Purchasing a used phone is a vivid decision. It is more price effective, it is great for nature, and it still gives you access to a (somewhat) new gadget that you lot tin can enjoy.

With that said, purchasing a used phone is non all rainbows and butterflies. With an increasing number of online marketplaces popping upward on the web, there are a lot of ingenuine sellers looking to scam unsuspecting buyers.

One of the more than common scams is to sell off stolen phones.

If you are purchasing multiple devices to exist used for your business past your employees, falling prey to such a scam is more likely.

While verifying the actuality of all the devices you purchase may seem like a hassle, it is an important stride to ensuring your interests are protected.

While it is true that unknowingly purchasing a stolen telephone is not a crime, in that location is yet a lot that can go wrong when you purchase a stolen phone, fifty-fifty unknowingly.

Dangers Of Purchasing A Stolen Telephone

If yous have purchased a stolen telephone unknowingly, y'all cannot be held responsible for the criminal offense. However, this situation can still complicate your life in a number of ways. Here are some examples:

  • If you lot purchase a device without checking its IMEI in a gratis IMEI checker tool (more than on this in the side by side department), and it turns out to be reported stolen, chances are that the telephone will not work at all.
  • Even if it does piece of work with a certain carrier, chances are that as soon as you switch on the device, your local authorities will be notified about the stolen device's location and you lot can expect to hear from them at whatever moment.
  • There take also been instances where the heir-apparent can employ the telephone for a month or and so, before it gets blocked by the carrier and is rendered completely useless.
  • Another danger of purchasing a stolen device unknowingly is that it might be cloned. Depending on the cloning process, the person that has cloned your device can do annihilation ranging from accessing the information you enter on your new 'used' phone to using another device and billing the usage to your carrier business relationship.

Whether the device has been blocked or cloned, the problem is that yous, as the heir-apparent, cannot do annihilation to get it unblocked. Just the person that had reported their device as stolen can become it unblocked. Moreover, the worrying thing is that getting a phone unblocked may have upwards to several weeks, or even months.

How To Ensure You lot Are Non Purchasing A Used Phone

When you buy a new phone, y'all want to do as much homework and enquiry as possible earlier completing the purchase to ensure that there is nothing wrong with the device.

To do this, the very commencement pace (and the most of import one) is to ask the seller to share the IMEI number of the telephone with you.

The IMEI number is a unique identification number given to each mobile device. This number can be used by the police and mobile service providers to identify stolen devices and block them.

Those purchasing used phones tin use a costless IMEI checker tool to verify the status of the device before completing a buy. If the tool shows that the device you lot are about to buy is 'blacklisted' or has a 'bad' IMEI number, it means that the device is probably stolen.

So, if any seller is non sharing the IMEI number of the device you are thinking of purchasing, it is best to walk away from the deal and look for a unlike seller.

Jennie is a blogger whose experiences in life brand her really tougher than anyone else. She tin can lend y'all expert tips on diverse topics ranging from relationship to way, technology, making coin, health, and and then on. Her write-ups are a window into her thoughts and knowledge.

Dangers Of Purchasing A Stolen Phone: And How To Protect Yourself