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Can someone hide what they are doing either on their cell phone or iPad by changing out Sim cards? I keep seeing extra Sim cards here and there and I have never in my life ever bought an extra sim card for anything. So I just wondered?

Meaning lets say on a cell phone, can they take out the current sim card, use a different one during the day and then put the old one back in? Same thought with your iPad or same such device?

The answer is, "Maybe." Depends on the device and OS version, etc.

The SIM card is only a phone number and then only if the unique identifier on the card is entered into a phone system (like Verizon or AT&T) and assigned a phone number. SIM cards have a teeny-tinsy bit of storage on them and used to be used for storing your address book, texts, etc. but that hasn't been done in a while.

Here's where the "Maybe" comes in. My phone is an international model and so has spots for two SIM cards, one for the U.S. and one for overseas. That means that my phone _could_ have two different phone numbers that will cause it to ring, one for each SIM. The phone software has options whether to merge call and texting history from each SIM into one big list or to separate them out into a list for each SIM. I could see where a device with space for _one_ SIM might do something similar, only showing history and text for the currently-installed SIM.

I used to have some extra SIMs at work. My work phone would be changed for a new one and I'd take the old SIM and stick it in the new phone and just leave the new SIM in the new phone's box. Eventually I had several useless SIM cards in my desk. They had never been activated, so they had no phone number, so they were just "meh."

Sticking them in your phone to check whether they have numbers or not may or may not work. If they are activated and through different carriers, or if they are "pay as you go" phone SIMs then they will only work in phones that are "locked" to the carrier or "unlocked" phones. If your phone is "unlocked" then they would work if they have phone numbers. If your phone is "locked" to a particular carrier (like Verizon or AT&T) then they would only work if the SIM is from the same carrier. In Other Words, a Verizon SIM will only work in Verizon or unlocked phones.

Oh, and they have to be the same physical size as the SIM-size that your phone expects to even have a chance to work in your phone.

I hope that this was helpful, but with all of the uncertainty in it I'm afraid that it probably wasn't.

Questions?

They also must be activated with a specific phone's IMEI (basically a phone's unique identifier), and carriers will usually only allow one SIM per IMEI. Unless you have an international dual SIM phone. I have such a phone with two SIM cards in it (one for work, one for personal) so I don't have to carry around two phones. But all the phone info (text msgs, contacts, etc) are stored locally on the phone, not on the SIM cards.

I've had extra SIM cards floating around at times from phone changes, but they are inactive since they are not tied to an active phone's IMEI.

[This message edited by Phoenix1 at 12:17 PM, December 10th (Sunday)]

Well there are the larger SIM cards for the Samsung tablet and then the smaller one for like a cell phone. He can sometimes have 2 extra ones, he did this with his other cell as well, so this is why I am askiing. Why? Why extra ones when I have never in my life gotten extra SIM cards or needed them, and I do more work on my stuff then he does, he is not someone who uses tech alot, just a guy who likes to have it. So this was something one day I just went, wow...I never put this together before, but why?

Anyway, appreciate all points of view or any other thoughts.

So I am back to this post as I feel I saw somewhere on here that if someone has an extra sim card that they can basically use it as a way to call or text with someone almost like an extra phone?

Meaning can you take out a sim card and put a new one in and have different information or use your phone where no one can see that data as it is on a different sim card?

I have never found an extra phone around the house, but I have found extra sim cards, for his phone and for his pad. So this was why I was asking. Can they just switch out sim cards and basically do what they want to do, then put the original sim card back in?

[This message edited by realitybites at 6:22 AM, July 28th (Saturday)]