I bought a pre-paid SIM today here in Penang.
I had a choice between a “mint” SIM (un-opened, un-used), and a SIM that had a broken seal.
I asked what the difference was. In broken English with some mixed Bahasa, the retailer explained that in essence they contain the same airtime value. It’s just that I needed to manually register the mint SIM and will be able to load-up some airtime one hour after registering, not any earlier.
Okay. So I bought the “ripped” SIM.
A few minutes later, I received this message:
“Why didn’t you call me from Kuala Lumpur land? Anyway, I am interested in the padi field land and the hillside one. Call you monday to work on it. “
What does the message tell me?
It tells me the SIM was used by another non-Malaysian traveller doing business for a limited time in Malaysia.
And that the telco, Celcom, re-used the SIM.
What else does this tell you?
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A similar story to my wife. She’s getting messages and calls from the previous number owner.
Wifey in Malaysia? Philippines?
Do you think the telco does it? Maybe it’s the retailers – do they buy back used SIMs?
I think the retailers do it and the telco tolerates it. I’m curious to see if there are enterprising manongs at the airport who’ll offer to buy my SIM. Magkano kaya?