BadBoy

Consumer Review - $29.95 Burner Phone

43 posts in this topic

For a burner phone, the 8GB storage and 1GB data should be plenty.

My real phone, since wifi is everywhere these days, I went through 1.3GB data last month, on pace for less this month. So working on assumption only using for hobby, not downloading tons of stuff on cellular network.

And since hobby phone, don't want to download Facebook, LinkedIn, etc that will track you and tie things together for you, don't need the main storage for apps, family photos, lots of music.

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Ha, ha, ha, you guys crack me up. How you gonna explain to your wife your second phone?

 

Edited by 2Big
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Well, 2B, that was funny.  It is also the reason that the hobby phone is banned from the house - never goes inside, not in a pocket, not in a briefcase, not in a gymbag, never - this is an iron-clad rule.  It lives in its hidey-hole in my office until needed, then it comes out just long enough to be of use, and goes back to the hidey hole.  The only other place it is permitted to be is in my pocket on the way to an appointment or while booking an appointment (not at home!!!)

Also, the ringer is always set to silence, even in it's hidey hole or in my pocket on the way to the appointment.  Firm rule (see video above).

BTW, a couple of weeks later the little wonder is doing great - wish I had gotten a smart hobby phone sooner.

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Burner phones can be traced back to a  Wi-Fi connection so be very selective about who's Wi-Fi you use. I don't use Wi-Fi at all with mine.

Do not be tempted to buy minutes/refills with anything other than cash. Buy a pack of gum, get cash back, then use the cash to get the refill.

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28 minutes ago, sweetkarizmatic said:

So VPNs are or are not effective for this particular burner? 

Unknown, imo. 

The gist of the Huawei/ZTE thing is that they are believed to have deep ties with the Chinese government, and therefore are susceptible to getting trojans, spyware, backdoors, etc. put in place to allow the Chinese government to spy on people. Noone (from what I've seen) has come out publicly to announce that they have found malware on these devices, so, right now, it's a precaution against what could happen. And a bit of USA spy agencies not being able to exploit these products for our snooping. And a bit of trade-war going on as well.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-03-22/why-america-is-so-scared-of-china-s-biggest-tech-company

VPNs, with these devices, in theory maybe a man-in-the-middle exploit could be put into place. But again, noone has said there is. VPNs in general are iffy, imo. Some of these offerings are not configured correctly and can leak information. Plenty of stories out there where LE tracks down people who were using VPNs by using the leakage. Not saying VPNs are a waste of time (will make it difficult for common crooks to snoop, or even LE), but if one is a big enough target, might not be as secure as one thinks.

Edited by NoCoGeezer
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Don't you have to show ID and address when you buy the phone in the store? I could've sworn I was asked to do that the last time I tried to get a burner at Best Buy. So then I ended up buying a used phone from someone off Craigslist. 

 

 

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On 4/9/2018 at 0:49 PM, Fluffhead1977 said:

Don't you have to show ID and address when you buy the phone in the store? I could've sworn I was asked to do that the last time I tried to get a burner at Best Buy. So then I ended up buying a used phone from someone off Craigslist. 

 

 

I don't know about best buy but Wal-Mart only needs your cash.

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I have bought three trac-phones and always used cash, once at WalMart, once at Safeway and once at King Soopers.  Never had any trouble.  The trick is activating them.  Two of them I activated over the phone by going into a hotel and using the lobby phone, and one online at the public library on one of their computers.

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I now have a Iphone and can't stand it. I have always had android in the past. I did use a ZTE when I first started in the biz again three years back. Then I decided it would be more practical just to pay one bill on  both of my phones. So, I have both phones on the same plan, my real name is not associated with my 'work" line. . That's about all I can say. If someone has the time to track me down? God bless them.  Honestly, I am just so sick of being paranoid. I believe there is a reason to be cautious...However, I am not going to go off the deep end with all my information. I work two jobs and nobody their gives a damn what i do off hours.  Accountants are just a bunch busy nerds I guess? I keep my worlds very separate mind you. Just nobody really cares at my office world. Who knows? They might all know...LOL kind of funny i think! NObody dares to say a word to me!!! :) 

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I think it's funny that people worry about ZTE's ties to China. China isn't the government that wants to throw you in jail for your hobby. You think the American government isn't working closely with domestic manufacturers? And of course the carriers are even worse! Be safe!

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Whoa dude, let's keep things in perspective. There's a huge difference between what will get you thrown in jail here and what will get you thrown in jail in China, and the freedom to say whatever you want about the government is a big one. 

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And none of this has anything to do with the Chinese phones sold in the US.  It's the Android operating system, working on the Trac Fone network.

Lighten up, everything is made in China, doesn't mean that the Chinese secret service is going to show up at your door because you made an appointment with a provider.

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On 5/14/2018 at 3:09 PM, BadBoy said:

And none of this has anything to do with the Chinese phones sold in the US.  It's the Android operating system, working on the Trac Fone network.

Lighten up, everything is made in China, doesn't mean that the Chinese secret service is going to show up at your door because you made an appointment with a provider.

Private information is still relatively private. At least  I believe so? As long as you don’t disturb the people that live around the area all is relatively cool. Even with China! They only assemble the phone. To track calls would fall under conspiracy thinking. 

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To be fair, ZTE has been called out by the US intelligence community as a potential security risk. My guess is that if ZTE is involved in any sort of spying, they are looking to get things like government or trade secrets. Personally, I would pass on a ZTE phone, but unless you are a C-level employee at a fortune 500 or a high ranking government official, its probably not anything to be too worried about.

P.S. this is my first post on the forums. Hi everybody!

Edited by 0079
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Apparently I need to read more carefully. My link was totally unneeded, lol.

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Update:  Still going good, in fact, I have finally figured out how to get all of the neat stuff onto the phone, so it is my hobby go-to device (it remembers the P411 sign in info, the TOB sign in info, the Suicide Girls sign in info, Switter login info, Instagram log ins, etc.  As I learn it, I really like the Android operating system, it has a lot of advantages.  I really like this phone a lot, the longer I have it, the more I like it.

I.e., when I got No Showed recently (but with a really good reason - no hard feelings), sitting there in the parking lot, I was able to find an "available now" on P411 in seconds (no sign in delay), check the reviews on TOB (same), and fire out a P411 request, all in about 2 minutes total.  When she called back, I just saved the number to the contacts, put in her photo and some notes on her contact and fired up Google Maps to guide me to her door, all on the same $29.95 device, and all in less than five minutes.

Plus it is pretty thin, so I can carry it in my pocket and it doesn't show.

Maybe I'm easily impressed.

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 I’m glad you had a choice of something and discreet. Seems like Apple and Samsung has dominated the field so much with their advertising there’s really no anonymity Or  personal protection . Thanks you info. 

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I have an old-style flip phone that I got through Tracfone that I use as my hobby phone.  Only good for phone and text.  I buy a refill card at Walmart every 90 days that gives me 60 minutes of use for $20.  More than enough minutes.  It recently stopped working.  As it is difficult to text with those old phones, I thinking of upgrading to a more modern smart phone through Tracfone, I want to stay with them to keep the same number.  I'm finding out that switching my account from a basic flip phone to a smart phone might be tricky, considering I still just want to use it for phone and text.  The person working at Walmart was not help.  I don't think I can keep just buying the card for $20 every 90 days and getting my 60 minutes.  I might have to upgrade to a smart phone plan and pay for data that I have no use for.  I want to get the smart phone-type phone because texting is so much easier on there, but want to keep the same account and just buy minutes that I can use for talk and text.  Has anyone come across and dealt with this problem?  Any advice would help.

Edited by Kaduk
Thread has been merged 2/8/19
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8 hours ago, Mustang87 said:

I have an old-style flip phone that I got through Tracfone that I use as my hobby phone.  Only good for phone and text.  I buy a refill card at Walmart every 90 days that gives me 60 minutes of use for $20.  More than enough minutes.  It recently stopped working.  As it is difficult to text with those old phones, I thinking of upgrading to a more modern smart phone through Tracfone, I want to stay with them to keep the same number.  I'm finding out that switching my account from a basic flip phone to a smart phone might be tricky, considering I still just want to use it for phone and text.  The person working at Walmart was not help.  I don't think I can keep just buying the card for $20 every 90 days and getting my 60 minutes.  I might have to upgrade to a smart phone plan and pay for data that I have no use for.  I want to get the smart phone-type phone because texting is so much easier on there, but want to keep the same account and just buy minutes that I can use for talk and text.  Has anyone come across and dealt with this problem?  Any advice would help.

 

Definitely spring for the smart phone - it is great being able to access P411 and TOB while you are sitting in the parking lot after being stood up.  It's only $9 more for 60 days to get virtually unlimited data.

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I guess my concern was will the current minute plan that I've been buying and using just for talk and text still work on a smart phone that uses data?

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