Some time last year, I found a site reselling Oskar SIMs for some vast price, to people who might be paranoid about being tracked and staying anonymous. Maybe I suggested it was for pretend terrorists.

I've just discovered another site exploiting gullible paranoids. Does anyone know of a higher price anywhere than $300?

http://www.ptshamrock.com/auto/simchips.htm

Indeed and this is the best piece of BS I've read about SIM cards so far from a site like that:

"Be warned, US and European purchased mobile phones have built in tracking devices. The tri-band models we offer DON'T. That's a huge security bonus for you!"

Any cell phone can obviously be tracked through the triangulation process or via GPS as the case with almost all CDMA handsets is nowadays.

"The Internet's cheapest international roaming sim cards... guaranteed!"

Great! :beer:

I must admit, I hadn't studied that site enough. The phones are even more ludicrously overpriced

?949 - Tri-Ban mobile PLUS both the Thai and Philippines sim cards PLUS four top up cards FREE

But there are some other interesting products there - university degrees for example. I remember years ago a friend of mine had a T-shirt with Neasden University (a suburb of London) written on; the emblem was a plate of fish and chips (french fries in another language). On some occasion a little old lady remarked that she'd never heard of it - not many people know about it, he replied straight-faced, but a boyish grin when he told us about it.

The funniest thing there though are the so-called camouflage passports, based on country names that haven't existed for years. Surely it would be a lot cheaper to get one from one that never existed at all, or would Scott Adams sue for copyright infringement?

give me 1000?, i will give you an international sim card + triband phone + 25? topup FREE :P

No one is more expensive than me :D

There are a few people who've got in trouble trying to use those at borders.

The main "use" for them was to use as "id" for opening bank accounts, but they've just been laughed at by banks for the past ten years or so.

One of the best products of this type was a "Sark Drivers License". :D

(for those that don't know, Sark is an island in the (British) Channel Islands with no cars).

Another product that seemed to sell despite being useless was a registration (with plates) for your car in somewhere like Vanuatu. With this you were supposed to be able to drive your car all over Europe without worrying about import taxes etc (since you're just a visitor). The Vanuatu plates could be issued without them seeing your car - you buy the car as a tax-free export somewhere, then put these plates on.

They never explained how you're supposed to insure the car. Also, driving around Europe with Vanuatu plates is hardly low-profile! Imagine explaining to a traffic policeman or at a border why you're driving around in a Vanuatu car, with Sark drivers license, British Honduras passport, Thai mobile phone number etc...

I know someone from Guernsey whose daughter, who lived in London, was stopped driving his car with Guernsey plates on. They were forced to pay the tax to import it.

Are the Channel Islands and IoM considered as "abroad" from "the UK point of view"?
AFAIK officially they are so-called "crown dependencies" and not parts of UK and EU (not sure about NATO).
But I wonder how do "the average British people" :) feel/think about those territories - as "abroad" or "homeland"?
The tax example you mentioned above shows IMHO that the goverment wants to make people think that it's abroad :)

For tax (eg no VAT, and interest is not taxed at source) and separate government reasons they are abroad, but some people would feel that they are part of either the United Kingdom, Great Britain, or the British Isles, but still vaguely separate, without being very specific in their minds about how. Sports people from there could represent any of the UK countries; two footballers from Jersey and Guernsey have represented England in the last few years.


But I'm not going to get a Guernsey SIM card, as they have rather high roaming rates, and I assume the EU Commissioner has no influence on this.

They are "abroad" in legal terms (some of the time!) but most people in the UK are not really aware of that (or probably don't even think about them, like I expect most Germans never think of the special status of Heligoland!).

Jersey and Guernsey are outside the EU for almost all purposes including customs, but the Isle of Man (although not a member) IS inside the EU for customs. So there is no customs boundary between the IOM and UK/Ireland, and VAT is charged on the IOM (at a rate that matches the UK rate, with some local exceptions).

All the islands are closely linked to the UK (e.g. get UK TV, even pay the UK TV license fee) but not being part of the UK it's a constant confusion that some things apply and some things don't - some UK credit cards/mortgages can't be applied for in the IOM but some can, courier costs from the UK are extra but postage is not, the IOM football team has just won a cup to represent England in the Regions Cup but the IOM sends their own team to the Commonwealth Games, etc.

Defense/foreign affairs are handled by the UK, for an annual fee. In other words, the IOM pays the UK protection money... (it'd be good to put that out to competative tendering, would be nice to have any country - or even private security company - doing the job if they were cheapest/best).