Fraud and debt are two different things. One is illegal, the other is not. Genuine hardship happens to many. Now ignoring EE’s communications could be seen as fraud but if you actively engage with them and try to come to an arrangement or provide hard evidence that you can’t afford the repayments (for example if you’ve lost your job) then they have to do their best to help you. Any payment arrangements would take into account your earnings. While on an arrangement your services may be restricted and you will obviously lose the ability to upgrade (at least until the debt is cleared) but they won’t blacklist your device for “fraud”. As for debt collectors they will never own the device. Ever. They purchase a figure of debt (a monetary sum) that is all. They have no power over your device and are heavily controlled with their debt collection procedures. You don’t even have to let debt agents into your home unless they have a court issued warrant (typically only granted to high court enforcement agents after a CCJ has been issued and ignored).
OP, if you’re in financial difficulty always contact EE as they’re legally obliged by the financial conduct authority to help in any way they can. With regards to the 6 month rule that applies to non payments within the first 6 months only. The fraud rule applies at anytime but genuine hardship is NOT FRAUD. Taking out a contract, refusing to pay it, then refusing to contact EE is different. That could be seen as fraud.
