I bought an blacklisted iPhone 13 without checking if it’s blacklisted. I tried to contact the seller, but it seems they used a prepaid SIM card, and I can’t locate them. The phone is a US model, although I’m in Europe. Currently, I don’t face any restrictions (it works with my iCloud account, mobile network, etc.). What can I expect?
From what I can tell the IMEI databases are not international - the phone will not work in the country of origin (or maybe in North America at all) but it should still be fine in Europe. As long as it is fully unlocked it sounds like it won’t be an issue except if you plan to travel with it.
An IMEI locked phone or one that is blacklisted is only blacklisted from being able to connect to local carriers (again, this is as far as I know, there could be specifics i’m unaware of!) but otherwise the device will work just fine on Wifi and for everything else that doesn’t require mobile data / LTE / 5G - as long as it has been signed out of the previous owners icloud account and Find My to disable activation lock - it’s essentially like not having a SIM in the device.