reelize_films wrote:
"If I'm a bad guy with a stolen phone and I want to trick people into buying it, what do I do? I go and find someone with a legitimate phone and ask for their IMEI under the guise of making sure their phone isn't stolen. I now have a valid IMEI that I can use whenever someone asks for the IMEI to the stolen phone I'm selling."
If you think about it from a scammer's perspective, this isn't a good way to carry out the scam. Ebay is very buyer-friendly, and this likely wouldn't be successful at all. As soon as the buyer receives the actual phone, and sees that the IMEI/ESN listed in the auction does not match the phone, they have only to file an SNAD complaint and return it for a full refund. That seller would be banned after just a couple of times of attempting this.
As for why they keep the new phones in the back of a retail store, why does any store keep inventory in the back? Organization, storage needs, overstock, theft prevention, etc. If the IMEI/ESN number was such a point of security, they wouldn't print it on the outside of the box, in barcode & numerical form.
If it makes you feel safer as a seller, sure, post a link to an IMEI/ESN checker like Swappa does. It's all really moot, though. The real problem with selling used phones is a phone company's ability to blacklist a phone because someone defaulted on a contract agreement or payment plan. That's not something one can easily check for, and if you don't know the history of the phone you're selling , it can mean your perfectly functioning used phone unexpectedly becomes a fancy paperweight a month and a half after it's sold. And, as usual, sellers are always at risk of buyers trying to scam them using SNAD returns.
It just isn't safe to buy or sell used phones, unless the came from a trusted, personal source. Period.
