I have Verizon phone service. There have been a couple of times when my phone service was suspended because I didn't pay my bill on time. When that happened, my phone service was restricted. I could not make outgoing calls, I couldn't receive calls and I could not access my vmail. Not matter what I tried to do, I would be connected to customer service. I should also add that when I did pay my bill, I did it through my phone in an automated system and used the payment info on file...meaning I didn't have to give a credit card number or bank account number. My phone service was working again within 15 minutes even though I never spoke to a human at customer service. So it is very possible that those phones were back in service if there was payment info on file even if there was no money to pay for the bill. With Verizon, you can also set a post dated payment for up to two weeks and when you do that, the service will be reconnected within 15 minutes even though the payment won't actually be made for 2 weeks.
My current phone is wifi enabled. I can access the internet via public hoQt
spot without having any phone service on my phone. For example, with
restricted service, I could still go to the public library and access the internet
the same way I would with my laptop. I could access the internet from any
place that has public wifi including unsecured networks that people have in
their homes.
When people steal cell phones, it's not generally to make money from the phone itself. Hot phones are too easy to trace. They take the phones to access personal information. Attempting to access vmail could be an attempt to hack into the system and gain access to billing information. With Verizon, I can access my billing information either online or through the automated system on my phoneAlso, some people store credit card information on the internet at certain sites they may have book marked....example, paypal. There are other programs that phones have that have easy pay options. Someone who steals a phone is going to attempt to access all these options in order to steal credit card information, banking information, etc. The phone itself is basically useless to the thief.
As far as a phone call going through to MW, there are 3 phones involved. One of them being loaned to DB. We don't know if that loaner phone was active or not. So the phone call to MW and possibly JI leaving a voice mail for DB could very well have been on the loaner phone.
moo
I am not sure how it works, but there is a way to spoof someone's phone number by hacking into their voicemail so that when you make a call from another phone, the charges go to to the number that was hacked and not the number that was actually making the call. Don't ask me how it's done, I've just heard of it being done and heard that it was done by hacking into voicemail as the first step in the process.