Iphone without the contract, safe?

[anjuice]

Hi all, im new to this iphone thing. ive done some searching but wasnt really able to come to a clear answer to my question. I already have an Att contract that has more than a year left on it. I wanted to get an iphone, and ive been searching on craigslist for a 3g. I found someone who is selling it for 350 and will be including everything including there reciepts.

my questions is that if i were to buy it and unlock/jailbreak it, will i be able to use it with att and avoid the extra costs of having the iphone?

my friend a while back bought a 2g iphone, unlocked it and used it with his att contract without paying the extra monthly cost. Then a month later, att sent him a bill with 200$ extra on it, saying that someone reported the phone stolen and said that he could either send it back to them or pay the 200$. Im wondering if this could happen to me as well?

[Hawk]

Since you are already with AT&T, you should have little problems with upgrading, unless you are not eligible for an upgrade. Buying of eBay or craigs list is always going to be buyer beware. It's better that you start off with a new phone and warranty than it is to buy someone elses problem.
PLUS tomorrow there will be an announcement by Apple concerning the new 3.0 software, which should include the announcement of a new phone as well. If you are willing to wait, that would be your best option.

[The Apple]

which should include the announcement of a new phone as well.

I would not hold my breath on a new phone announcement.

[Hawk]

I would not hold my breath on a new phone announcement.
Personally, me neither, but everyone seems to keep insisting that we are getting another iPhone in the June/July time frame.

[Draven]

Well, you can use the Craigslist iPhone no problem with your current AT&T contract. However, you will absolutely have to call AT&T up to put the iPhone's IMEI on your account, which will automatically add the iPhone data addon. One thing to make sure on when you do this would be that they don't automatically restart your 2-year contract, as AT&T's system automatically tries to do this whenever a line has an iPhone IMEI put on it. You need them to prevent this because you wouldn't actually be getting the iPhone brand new, and it's essentially an iPhone you already own and just need to have associated to your line so you can use it. Technically I suppose you should just be able to put your existing SIM card into the iPhone and get service, but I'm not entirely sure how this would work as it almost seems that the iPhone needs to have a specifically programmed SIM card with the proper addons to function properly. This may still be possible though, but you'd have to constantly worry about getting data usage charges as the iPhone just automatically does so much stuff that uses the data connection without the user really realizing it.

[anjuice]

thanks for all the replys, Draven, if i jailbroke the phone/unlocked it, i would still have to call AT&t to add the IMEI#?? unlocking it wouldnt allow me to just stick my sim in and use the iphone as just the phone without having to add any dataplan onto it?