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This is clearly stolen... how to report

You can't really verify whether it's stolen or not so it's not your place to report it unless the seller mentions in the listing that it's stolen or told you via private message.
 
CEmajr said:
You can't really verify whether it's stolen or not so it's not your place to report it unless the seller mentions in the listing that it's stolen or told you via private message.
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Well said, no one here has authority to police someone's auction/sale without concrete proof, I'm sure if if OP got screwed he/she will be selling the phone As-IS on a eBay or craigslist for parts or what ever you can to make up the money, so let the eBay seller be OP
 
brendu said:
so I just came across this ebay listing. It really looks like stolen property.. I tried reporting it through ebay but it looks like only law enforcement can report stolen property to ebay.. what else can be done?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iPhon...1142613184?pt=Cell_Phones&hash=item2330cd40c0

**sorry if this is in the wrong sub forum..
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Or, if you read the listing description, it was stolen by the "local seller" sold to the current seller without the password because HE STOLE IT, not the person on eBay. Just a theory.
 
From the listing:
I purchased this phone locally and intended to sell it. The seller handed it to me and left without telling me the password... Carrier/capacity/lock status are all three a mystery as is the esn status and how to break the code.
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If they purchased it themselves, even with intent to sell, they would still likely know the carrier and should definitely know if it was 16 or 32GB.

I'm going to have to agree with OP.
 
not to mention the poor sap who buys this thing will have a completely useless brick.

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53kyle said:
Or, if you read the listing description, it was stolen by the "local seller" sold to the current seller without the password because HE STOLE IT, not the person on eBay. Just a theory.
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regardless of who stole it, this is clearly stolen property being sold on ebay and I was just trying to send ebay a notice that they should check into it... I couldn't find an easy way to do that.
 
cyks said:
From the listing:

If they purchased it themselves, even with intent to sell, they would still likely know the carrier and should definitely know if it was 16 or 32GB.

I'm going to have to agree with OP.
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Yeah you would ask that information wouldn't you.
 
This is actually a great reason to buy on eBay...EBay protects the buyer petty well in the event of screwing...

Craigslist? None at all.
 
brendu said:
not to mention the poor sap who buys this thing will have a completely useless brick.

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regardless of who stole it, this is clearly stolen property being sold on ebay and I was just trying to send ebay a notice that they should check into it... I couldn't find an easy way to do that.
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Not really. The parts are still good.

Heck, maybe I'll buy it (for a much lower price) just to have some spare parts :)
 
I but a lot on the streets through craigslist and trust me you come across a wide variety of things and NO no one has solid proof here's and example.....My boss (millionaire literally and don't care to argue the fact believe me or not)sold me 3 iPhones and one was a 5 but his son had forgot the password but it was on 6.1.3 so I did a dfu restore but stupid me I hit update so it updated from a password locked phone to a ios7 password and activation locked phone now this clearly isn't the case here but it does happen.Is this fishy yeah .....your business no if the original owner is looking for it he has a good idea where to find him because to use Siri you need a data connection and a data connection means find my iPhone is active........
 
I bought a phone from a guy locally a while back, after I bought it, he told me he thought it had been reported stolen... I listed it on eBay as a iPod touch and sold it, made it very clear to the potential buyers that there was the possibility it had been stolen, I was able to get my money back out of it thankfully...
 
hansonjohn590 said:
Well, the buyer bears some responsibility for being dumb enough to buy it.
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The ebay seller didn't buy that device from anyone.

It's about the only story he could come up with to justify why he doesn't have the passcode. The 'original' seller forgot to tell him? Really? This guy just handed over a wad of cash for a phone that he didn't even test or see working? Sorry, no. "Seller handed it to me and left without telling me the password". Really? And this transaction happened so fast the ebay lister never had a chance to ask? Who was the 'original' seller ... The Flash?

And ... this guy contacted the 'original' seller to purchase the phone in the first place, if this was a legitimate transaction, he'd easily be able to get in touch with him and say "yo, need the passcode".

Nope. No chance the ebay lister is telling the truth.
 
Of course it's (most likely) stolen but it's not OP's place to make an issue of it unless he buys and is scammed by the guy. So many stupid people in the world, someone will buy it thinking they're getting an awesome deal. Kinda like the moron that paid $800+ for an "X Box 360, BOX" when they first came out. It clearly said many, many times in the title and in the body of the auction that it was ONLY THE BOX.... yet some fool not paying attention paid $800+ for it. Funny stuff.
 
eoblaed said:
The ebay seller didn't buy that device from anyone.

It's about the only story he could come up with to justify why he doesn't have the passcode. The 'original' seller forgot to tell him? Really? This guy just handed over a wad of cash for a phone that he didn't even test or see working? Sorry, no. "Seller handed it to me and left without telling me the password". Really? And this transaction happened so fast the ebay lister never had a chance to ask? Who was the 'original' seller ... The Flash?

And ... this guy contacted the 'original' seller to purchase the phone in the first place, if this was a legitimate transaction, he'd easily be able to get in touch with him and say "yo, need the passcode".

Nope. No chance the ebay lister is telling the truth.
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This. The phone is stolen or the seller is a moron.
 
AFDoc said:
Of course it's (most likely) stolen but it's not OP's place to make an issue of it
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Why not?

If you see something bad happening, you shouldn't try to intervene even if when cause you no harm? Just let it go down without any attempt at intervention?

I'm not saying he's obligated to, but there shouldn't be pressure for him not to.
 
Wait a minute... people sell stolen things???

This is going to take a while to process. I only hope some day society can develop an agency, or "force" to try and combat such things. Until then, this is probably going to happen more and more.

I for one, won't sleep well tonight.
 
eoblaed said:
If you see something bad happening, you shouldn't try to intervene even if when cause you no harm?
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Nobody saw anything bad happening here because nothing did. It was a poorly written eBay auction for a locked phone. Anything else is speculation. You're gonna' see a lot more of this with Activation Lock.

If the guy in another thread tries to eBay his old 4s that's currently locked to his ex-girlfriend's iCloud account is the OP going to report that as stolen, too?
 
I guess I'd rather see ebay auctions like this than stolen phones that can be hacked and taken over like before the security changes in ios7. The buyer isn't totally innocent if they buy this and cry foul later.

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Does anyone know what it sold for?
 
PNutts said:
Nobody saw anything bad happening here because nothing did. It was a poorly written eBay auction for a locked phone. Anything else is speculation. You're gonna' see a lot more of this with Activation Lock.

If the guy in another thread tries to eBay his old 4s that's currently locked to his ex-girlfriend's iCloud account is the OP going to report that as stolen, too?
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The girlfriend thing is at least a plausible story.

The one on this ebay attempt is ridiculous on its face. It's poorly written because the guy couldn't come up with more clever way to mask the fact that it's stolen. Read my other post above on all the holes in that story. It's silly.
 
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