The weird thing about this phone is that it was listed as Brand New and Sealed and Unlocked. I even had to pull the tab things off of the box. It appeared to have all the trappings of brand new, never opened iPhone.
I went to Verizon and they loaded my old number. Then later on, I had issues with outgoing calls and texts being from another number, but people can still call my phone number and the phone will ring. It will also ring if I call this other number from a landline.
Verizon then spent a lot of time checking on things between two account departments and then the guy asked me for one of the ID type numbers on the box. They told me that this phone has been "blacklisted" - which essentially means it was probably stolen.
So how did I get a brand new stolen phone with any previous owner's information attached to it - with an account at Verizon even?
Verizon told me to contact the seller here and try and find out what he knows about this phone and see if he can fix whatever it is from his end.
I can't find a way to contact ebay by phone to get any help with this.
I saw the seller's feedback, and someone else had the same problem with a used phone and they replied in the comments that the buyer gets angry and won't just send it back for a refund.
My issue is that I may possibly be in possession of stolen goods. Everything online says to turn it over to law enforcement. Or I should just take whatever excuse they have and send it back per some ebay policy?
I haven't heard from the seller about this yet, but want to know what to expect, possibly and what I should do. I also now have the problem of my phone number being attached to this and having to scrub it clean of my data before I send it back to this seller.
Thank you!
