Any harm in giving out the serial number for an unregistered ipad for sale?

[penguinscanfly]

Hi,

I've been trying to sell an iPad 2 that I bought on a whim (and have since regretted) on ebay and have now shifted to craigslist after being scammed in four very different (yet surprisingly creative) ways.

There was in interesting question, they asked for the serial number. Now the ipad is not registered or flagged, is there harm in giving them the serial number? I'm a bit paranoid about someone else registering it.

 

[kwajkat]

I would not give out the number without registering it first. Did you try to just return it to the store you got it from?

On a kindle I sold I registered it, the buyer checked with Amazon to make sure it was registered, sent me the money and I deregistered it before mailing it out. Once they received it they just reregistered it. When you do a hard reset on the ipad, it will erase all the content, settings etc the new owner can reregistered it.

 

[dave006]

Hi,

I've been trying to sell an iPad 2 that I bought on a whim (and have since regretted) on ebay and have now shifted to craigslist after being scammed in four very different (yet surprisingly creative) ways.

There was in interesting question, they asked for the serial number. Now the ipad is not registered or flagged, is there harm in giving them the serial number? I'm a bit paranoid about someone else registering it.

No real harm but the question is why do they want to know the serial number?

You might offer a partial serial number to see if they just want to verify a build week or supply line.

You can register it with Apple but that is really no protection in the full process. Did you purchase it from Apple or some other retailer?

Dave

 

[jenzjen]

I have not heard of a story when something bad happened. When I buy Apple from a person, I always ask for the serial so I can check the warranty status and age via the apple site.

 

[penguinscanfly]

I got the full story from the guy, he's hunting craigslist for his stolen item. I thought it seemed like a weird question. Now I understand a bit better. Still I thought about including the serial if there is no harm, so people could see that it is legit.

I actually walked into "The Mac Store" a chain out here in the Pacific Northwest at 7 PM on Opening day, no lineup at all. I could pick size and color, but there was no 3G. It was surreal. Can't return it though after 14 days so I'm stuck now.

So...you can reregister an apple product online? I thought you could only register it once.

 

[Stealthipad]

Even the Jacksonville Apple store has iPad 2 units a good part of the average day. The crazy times are over

 

[thibaulthalpern]

I got the full story from the guy, he's hunting craigslist for his stolen item. I thought it seemed like a weird question. Now I understand a bit better. Still I thought about including the serial if there is no harm, so people could see that it is legit.

I actually walked into "The Mac Store" a chain out here in the Pacific Northwest at 7 PM on Opening day, no lineup at all. I could pick size and color, but there was no 3G. It was surreal. Can't return it though after 14 days so I'm stuck now.

So...you can reregister an apple product online? I thought you could only register it once.

No, you can re-register it meaning change of ownership. When I sold my PowerBook G4, it had 6 month AppleCare warranty left on it. I told the buyer I will change the ownership to their name after they buy it. All I did was call up Apple Support and then give them the new owner's name.

 

[Blorzoga]

Hi,

I've been trying to sell an iPad 2 that I bought on a whim (and have since regretted) on ebay and have now shifted to craigslist after being scammed in four very different (yet surprisingly creative) ways.

There was in interesting question, they asked for the serial number. Now the ipad is not registered or flagged, is there harm in giving them the serial number? I'm a bit paranoid about someone else registering it.

Out of curiosity, what were the four different scams on eBay?

 

[wpotere]

I don't see what the issue would be, unless the guy was going to try and register it himself and then claim you stole it. Personally I wouldn't give him squat but if you feel that you want to give him something, you might give him the last two digits. That should be all he needs to verify it isn't his.

 

[deeddawg]

okay so this is pretty strange... if he's looking for his stolen item on CL, the dumbest thing to do is tell people he's looking for a stolen item. Like you'd give him the correct serial # after hearing that if you had his stolen ipad?!? (I know you don't, just saying it's weird)

Maybe I'm paranoid or just cautious, but I wouldn't give a stranger the serial # of any device I was selling. If it's CL, he or she can verify the warranty status when we meet up; Apple's warranty-check site works fine on a mobile browser like an iphone.

I'm NOT the cleverest person in the world; so just because I can't think of how giving someone the serial number would be a problem doesn't mean someone else hasn't figured out a new scam....