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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

sdlovell
Enthusiast
These phones are, by definition, phones which have been identified by the carrier as stolen, lost, activated on another persons account, etc. I don't see how selling stolen property on eBay is a viable means of handing off these devices.

Yes, in some cases it's possible that phones can be flashed to other networks to get around the bad ESN tag and therefore still be used for their intended purpose, but it doesn't make any sense that eBay is allowing the auctions of so many devices with the bad ESN tag.

Require that the ESN status of each device be laid out and establish guidelines for selling cell phones. The carriers aren't all that helpful, but if a third party could get involved and guide or guarantee that the buyer won't be stuck with a non-working device, then we'd all be a little bit happier.
Message 1 of 220
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219 REPLIES 219

Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

All "bad" ESNs are not stolen.


Some "bad" ESNs are stolen.

Message 121 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

jlynruis
Enthusiast

OMG, Why are you all so naive?  Please, the world is not a perfect place, yes people are dishonest, always have been and always will be.  To the intelligent person who thought up the idea of having our own little titles for our cell phones, just like our cars!  So Cute!  NOT!!!  What planet did you come from, like people don't steal cars even though there is a title to it.  Yet they still manage to get rid of them, usually for drugs, guns, you name it.  
To sum it all up:  The world is not a pretty place, I work in law enforcement and it is people like you that allow yourselves to become victims. There is acronym in the law enforcement world that we use a lot, “CYA”, stand for ‘cover you’re a$$.’
‘Nuff Said!


 

Message 122 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

I don't think that you will find stolen VINs on ebay (try selling a car with a stolen VIN on ebay).


 


Pretty straight-forward and nothing to do with naivety. Why make it so simple to sell anything stolen on ebay? You may not have noticed, but it encourages phone theft because it's is so easy to sell them and they are a big ticket item. That's the issue.

Message 123 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

20hrm171
Enthusiast

Appears to me that one should contact the seller for the ESN via email so you have a trail.


Call the carrier to verify the ESN.


 


Yes the best practice would be to have all sellers disclose whether the ESN is good or bad. In reading the posts, not all sellers know themselves.


 


A 100% positive feedback seller, from reading the post is willing to correct the issue if it comes up.


 


We, have to do our homework until Ebay requires the disclosure.


 


Just bid after research and not with emotion

Message 124 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

Anonymous
Not applicable

If you have a problem with ESN's then you should buy  brand new....I will not give out the ESN to anyone period for security reasons.


 


All bad ESN's does not mean the phone is stolen


 


As I have stated earlier in this thread....if the seller cannot confirm the status of the ESN, then move on.....


 


Also check the seller's feedback

Message 125 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

As stated already, just because a phone has an ESN, MEID, or IMEI that is "bad" doesn't mean it's Lost or Stolen.


 


Some people cancel their contracts early and fail to pay their final balance, and in the end the carrier flags the ESN as unable to activate on that carrier until the account is paid off.


 


In the above circumstance, you may be eligible to take that device to another carrier which allows BYOD (bring your own device) as long as the model/technology is supported, for example, a Sprint or Verizon CDMA phone may be usable on Cricket, or MetroPCS.


 


The US Government has passed a law that all carriers must begin reporting Lost or Stolen ESN, MEID or IMEIs to a new national database and all carriers must read from this database to ensure a Lost or Stolen device isn't passed around between carriers.  AT&T and T-Mobile are already doing this, making it impossible to take a Lost or Stolen AT&T phone over to T-Mobile, or any prepaid MVNO under either company, such as StraightTalk (GSM) or Simple Mobile.


 


We have created a website that validates ESNs with the carriers to ensure if the ESN is clean or not, and soon we will be validating against the new national Blacklist database for the carriers who report to this database.


 


As mentioned in a previous post, the website is www.CheckESNFree.com


 


Thanks,


 


-Shane

Message 126 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

Anonymous
Not applicable

good info Shane www.CheckESNFree.com


 


because that's the website I use to check ESN's 


 


I have been using this site for quite some time;-)

Message 127 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

Isn't it true that if one of those are listed, simply putting in their respective sim will allow


the phone to be used?


 


AT&T to the same


Tmobile to the same

Message 128 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

RE:


AT&T and T-Mobile are already doing this,


 


 


Isn't it true that if one of those are listed, simply putting in their respective sim will allow


the phone to be used?


 


AT&T to the same


Tmobile to the same

Message 129 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

No.


 


If AT&T Blacklists a phone that is reported lost or stolen, it will not function on AT&T (including GoPhone) or T-Mobile, or any of their MVNOs such as Straight Talk, RedPocket, SimpleMobile, etc.


 


The phone may work for an hour or so, but eventually the system will kill the SIM, or disconnect the phone from the network with an unauth error.


 


What we do is, validate the ESN, MEID, or IMEI of the devices to the respected carrier, MVNO, and soon the Blacklist database.

Message 130 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

scodal
Enthusiast

1) Bad esn phone is usually from someone that didn't pay their bill


2) Sometimes they are stolen phones. Sometimes people are thieves. People try to sell stolen stuff all the time and it sucks. Not just phones


3) Bad esn phones can still be activated on many prepaid carriers


4) Bad esn phones are cheaper and for app developers this can be a nice way to get different devices for cheaper just to test their code on them


5) If you like apps, then you should be happy developers can save a few bucks to buy bad esn phones for testing and make you more cool apps that make you happy to use your clean esn phone 🙂


6) You should be happy people are being honest and listing it as Bad ESN! Worst case scenario is to buy a Clean ESN phone and find out it's actually Bad and that person tries to vanish off the face of the earth with your money


 


I'm a developer. I buy bad esn phones all the time.


 


Bad esn = cheap wifi toy

Message 131 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

gporpc
Guide


1) Bad esn phone is usually from someone that didn't pay their bill


2) Sometimes they are stolen phones. Sometimes people are thieves. People try to sell stolen stuff all the time and it sucks. Not just phones


3) Bad esn phones can still be activated on many prepaid carriers


4) Bad esn phones are cheaper and for app developers this can be a nice way to get different devices for cheaper just to test their code on them


5) If you like apps, then you should be happy developers can save a few bucks to buy bad esn phones for testing and make you more cool apps that make you happy to use your clean esn phone 🙂


6) You should be happy people are being honest and listing it as Bad ESN! Worst case scenario is to buy a Clean ESN phone and find out it's actually Bad and that person tries to vanish off the face of the earth with your money


 


I'm a developer. I buy bad esn phones all the time.


 


Bad esn = cheap wifi toy



 


A phone with a bad esn even stolen can be magicfied and used.


If you know how...


Wink wink......

Message 132 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

Not all bad ESN phones are stolen.  My wife has "lost" many cell phones over the years, only to be found months later in a closet or buried in the car trunk.  We replace them quickly since she can't be without a phone.  After finding the phones (this has happened twice now), we can only try to recoup some of the cost to replace it by selling the old phone with a bad ESN.  


 


Someone else can get a cheap cell phone and still use it with wi-fi to surf the web, take pictures, send emails and possibly make Skype calls - just not activate it on Verizon wireless.  Maybe someone overseas can use it.  

Message 133 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

gporpc
Guide


Not all bad ESN phones are stolen.  My wife has "lost" many cell phones over the years, only to be found months later in a closet or buried in the car trunk.  We replace them quickly since she can't be without a phone.  After finding the phones (this has happened twice now), we can only try to recoup some of the cost to replace it by selling the old phone with a bad ESN.  


 


Someone else can get a cheap cell phone and still use it with wi-fi to surf the web, take pictures, send emails and possibly make Skype calls - just not activate it on Verizon wireless.  Maybe someone overseas can use it.  



 


 


And use it to call 911

Message 134 of 220
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Why are **bad ESN** phones allowed to be sold on eBay?

shollis37007
Enthusiast

I didn't read through all 6 pages of this, but from I mostly got is people saying things like, "common sense, don't buy it if it says bad ESN, it's your fault if you don't read the description, etc." 


 


This thread wasn't started because someone bought a phone with a bad ESN and was complaining.  It was started saying that they think it is wrong that you can sell bad ESN phones on eBay.  You need common sense.  You are jumping the gun and saying people don't read the description, you didn't read the original thread.  The person was stating it is wrong that eBay allows the selling of phones with bad ESN, NOT that people are buying them and didn't know.


 


And even if you buy a phone with a bad ESN to use it for parts that doesn't make it right that you probably bought a stolen phone or one that someone wrongfully reported stolen/lost.


 


I agree it is wrong for eBay to allow selling of ANYthing that is obviously stolen, but like someone else there isn't a way to tell if it is definitely stolen, or wrongfully reported.  BUT, lets face it, all (don't split hairs because 1 out of 100 aren't) the phones sold with bad ESN numbers are stolen, or wrongfully reported stolen/lost.

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