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Scammed on CL - Out a (functional) 5S - where to next?
- Thread starter runningtowin
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Lmao
Most people on CL are very honest?
More like most are scam artists, unloading stolen property and even setting people up to rob them in person.
Also plenty of serial killers and rapists on CL.
But other than that very honest
Lmao
Most people on CL are very honest?
More like most are scam artists, unloading stolen property and even setting people up to rob them in person.
Also plenty of serial killers and rapists on CL.
But other than that very honest
No. Just use common sense. Meet inside public places like Starbucks.
Ask questions. If seller doesn't want to disclose. Than don't meet up.
Pretty simple.
At$t will even inform you which phones are are on next installment plans if you give them the imei number.
I know because I activated phone purchased on att next and attempted to put imei number on my brothers account. And att asked me about it.
That's the problem, common sense is not common at all nowadays.
And even then people are deceiving and always a risk factor there in general.
And even then people are deceiving and always a risk factor there in general.
Okay well we met at Starbucks, and I had the IMEI number beforehand, and it ran clean.
Unfortunately you got screwed somehow. Sorry.
My only suggestion would be to stay away from CL. Buy a Nokia Lumia for $60 and then sell it on CL for $30 once you get the next iphone. Selling on CL means you are in control. I sell often enough but would never buy from CL. I actually sold my IP4 to this poor girl who had been screwed just like you by someone. They reported it stolen and grabbed the insurance money along with her cash.
Good luck.
Or he sold you his phone, but had financed it through T-mobile and then stopped making his payments. I guess the fact that phones are now sold no contract with carrier financing leads to one more risk of buying on CL.
I think you should get a 5S from Craigslist again, since you even take it into consideration.
First, give the useless 5S to the police so that it can be returned to the owner.
Second, next time you buy a used iPhone, check on the spot to make sure it isn't signed in to someone's iCloud account.
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LOL. Seriously. Some people. 99% of the time! Craigslist phones = stolen phones.
When I want to sell an iPad/iPhone I post it on Facebook. I've sold it in under 24 hours every time, just because Apple products have such a great desirability factor and people like to buy things from someone they have at least met.
Sounds like it was IMEI blocked by carrier.....not iCloud blocked. That could happen even if it is logged into your iCloud account. IMEI blocks happen if someone reports their phone stolen or stops paying on contract or finance plan.
WOW - and you sold it again? Even though it's stolen property and belongs to someone else??
I cannot believe that! It's unfair that you were sold a stolen phone. But you bought it off craigslist, you should have EXPECTED it to be stolen, so it's your own fault. You should have given it to the police to return it to the original owner the second you found out it was stolen. But you just went and sold it again.
What if the original owner was completely broke and couldn't afford to have their phone stolen?? Completely inexcusable and unconscionable that you would just go out and sell it again. That makes you NO better than the thief who stole it the first time.
I think once the phone is reported stolen it becomes permanently disabled and cannot be unblocked even if returned to the original owner.
That is false.
The original owner can unblock a blacklisted phone if they found it or got it back somehow.
In this case, thief can potently try to steal victim's identity in order to contact tmobile and make the phone work again. So ability to reactivate blacklisted phone may not be perfect solution either. It could create more fraud.
Also if there is a way to do this then sooner or later someone with access will sell it as a service, just like unlocking.
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Sure, the thief will go into the carrier store and present his identification as the account owner and remove the blacklisted status easily.
I don't get your sense of logic here.
You think anyone can contact the carrier with a stolen phone and get them to whitelist a lost/stolen phone again?
But you are right that they already do sell it as a service.
Along with icloud activation lock removal, unlocking etc...
Its unfortunate but its available but pretty expensive also and not always 100% reliable service by those gray market vendors.
I'm curious if that is actually Apple selling them.
I purchased iPhone 5 (white, 16gb) from this particular seller. The phone was shipped in almost identical packaging as Apple sends iPads (as a matter of fact on the same day I also received an Apple refurbished iPad 4 - both items were for my cousin).
The iPhone box was shrink wrapped, just like an iPad. The inside content was intact and the phone had the protective plastic on the screen - just like a brand new phone.
The iPhone had to be activated for the warranty to show up on the Apple website. Once activated, the iPhone indeed showed it had one year warranty left.
One small difference between the wording on the white boxes - iPad reads "Apple Certified Refurbished", while on the iPhone "Apple Certified Pre-Owned".
My logic here is that ability to whitelist IMEI encourages a thief to steal and maybe do crazy stuff along the way.
Once blacklisted it should stay blacklisted not only in USA but everywhere. Maybe that would not be fair to the owner who got the phone back in short term but in long term it would benefit everyone and it would discourage thief. And lets face it, the likelihood to get phone back once it is stolen is very low.
Once blacklisted it should stay blacklisted not only in USA but everywhere. Maybe that would not be fair to the owner who got the phone back in short term but in long term it would benefit everyone and it would discourage thief. And lets face it, the likelihood to get phone back once it is stolen is very low.
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Where did it say it was stolen again? And even if so, why should this user be robbed of his/her money too because someone else got robbed? How's buying something on a legal third party market the fault of someone? So many baseless proclamations.
Craigslist phones are very frequently stolen phones. This is well known.
If you buy stolen property, that doesn't make it right to go out and sell the stolen property. You should return it to the owner. After all, it's not THEIR fault that the phone got stolen, it's your fault that you bought it off a place where so many stolen phones are sold.
You might disagree, that's moral relativism. But I think it's a *****y thing to do. It was wrong to sell stolen property instead of turning it in to a police station as stolen property.
Your logic or opinion and what reality is are two different things though.
You said you think it cannot be whitelisted again and I just corrected you that carriers with the proper owner proof can reverse a blacklisted phone in the US.
Whether that's good or not Im not exactly sure but that's how it works currently so we want to give out correct info and not what we think it is or should be.
I'm not sure how it works in The States but in Canada many Craigslist scams involve the owner of the phone selling their phone and then reporting in stolen to get insurance. It has to be reported lost or they will not be able to make a false claim.
I have bought many items on craigslist and have never once bought stolen goods, i'm not sure why you think everything is stolen off craigslist.
Very frequently stolen phones? Any real information to back that up?
Where was the phone stolen? Again, any information to show any of that?
Once again, lots of smoke, but no actual fire.
I work IN the wireless industry and I deal with people with stolen phones every. single. day.
The story is always the same. "I bought it off craigslist and I can't use it on the network?"
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So that makes it right to sell it, because there is a SMALL chance it might have been a fraudulent claim? You can't just assume it was a fraudulent insurance scam just because the IMEI has been blocked by the carrier.
Reason #3,255 to never buy cell phones off of craigslist. You cannot predict if something like this is going to happen. If people didn't buy stolen cell phones, thieves wouldn't steal them.