Help beef avoid a cell phone scam

[johnnybeef]

Hi oot,

In a drunken episode of skinny dipping gone bad Saturday night, my phone fell into a pool and died. I hear that you can get phones for relatively cheap from craigslist, and I have also heard that a good amount of them are stolen. I was curious if anyone here has any experience buying a used cell phone, and what, if anything, I should look out for to avoid a stolen phone.

Thanks!

[mbillie1]

Before you buy it, ask the seller for the HEX and DEC numbers. They're typically located underneath the battery. Write them both down and call whatever carrier the phone is licensed through (Sprint phones work with Sprint service etc so make sure you get a phone branded with whatever network you're going to use it on) and tell them that you want to buy a phone from a friend, but you want to make sure it isn't stolen, can they please check the number. Make sure you get both #s, because different companies/software systems/etc will require different #s to verify it is not attached to an account and/or flagged as stolen.

Hope that helps.

[-zero-]

What happens if you get a stolen phone? Or do you just not want to support it?

[mbillie1]

[ QUOTE ]
What happens if you get a stolen phone? Or do you just not want to support it?

[/ QUOTE ]

If a phone's listed on someone else's account (even a delinquent account) or has been reported stolen it's useless, you won't be able to activate it and you will have already paid for it.

[gumpzilla]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi oot,

In a drunken episode of skinny dipping gone bad Saturday night, my phone fell into a pool and died.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm trying to work this out, but so far, it sounds like the thing that went bad with the skinny dipping was that it wasn't.

[magister ludi]

[ QUOTE ]
Hi oot,

In a drunken episode of skinny dipping gone bad Saturday night, my phone fell into a pool and died. I hear that you can get phones for relatively cheap from craigslist, and I have also heard that a good amount of them are stolen. I was curious if anyone here has any experience buying a used cell phone, and what, if anything, I should look out for to avoid a stolen phone.

Thanks!

[/ QUOTE ]

Thinly veiled brag

[The Yugoslavian]

Can't Dali just comp you a celly or something?

[img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Yugoslav

[The Yugoslavian]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Hi oot,

In a drunken episode of skinny dipping gone bad Saturday night, my phone fell into a pool and died. I hear that you can get phones for relatively cheap from craigslist, and I have also heard that a good amount of them are stolen. I was curious if anyone here has any experience buying a used cell phone, and what, if anything, I should look out for to avoid a stolen phone.

Thanks!

[/ QUOTE ]

Thinly veiled brag

[/ QUOTE ]

Not that beefness doesn't like to brag, but that certainly wasn't the point of his post. That sort of activity with women is pretty standard for him.

Yugoslav

[big D]

Does your phone service work on GSM? If so you can get new phones pretty cheap, then you don't have to worry if you're getting one that's stolen. Just pop in your sim card. Make sure you get an unlocked phone or one for your network though. A new phone without anyone else's scratches or scuffs is a nice thing to have anyway.