Sold iPhone on eBay, buyer wants me to unlock it?

He isn't trying to scam you, he needs your help since AT&T now make it near impossible to unlock their phones.

xTRIGGER092x said:

Meh, in the end I decided to just go ahead and do it for the sake of simplicity. I had no idea this feature existed, so I'll take advantage of it next year and sell my 5S as unlocked.

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Glad to see you decided to help out. You never had anything to lose. What you have gained is more knowledge about how to unlock your next phone before selling.

Well done and good that you ignored the haters.

Don't see what the problem is, you are not giving your info to the buyer, you are giving it to AT&T. As long as it's free to do, go for it, ask the buyer to send you some nice Vodka for doing it

Thanks everyone for the great info, this is all good to know for the next time I sell an old iPhone.

Koren said:

Hello everyone! My name is Artem and I am from Russia.

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By the way, if anyone wants to work with me to unlock, you can write to me on Skype koren1206 or email koren1206@gmail.com.
To unlock the phone does not necessarily have to own it. A few guys I unlocked iPhones that have never even seen. Simply be the account holder ATT to unlock 5 phones per year.

I'll pay you a fair and timely manner! I promise!

As long as it's free to do, go for it, ask the buyer to send you some nice Vodka for doing it

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And here's a great idea!

ATT Unlocks Over Phone No Hassles?

thizzinG said:

As long as the iPhone is out of contract then you can get it unlocked. I called AT&T last week and told them I have an iPhone that is now out of contract. They checked whatever they had to check and it was out of contract so they unlocked it within 2 days. I wasn't the original buyer of the iPhone but since it was out of contract they had NO problem unlocking it for me.

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Good to hear. So you were not the original owner of the iPhone but ATT-over-the-telephone unlocked it anyway? Because, per their online form, ATT wants the phone number & the last 4-digits/SSN, etc. I figured that meant they want all that info from the ORIGINAL OWNER(?)

Here's a little of what the ATT form says:

General Eligibility Requirements for Unlocking All AT&T Mobile Devices
https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/client/en_US/
AT&T will unlock an AT&T Mobile Device under the following circumstances:
--The person requesting the unlock must be one of the following:

• a current AT&T customer
• a former AT&T customer who can provide the phone number or account number for the account

--The AT&T Mobile Device was designed for use on AT&T's network.
--The AT&T Mobile Device has been paid for in full.
--The AT&T Mobile Device has not been reported lost or stolen.

FORM TO FILL OUT ASKS FOR:
https://www.att.com/deviceunlock/client/en_US/termsAndCondition
* Customer Type: Current - Previous - GoPhone
* Wireless Number: (10 numbers)
* IMEI Number: Please enter the device IMEI number. Example: 490154203237518 (15 numbers)
* First Name: (Up to 80 letters or numbers)
* Last Name: (Up to 80 letters or numbers)
* Email Address: (Up to 80 letters or numbers. Requires "@" and at least one period ["."])
* Last 4 of SSN: (4 numbers)
* AT&T Account Passcode: If applicable, use this field to provide your passcode. Example: 12345 (Required if created)
* Active Military: (check box)

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So did ATT want YOUR name, YOUR SSN? Or were they merely interested in the "No Longer Under Contract" aspect?

I'm asking because I have an iPhone I just bought from ebay, supposedly "Brand New" & "Carrier Unlocked," but surprise surprise, it came Jailbroken! (that was NOT in the Seller's Ad anywhere, & I did not/do not want a JB phone!).

However, because that iphone has an older iOS on it that I wanted (& which is near impossible to find these days) to match an old backup of mine, AND due to the fact the Seller's NAME is still showing in the SETTINGS > GENERAL > ABOUT, I asked him yesterday 'Why didn't he just get the iphone UNLOCKED "Legitimately" via ATT's Online Forms rather than via Jailbreaking?'

Waiting to hear his response. Like the OP, he may not even be aware that ATT will unlock phones so easily.

Of course he or I would have to remove the Jailbreaking on it first (I think) before ATT would unlock it (either by telephone or via their online forms).

I need to research how to do that UNjailbreaking (it has a blackra1n app on it which I know NOTHING about; I'm not a tech geek ).

BTW, I did put the IMEI # into an imei site & it did say "Activated - Yes," & "Contract Expired" -- but that it was indeed "SIM Locked."

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JayLenochiniMac said:

As an aside, I had a paypal account that had close to $10,000 lifetime spending before I was required to link a bank account to it in order to continue using it. Rather than add a bank account, I simply set up a new paypal account. I just don't trust them with a bank account.

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I didn't know you could even HAVE a PP account without a bank account being added to it. I've had PP since approx. 2001 (but hardly use it anymore if I can help it) so I don't remember specifics, but I thought for sure they "make you" give them a bank account.

If not, great news! I like your idea of just setting up a new PP account without a bank account, because there are many horror stories online of PP refusing to use credit cards listed in people's account & sneaking the $$ out of their checking accounts instead without the person knowing.

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macs4bg said:

I didn't know you could even HAVE a PP account without a bank account being added to it. I've had PP since approx. 2001 (but hardly use it anymore if I can help it) so I don't remember specifics, but I thought for sure they "make you" give them a bank account.

If not, great news! I like your idea of just setting up a new PP account without a bank account, because there are many horror stories online of PP refusing to use credit cards listed in people's account & sneaking the $$ out of their checking accounts instead without the person knowing.

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All the require is a form of payment (for paypal fees, really). That can be as simple as a Visa (or other CC) gift card with a positive balance. To transfers funds (in the US), you do need a bank account linked, though.

lordofthereef said:

All the require is a form of payment (for paypal fees, really). That can be as simple as a Visa (or other CC) gift card with a positive balance. To transfers funds (in the US), you do need a bank account linked, though.

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Thanks, LOTR, I didn't realize that. I don't think I've ever used PP to "transfer funds" anywhere, but only as payment at shopping sites that offer nothing but PP.

Then again, in the "really old days" PP actually had a "bill pay" service at their site where you could pay all your bills right from there. That was extremely handy at the time because I was using a 1995 Performa 6116 to log on to the internet & it was so brutally slow it took like three days for MaBell & similar sites to load, so I was glad to be able to pay all bills straight from PP's site.

Hi, I recently bought an iphone and asked the owner to notify his provider that the phone has a new owner. He has been very helpful in getting me the unlocking info. There shouldn't be any personal info broadcast so you should be ok, but as others have said if it wasn't in the original sales aggreement and you are not confortable you have the right to refuse.

I had this exact situation happen to me when I sold my 5 on eBay. The buyer received ok, and left positive feedback. Then a month later, he sends me a message on eBay asking if I will fill out a form with AT&T so he can get the phone unlocked.

Long story short, I flat out refused. My auction description explicitly stated the phone is locked to AT&T. So for the OP, I would do the same thing.