Serial Numbers on eBay

[R.Youden]

Hi. I am selling my PowerMac G4 on eBay and one bidder has requested the serial number so they can check the batch info. I notice that most people hide serial numbers when posting on these forums.

Is it safe to provide him with this number. He does appear to know what he is talking about but I still have reservations. Should I provide him with the Build Number instead?

Thanks,.

 

[urbanskywalker]

If he has the SN then the mac could be registered in his name with Apple. Chances are though that a powermac g4 has no remaining warranty, so in that situation he could not really gain anything.

 

[amoda]

If he has the SN then the mac could be registered in his name with Apple.

I've always wondered what could someone benefit from doing this. I might be missing something but isn't that completely useless? If whomever did this tried to say "Hey my laptop was stolen! See it's registered" the actual owner can just show the recipt. If the theif is trying to get free applecare wouldn't it be useless once the technician looks at the laptop and notices the serial numbers don't match?

 

[killerrobot]

If he has the SN then the mac could be registered in his name with Apple. Chances are though that a powermac g4 has no remaining warranty, so in that situation he could not really gain anything.

Did you ever register your G4 with Apple? You have nothing to worry about if you did. If not, go register it and then give it to him.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Well, if the inquiree was planning on creating a fraud auction with a non existent machine, then the serial number would have some value to them.

IIRC most machines can be identified as to when they were made by the first few digits of the serial, so there should be no reason to give the entire serial # away.

You could also send a screen shot of System Profiler with any personal identifiers removed.