While Apple’s 3.1.3 firmware was minor in terms of new features, it’s had the side effect of opening up a huge market for scam sites.  These sites will promise you a 3.1.3 jailbreak for newer devices like the iPod touch 3G, or a baseband 05.12 software unlock.  Those desperate enough to “just give it a shot” will find, 100% of the time, that they were misled.  After money has changed hands they’ll be told “well the 05.12 unlock is coming, in the meantime here’s the 05.11 unlock” (of course the 05.11 unlock was intended to be free, as you all know).  They’ll hold your money until one day the 05.12 unlock does come out, even if that’s months later (and of course it’ll be released for free).  In the meantime they’ll be able to claim they gave you part of what they advertised, and keep at least part of your money (in actuality they’ll usually keep all of it).

Don’t fall for these scam sites!  None of them have a 05.12 unlock, none have the 05.11 unlock working on 3.1.3, none have a 3.1.3 jailbreak for newer devices like the ipt3G.  They’re trying to capitalize on your upgrade mistake, and they only need a very small percentage of people to fall for them to make their money and run.

Those following twitter may have seen some recent very early developments in the 05.12 unlock situation.  One of our more helpful commenters sherif_hashim (at a rating of 84p you know he’s helped others much already!) found what looks like a very promising crash in the new baseband.  He’s put in a lot of work looking for crashes over this past year, and he’s still looking for more!  We’ve started to look at his crash but it’s a long road between any given crash and a fully working unlock, and we couldn’t put an ETA on it even if we wanted to.  It’s not even guaranteed that an working unlock will come from this particular crash – it’s just too early to tell.

In the meantime, please stay vigilant against these scam sites.  Don’t be part of the small percentage of people that fall for them because that small percentage is all they need.