[tzs]

Yes, yes, and yes.

There was a case in the news a few years or so ago where someone did that with the SIM that was in their electric meter, which was used once a day by the electric company to send a report of cumulative usage.

What they did not count on was that many cellular carriers have data plans specifically for devices like that electric meter that just need to send a very small amount of data every hour or day or so.

Those plans have a very small monthly fixed fee, a small data allowance, and astronomical overage fees. Typical data allowances for the cheapest plans are maybe 50 KB, which is plenty for sending "<meter-id> <timestamp> <cumulative kWh> <checksum>" once a day.

The person used the SIM for their calls and data, including downloading a bunch of movies. They ended up incurring around $150k overage charges.

The electric company cared very much, and the person ended up with a short jail sentence.

[mdpopescu]

Really? So I can send anyone I want to jail, as long as they have one of these? Wow, that's definitely not going to cause problems!

[ziml77]

No, you'd go to jail for tampering with their electric meter.