Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Sold iPhone, buyer saying it's activation locked...am I being scammed?
- Thread starter gdjsnyder
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
We should start a pool for what's in the box and @gdjsnyder can upload his unboxing video to YouTube. 
Amen brother! Always carrying these days. Never know who we will come across, especially when you're with the family off duty.
I'm sorry but you are completely wrong. I had a dispute recently with a buyer who apparently liked testing out camera lenses, then returning them weeks later with no explanation. eBay is cool with that, whether or not you offer returns.
Regardless, PayPal immediately withdrew the funds directly from my linked checking account without any explicit authorization from me, and then issued his refund as soon as he entered a tracking number. He could've sent an empty box back. Luckily it worked out for me that time.
I also had an eBay cell phone buyer file a claim with their credit card, after receiving the phone, and PayPal pulled the same moves, but returned my money a few weeks later after reviewing the tracking number data. eBay is a minefield now, and they don't care one iota.
No I am not wrong. A dispute is different than a normal return. For a normal return, the buyer has to start the return process, then the seller has to approve it, then the buyer has to ship it back and provide tracking info. Then the seller receives it and inspects it to make sure that the item they sold is ok, and then has 7 days to make the refund.
I know because I have dealt with a return on ebay. Paypal did not withdraw the money right away.
What you are describing is a dispute weeks after the sale happened.
I had one buyer buy two sticks of memory from me once. It was a new ebay member. About a month after, he opened a dispute of item not received and paypal did withdraw the money right away from my account. I had 7 days to answer to the dispute. I answered by providing the tracking number that showed that it was delivered.
Two days later I received a message that ebay sided with me and paypal gave my money back.
This guy had a computer repair business. He joined ebay, bought memory and other computer parts from about 30 sellers in a two week span, and a month after he opened disputes with all of them. I don't know how many sellers got their money back but ebay closed the guy's account for good.
OP. Probably don't want to hear this - but even if you open the box and it is you phone - many of the posts to this forum made me think of something. So many people complain about 3rd party screen replacements messing up their touch ID.
Could be this guy is ordering phones - removing the real screens, replacing them with fakes and returning and you won't notice for some time... maybe he has a 'business' replacing iPhone screens with 'authentic' ones....
Is there any way to check to see if an iPhone screen is legit, or has been replaced?
Could be this guy is ordering phones - removing the real screens, replacing them with fakes and returning and you won't notice for some time... maybe he has a 'business' replacing iPhone screens with 'authentic' ones....
Is there any way to check to see if an iPhone screen is legit, or has been replaced?
hopefully this ends well and the buyer just realized he couldn't scam you. I'm sure he pulls this trick on a bunch of people and most are not tech savvy enough to realize whats going on. Or they dont have their receipt with phone imei lying around. I'm glad the OP was savvy enough in this case and hopefully this guy just gave up and realized the scam wouldn't work this time around. Unfortunately the majority of iPhone owners probably don't know what an imei is or wouldn't realize that the iphone was locked with a different email...I'm sure this guy makes a killing doing this.
I really do appreciate everyone's support, so thank you very much! I accepted the return yesterday morning and the buyer still hasn't shipped it back. He sure likes to take his time. He also put in the return message that he has received no communication from me whatsoever, which is blatantly false. I am currently on a 14 hour car ride so I may call eBay and just get this whole situation on the record.
The buyer has flip flopped so much in his messages that I truly don't know what to expect when (if?) I receive this return. First the phone was for him, then it was for his daughter. Then he's a broke college student who just needs his phone to work. Then he's a working man trying to support his daughter and I'm stealing money from him by selling a stolen phone and then the phone is all of a sudden for his girlfriend in the latest claim! If I wasn't so angry over this situation I would find this hysterical.
And as was previously mentioned, I have thought of the possibility that the phone may have been tampered with and had original parts removed. I don't know of anyway to verify if parts were removed but I do still have my original pictures and know where there are some light scratches on the screen, so they better still be there.
And hang tight everyone because if something is off on this phone I will be happy to post his eBay username.
The buyer has flip flopped so much in his messages that I truly don't know what to expect when (if?) I receive this return. First the phone was for him, then it was for his daughter. Then he's a broke college student who just needs his phone to work. Then he's a working man trying to support his daughter and I'm stealing money from him by selling a stolen phone and then the phone is all of a sudden for his girlfriend in the latest claim! If I wasn't so angry over this situation I would find this hysterical.
And as was previously mentioned, I have thought of the possibility that the phone may have been tampered with and had original parts removed. I don't know of anyway to verify if parts were removed but I do still have my original pictures and know where there are some light scratches on the screen, so they better still be there.
And hang tight everyone because if something is off on this phone I will be happy to post his eBay username.
This may not help you. But, I did a DFU on my iPhone 6s+ at the recommendation of Apple support to clear an issue. I restored it as new. When the time came it asked me to input my password for an email I didn't recognize. It ended in yahoo.com. I purchased the phone last September at an Apple Store here in VA. NEW. Called Apple support. They got me to a special support area. Sent them an email with my receipt showing the IMEI. Etc. it took them under 48 hours to unlock. They never explained how that could happen. And the phone was always in my possession. Only used one Apple ID on it. It was very unsettling.
Judging by your last post OP, he is a scammer and is sad he got caught or he had buyer's remorse and wants to get his money back asap. Timestamp everything and have that on standby for Paypal/Ebay. I haven't had much luck with either company but sometimes they are the only option. Thanks for providing an update.
Simply by reading the OP's responses, this has scam by the buyer written all over it. I really hope that the OP is able to prove that when he receives the phone back, the buyer tampered with it somehow.
Buyer sounds more like a bad liar. He doesn't sound like an experienced scammer to me. He is trying to scam the seller but he is bad at it because he can't even tell the same story twice.
Since 04 and a feedback of 364 I have only had one scammer. Bought and sold many things including phones (forwarded to me using a service and take stuff to sell when I visit). Sold a screen for a motorola flip phone some years ago and the guy contacted me and said it was broken when he received it. The screen had numbers on the back that were unique to each screen and I took pictures before sending it so I said send it back and if it matches I will refund your money. He asked if I couldn't just send another and I said I did not have another, an individual and not a business. Never heard from him again.
Best of luck to you.
As a side note mercadolibre here is a selling scammer's paradise. No paypal, no money back guarantee.
Best of luck to you.
As a side note mercadolibre here is a selling scammer's paradise. No paypal, no money back guarantee.
No, that's way too much work just to get a used iphone screen.
And actually Apple put out an iOS update that does not disable iphones any longer with aftermarket screens.
So that's a no.
[doublepost=1464490523][/doublepost]
Criminals are usually bad liars and easy to spot like the OP has described.
If he was smarter he wouldn't be pulling nonsense like that.
Sounds like he has issues and tries to make the OP feel bad and just allow him to screw him over.
Not going to happen, sad stories dont count when you're trying to rip someone off.
Last edited:
Hopefully all of this communication has occurred through official eBay channels. If so, I can't imagine eBay siding with the buyer should he attempt anything fishy. If they do, your case is truly evidence that we should all just avoid eBay as a place to sell our things.
If you do end up getting a box of rocks, and eBay is of no help, I'd urge you to file the proper paper work for mail fraud. Presumably you have this person's address. It may get you nowhere, or it may help.
What's done is done, but the flip flopping alone would have had me decline a return and have him file an official dispute. How a person can't keep their story straight in text is just beyond wild lol.
I hate to tell you this , you can do whatever you want include recording opening the packaged. Even if he sends and iphone 4 back. He will get his refund.
thats the way ebay works , the the reason why ill NEVER use ebay ever again.
Always in favour of the buyer. ALWAYS.
I actually had the same issue. I had a launch day iphone 6s 128 gb, did a restore through iTunes, then when the time came to input my apple id, it wouldn't take it, so i couldn't get into my phone. Had to call Apple, then to the special support area. Had to verify I bought it, gave the order number of my online purchase (this happened about 3 days after i received the phone), then had to wait about a day. No explanation, it was unlocked.
Oh I have no doubt eBay would be of very little help with all the horror stories I have read. But eBay is a business after all, and they absolutely MUST follow the law. If the buyer were to be committing mail fraud, even if eBay still wanted to side with the buyer, they really wouldn't have a choice as they themselves would be an accomplice in mail fraud. However, were the buyer to be so stupid as to send me back something other than what I sent them, and they are committing mail fraud, that would be a felony. Of which I would have absolutely no problem whatsoever in pursuing to the full extent which I could OUTSIDE of eBay.
Did the buyer give you a tracking number yet? He only has a certain amount of time to do that or his return request gets voided I think.
Nope. I actually had to pay the return shipping. When eBay sent me the message that a return was requested I had to send a label (or deduct from Paypal) since it was a "not as described" return. Never had to do a return before so it's new to me, maybe this is how it always is. But regardless, hasn't shipped yet.
It is appalling how a mechanism which was intended to protect buyers from dishonest sellers is now the same mechanism whereby honest sellers are now defrauded by the buyers.
Same here. Will only sell my phones to apple, or gazelle but would never use eBay or Craigslist. Too much of a hassle nowadays.
This is why I avoid eBay for high value items. Recently sold a 6 128gb on Craigslist. Met in a safe place, verified cash authenticity, phone gone forever. No fears of returns no matter what happens.
I had the exact same thing happen to one of my phones and it took almost a week to get it working again so I am guessing that we got hacked