Is it safe to give out serial number on iPhone when selling it?

[stockae92]

I am selling my iPhone 4S and the buyer is asking for the serial number (the number on the SIM tray).

Is it safe to give out the number? Would they be clone the phone or do anything shady with that number?

Thanks.

 

[KAB2010]

Had a buyer on Swappa ask me this as well and I asked why he would need such information and he never responded. Idk, seems a little shady to me and someone else bought it anyway.

 

[Tankmaze]

I don't see the harm with it. Serial number is like "engraved" to your phone, and there is nothing they can do with it actually (harmful way).

 

[stockae92]

The number on the SIM card trap is the serial number right and that's the one which is ok to give out?

I just want to be absolutely sure before I give him any number from the iPhone.

 

[hellala]

I am selling my iPhone 4S and the buyer is asking for the serial number (the number on the SIM tray).

Is it safe to give out the number? Would they be clone the phone or do anything shady with that number?

Thanks.

It's OK in most cases. They need Serial/IMEI to check the status of icloud locked, age of the phone, status of bad/clean IMEI/ESN. They won't be able to take any personal information.

In some cases (i have heard but not sure how), bad people need IMEI/Serial to clone iphone

 

[C DM]

It's OK in most cases. They need Serial/IMEI to check the status of icloud locked, age of the phone, status of bad/clean IMEI/ESN. They won't be able to take any personal information.

In some cases (i have heard but not sure how), bad people need IMEI/Serial to clone iphone

But serial and IMEI/ESN aren't the same thing though.

 

[magilla]

But serial and IMEI/ESN aren't the same thing though.

(naively) How would you clone a phone using only the IMEI?

 

[C DM]

(naively) How would you clone a phone using only the IMEI?

No clue, but I didn't say anything about cloning either. Just pointed out that it seems like the question was about serial number which seems to be different from IMEI/ESN.

 

[magilla]

No clue, but I didn't say anything about cloning either. Just pointed out that it seems like the question was about serial number which seems to be different from IMEI/ESN.

No, I was just referring to hellala saying "In some cases (i have heard but not sure how), bad people need IMEI/Serial to clone iphone"

BTW... just what DO you need to clone a phone?

 

[hellala]

No, I was just referring to hellala saying "In some cases (i have heard but not sure how), bad people need IMEI/Serial to clone iphone"

BTW... just what DO you need to clone a phone?

I really don't know how. I just heard about on ebay. Likely they used your IMEI to put on a fake iphone or something like that

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But serial and IMEI/ESN aren't the same thing though.

They are not the same. However, they give you the same thing. If you have one of them, you can easily find the other and vice versa

 

[puma1552]

What's shadier, a potential buyer wanting the serial number, or a seller refusing to give the serial number out?

It's a serial number for a phone, not your home address.

 

[magilla]

What's shadier, a potential buyer wanting the serial number, or a seller refusing to give the serial number out?

It's a serial number for a phone, not your home address.

No, certainly it's not. But I was just wondering how difficult, or what level of expertise one would need to clone a phone. What I'm getting at is that, for the sake of the s/n and/or IMEI, if it CAN be done rather readily, why haven't we (as a consumer society) heard stories about people who suddenly end up with huge phone bills and/or data usage only to come to find out that their phone had been cloned?