I bought an iPhone and I think it is Stolen. What to do?

You can call the carriers, give them the serial or imei number, and they will tell you the last owner and if it is reported stolen or not.

Electfeel said:

Where can i find the serial or imei number? Sorry, i have only had cheap phones and recently a decent andriod so im not up to date on the apple know how.

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If you can turn it on, Settings -> General -> About

If not, it should be on the SIM card tray

Electfeel said:

Oh Okay, thanks. I will do that tomorrow and see what comes up. Hopefully it isn't stolen or else I'm out of cash. But then again if it is I'd rather give it to someone who did rightfully pay for it and had it stolen.

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I wish there were more people like you.

But please tell me, when did you begin to suspect that the phone was stolen, and why?

lol.....I love it that there are still people like this out in the world, God bless you man!!!

a 1 minute phone call to the last carrier before you handed over several hundred dollars would have given you the peace of mind you want now........heck, in the time it took you to write this thread you could have figured it out 10 times over.

You seem like a good person.

Electfeel said:

Well i saw it on craigslist for 100 and it was the new one cause it had siri. So at that point i just wanted to get it as soon as possible. Should have waited and seen everything but i had work in like 30 mins and had to get there asap.
When i plugged it into the computer it had a girls name and i bought it from a guy so that was another sign.

Yeah, I should have checked websites before buying it but oh well. I just got out of work so i am going pretty soon to a cell phone provider and see whats up with this one. Hopefully it isn't stolen but if it is oh well. Even though i will be losing money it won't be as much money as this person had to when they bought the phone and lost it.

And yeah, i will update you guys to see what happened.

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I would really like to see you return it to the owner if it is the case rather than give it to the store or police. If you can get it back into the correct hands it would be most appreciated by the owner rather than anyone else because the odds of the store or police turning into the correct hands are pretty low....I don't have faith in the justice system or the stores. Another thing you can do is request the store to have that person come into the store and you give it in owners hands on the spot that would be great. Otherwise its as good as keeping it because its going to end up in the wrong hands as it did before...this time it won't be stolen it'll be more like "given"

Nice job! I'm happy for you. Good things come to those who do the right thing. Now you can enjoy your new phone and sleep at night. Good luck with the seller, but they sound like professional thieves.

Is this real ?

Electfeel said:

guess what guys. It was stolen. But i asked the workers to call the person to see if they can come to the store and they did. It was a girl and she was all nice. By this time she already bought a new one. I told her the story and she told me that it's okay she believes me. She had the imei unblocked or something like that unblocked and said i can keep it cause it gave her hope that there is honest people out there. But i AM going to do more research to find that Craigslist guy and try to get him caught so he doesnt do it again. Thanks for all your help.

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look for his email... open the email headers and look for his IP and give it to the police.

If you don't know how to read the header you can copy and paste it here...
http://www.mxtoolbox.com/EmailHeaders.aspx

Che Castro said:

Is this real ?

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It's like the basis for a cheesy film

For me. Red flags on Craigslist are when the seller says he's selling the phone without a charger.

It's understandable for people to throw away the boxes and not want to included used headphones.

But when someone cannot even come up with an iPhone charger. Those are serious red flags.

When sell my iPhones. I included original box charger unused headphones. And I always list those items and tell people I am legit.

Others unfortunately If the ad looks suspicious. Be very careful.

$100 price should have told you it was more than likely stolen.

You are a wonderful person. Great job in taking the effort into doing some good in the world. It had a happy ending too!

Syk said:

$100 price should have told you it was more than likely stolen.

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Hate to say it, but I'd have to agree with this statement.
If it's too good to be true, it probably is.

There are a lot of people that don't know the iPhone they got is subsidized.

Che Castro said:

Is this real ?

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lol... I know huh? It's such a perfect story to a perfect ending. I won't be pessimistic on this one. OP GREAT JOB !!!

Help I think I bought a stolen Iphone

I bought an I-phone off of amazon and I didn't know that people could sell items on there like eBay. I wasn't smart and bought this phone now I think it is stolen any advice? Anything will help!

I recently inadvertently bought a stolen iPad 2 for $150 off someone I had known for a little while. Then my neighbor who is vice superintendent of the county school system was describing how a worker in the school was skimming iPads they were distributing to classrooms off their inventory (before they were added to the database). This woman thief at school got caught on camera and was using the guy I met to sell them off. My neighbor had a list of 27 iPad serials, so I ran and got my iPad and sure enough it was on the list. I immediately cleaned off my stuff and surrendered it to my neighbor. I refuse to partake in stealing from a child or a child's education. I'm out $150. It sucks! But I wouldn't have been able to use that iPad without ever thinking I interfered with some kid's potential to do great things, had I not said anything and kept it. I wasn't the only neighbor screwed by the 'ring' of iPad thefts.. a couple other ones that independently bought from the same guy were also affected, one having flipped it right away. I thought it was kinda suspicious how clean the glass was when I bought it from the guy. It had that factory scent too! I ran the serial and it had two years of AppleCare+ that was dated to expire nearly 2 full years from the date I bought it by a week. I was already suspicious once I saw that. I know I did the right thing returning it.

too good to be true
i don't believe this story

mbfanos said:

too good to be true
i don't believe this story

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Great nive to know.

Back to topic:
MARRY HER!