For whatever reason my parents bought a 2020 iPhone SE, put it in a drawer and forgot it. They gave it to me to sell on eBay, now the buyer is telling me he’s been AT&T and the Apple Store and the phone has been reported stolen and will not work. How is that possible if as far as I know the phone hasn’t been turned on since leaving the store and has never had an Apple ID logged onto it and how can I turn this off the seller can use the phone?
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Possibly the buyer may be hoping to return their stolen phone to you, while keeping the phone you sent to them?
But also - did your parents pay for the phone in full when they got it from the AT&T store? Or if this was a subsidized/financed phone, did your parents finish the remaining payments and any plan commitment?
It could be a scam - a very common one - they’ll say it’s stolen , in hopes of a refund , and than they will send you back a fake , or stolen iPhone , and keep the good one
Gotta be careful!!
Where did you parents buy this iPhone ? Apple ? A carrier or trusted source ? If it’s from Apple or a carrier or Best Buy etc , and it’s never even been turned on , than there is no possibility that it’s coming up stolen
So thanks to you guys I’ve checked the IMEI and it says the phone IS blacklisted, although not why. My fear was that the seller was trying to scam me even though he has over 2000 positive reviews but it seems like he’s not lying. So unless there’s another way he can be scamming me I’m just going to refund them and then just smash this thing into pieces out of annoyance. 😂
Thanks for the help everyone.
I’m sure you’re just venting, but there’s no need to smash it. lol
It can still be used without cellular, either as a browsing device, iPod or whatever. Just list it correctly, at appropriate price and someone will buy it.
If the blacklist is errant or due to something your parents did, then you also have the option of sorting that out and getting the phone fully functional, if you’re so inclined.
Just sell it overseas, won’t be blacklisted over there.
Did you know the IMEI before you sold it? Could have given you a fake one
If the buyer swap phones you should be able to tell, the serial number and everything is on the box and should match with the one on the phone
AT&T Phones are locked until they have been activated on their network by the account who bought them. Then they have to stay active for a certain amount of time which I can’t remember but I think is 90 days.
Bought a phone on Amazon that AT&T told me said was reported stolen. It’s possible that a previous owner either had an unpaid balance or the owner reported stolen. They wouldn’t give me a direct answer just that the device IMEI was blacklisted. I contacted the seller on Amazon and they said they buy them in bulk from an auction so they don’t know/check which ones are blacklisted.
Did they put it in a drawer and ignore all future bills from AT&T? maybe it IS stolen because they didn’t pay monthly installments?
Had this happen to me when I was 18. To quickly concluded, I fell for it. Dude kept the phone and my money. I was stupid, don’t be me.
Send me the imei number. I’ll confirm for you if it’s blacklisted, and when it happened.
This same situation happened to me. How can I find out the date the phone was blacklisted?
I use a paid website. If you wanna send me the imei I can send you a screenshot of the report
If they bought it at an AT&T store, why not just bring it in to the store and clear up the confusion? 2020 wasn’t the stone ages, they’ll definitely have a record of the purchase
It’s probably mine :(
After attempting to activate a tablet, Verizon said it had been reported lost. A week later, Verizon claimed they attempted to contact the owner but got no response. The Verizon guy said it was several models old, so he will not want to give back the insurance money. No, I could not have the contact information for privacy reasons. So, the became a WiFi toy for visiting grand kids. When next I wanted to buy a used Samsung, I met the lady at the Verizon store to verify it was a device she could legally sell and I could active it. It was only then I paid in cash. That was three years ago and it worked fine until I bought my iPhone last March.
If it’s been bought from somewhere that you know it’s legit and brand new, then he’s trying to scam you for a full refund unless he’s sent you proof.
Scam
He’s just trying to get a free phone because hes poor and cares about spending $1000. I’ve learned my lesson with eBay. I’ve lost a few grand selling new gpu’s. All the buyer has to say is the description was inaccurate and eBay just gives them their money back.