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Given a iphone 4s, friend bought off Internet

C

cleverwabbit

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 8, 2010
9
0
Hi
My sweet but not so bright friend bought me a White iphone 4s off the internet for my birthday. I am not sure where he purchased it from but I know it wasn't ATT which it is assigned to. It is just the phone and it is set to factory settings, nothing on it and doesn't have a sim card. It isn't jail broken. I don't want to offend my friend who gave it to me who is proud of his gift but I want to know if it is legit to use. I know these things get lost or stolen is there a way to check if it was or test it if it works on my network. I currently have a 3gs on ATT, I know the sims are different sizes, I don't want to try to cut mine up and not be able to put it back in my 3gs.
What are my options? Can I go into an ATT store and have them transfer my data to a micro sim and still keep my 3gs sim, what happens if the phone is hot or one someone lost? Will ATT take it or will I get in trouble, I don't want to be ungrateful but I also don't want to put myself in a precarious situation.
Thanks so much for any advice.
 
Take it to an AT&T store and tell them this story. They can transfer your account. You can move your 3gs data to the i4 by backing it up in iTunes and restoring to your i4.
 
If its a GSM phone then you won't be in any trouble... Unfortunately its very easy to find or steal a GSM iPhone and just pop your sim card in.... I'm not advocating stealing or keeping a found phone but just giving you the facts. If you walk into an AT&T store and get your plan transfered to a micro sim card you should be able to just pop it in and have no issues.
 
You can go to the AT&T store and tell them you need a MIcro SIM,sometime they charge you $25, most of the time they just do it for free. Them just put the SIM on the phone and you are done.

Now... if the phone was stolen and reported to the insurance, the Phone is blacklisted which won't let you activate on the network, on that case, you will have a very nice iPod touch, still a nice Gift!!
 
cleverwabbit said:
How will I know if it was reported to insurance? Does that mean if won't work?
Click to expand...

they take the phone and call the cops lol, receiving stolen property is just as bad as stealing it.

I have a odd feeling you are asking for different reasons and there is no "friend" who magically bought you a phone
 
This is a real situation. I was given this phone for my Bday because my friend dropped my gs and scraped it up. At the moment, I don't have the money to fix it or buy another one. He is trying to be nice and replace it in the only way he could afford to, but I also know he didn't buy it from ATT or Apple. I am just trying to cover my butt if it is a hot phone. Yes, I would love to be able to use it but I am trying to be smart and realistic about it.


If I found a phone and I have before, I have and will ALWAYS do whatever I can to return it to its rightful owner.
 
Why would you assume it is either a lost or stolen phone?
Put a SIM in it, if it works then great.
I assume, that like here in the UK, if a phone is lost/stolen the original owner can report this and have the IMEI blocked?Is that correct?
 
cleverwabbit said:
This is a real situation. I was given this phone for my Bday because my friend dropped my gs and scraped it up. At the moment, I don't have the money to fix it or buy another one. He is trying to be nice and replace it in the only way he could afford to, but I also know he didn't buy it from ATT or Apple. I am just trying to cover my butt if it is a hot phone. Yes, I would love to be able to use it but I am trying to be smart and realistic about it. If I found a phone and I have before, I have and will ALWAYS do whatever I can to return it to its rightful owner.
Click to expand...

You have nothing to be worried about nor anything you have to cover. As I have already posted, go to ATT, tell them this story, and get a SIM from them.
 
justinwebb said:
they take the phone and call the cops lol, receiving stolen property is just as bad as stealing it.

I have a odd feeling you are asking for different reasons and there is no "friend" who magically bought you a phone
Click to expand...

Voted down for not only assuming facts but also for flat out wrong information in your previous post.

Even if it's reported stolen, the IMEI won't be blocked. This never happens and the person would have to know the IMEI, take it to the police and file a report, then that report would have to be sent to the insurance agency, who would have to contact AT&T to block the IMEI, which I'm pretty sure that they don't do. This isn't an ESN from Sprint or Verizon. If you find an AT&T iphone, or well any phone, you are able to use it. Bad ESN worldphones such as blackberries can still be used through the GSM antenna. AT&T doesn't police IMEI's that are reported stolen.

Just go to an AT&T store, get a free microsim (they don't charge unless you go to an authorized retailer so go to a company store) and throw it in your iPhone. Also, make sure you do a restore on the iPhone prior to activating, just in case it is stolen. Look I'm not encouraging stealing or using stolen items. How do you know your friend didn't just buy it off someone from craigslist who was selling? How do any of us know that the item we buy from CL/ebay isn't stolen. If our moral convictions were really that strong, we'd ask all those questions before hand. But yeah back up your 3g and restore to your new 4s and enjoy.
 
saud0488 said:
Voted down for not only assuming facts but also for flat out wrong information in your previous post.

Even if it's reported stolen, the IMEI won't be blocked. This never happens and the person would have to know the IMEI, take it to the police and file a report, then that report would have to be sent to the insurance agency, who would have to contact AT&T to block the IMEI, which I'm pretty sure that they don't do. This isn't an ESN from Sprint or Verizon. If you find an AT&T iphone, or well any phone, you are able to use it. Bad ESN worldphones such as blackberries can still be used through the GSM antenna. AT&T doesn't police IMEI's that are reported stolen.

Just go to an AT&T store, get a free microsim (they don't charge unless you go to an authorized retailer so go to a company store) and throw it in your iPhone. Also, make sure you do a restore on the iPhone prior to activating, just in case it is stolen. Look I'm not encouraging stealing or using stolen items. How do you know your friend didn't just buy it off someone from craigslist who was selling? How do any of us know that the item we buy from CL/ebay isn't stolen. If our moral convictions were really that strong, we'd ask all those questions before hand. But yeah back up your 3g and restore to your new 4s and enjoy.
Click to expand...

lol could care less, just trying to see what the real story is
 
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