Can she still use a stolen iPhone?

Ok so my friend just reported her iPhone "stolen" (not really lost lol) and she heard about how tmobile pays for your cancellation fee if you go to them from another company. She wants to unlock it of course, and then after a few days she wants to go to tmobile and that way she has a phone… Get it? And doesn't have to pay it off cause she "has a phone already" so she will only pay for service and internet which is shared cause she wants to go onto her moms plan. But i told her that she can get caught, so now she is kinda scared. Can att&t find out she lied about this. Or tmobile?

Phones have GPS so if the NSA can find you, bet ATT sure will. They might ask for a police report of theft too. They will turn off ESN anyway since it's listed as stolen and no carrier will ever turn it back on. Enjoy the new paper weight.

So the truth is not an answer? If she is the original owner she can simply go back to the company and explain. It is not the first time they heard this.

Once it's reported the phones ESN and SIM if it has one become no good and anyone who runs the numbers will see its stolen…