with, since the locked keypad would stop anything bad happening. I glanced down just in time to see “000” on the display (I’m in Australia) and her finger pushing down on the “Call” button. I hit “End” just in time.

When locked, my Sony Ericsson phone will accept “000”, “112” and “911”. It won’t accept “999”, the emergency number in the UK. I’m not going to press “Call” after entering “911”, but I would guess that it would redirect to “000”.

16

In America, any cell phone will dial 911 even if it’s been disconnected and has no contract with a carrier. So I believe any phone will “search any existing network” for a 911 call and that part doesn’t have anything to do with dialing 112.

17

#2 works, I have friends who have used it.

The remote has to work acoustically, though. If it uses an RF or IR signal it will obviously fail.

And I use 1800FREE411 all the time. It is great for finding taxi companies in strange locations. You do have to listen to a short advertisement however.

18

I can’t believe anyone would fall for the keyless entry thing. “Distance is no object”?:dubious: It doesn’t even work from across the parking lot.

19

Well, assuming it worked at all, it makes sense that it would work anywhere you had a signal.

As far as #4 goes, your service provider should already have your SIM card number and phone serial #, assuming your phone was supplied by them.

20

This does not work. Your cell phone cannot emit the radio frequency to unlock your car. The phone receives a RF signal, converts it to audio sound. The car remote uses radio signal. We had a test at work and they thought it worked, but it turned out they were close enough to the car that when they tried to send the keyless signal over the phone the keyless unlocked the car. Tried it again with the phone off, car still unlocked. They were too close to the car.

Anyone who thinks this will work should drive to a very remote location, lock their keys in the car, and call someone far away who has the only other set of keys.

Going to be a long walk, and time to think.