Possibly scammed on craigslist?

C

Clemo

Limp Gawd
Joined
Apr 20, 2013
Messages
143
I just purchased a new nexus 5 on craigslist, tried activating it but wouldn't get any service after repeated attempts. So I did the ESN check as recommended by a friend, and it reports back as:

Device is not eligible for resale (financed).
This device is being financed and has an outstanding balance that must be paid.

Is this what is preventing me from activating?

Hopefully I didn't just get screwed out of $300.

Thanks
 
You got scammed.

Sounds like he got it for free from T-Mobile under contract, sold it, and pocketed the difference.

Or the phone was stolen from someone who had it on a contract
 
well he provided receipt, shows it being paid in installments.
 
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Means the phone has not been fully paid off at T-Mobile. If the guy cancelled his service and did not pay off the phone then it's going to be blacklisted and you're pretty much SOL. Not completely sure how it works if his service account/financing plan is still active, but I'd assume you'd be able to use any SIM card/account you wanted. You shouldn't need to do any activation with the phone itself, just move the micro SIM into it if you already have one or activate a new SIM if you're changing sizes/service plans.
 
i dont have any service at all right now so i just came home from best buy with a prepaid h2o wireless activation kit
 
Not much you can do. At least you found out now instead of later. Had the seller been less than 2-3 months past due on payments, it would still work for you until the account reaches their delinquency threshold. Then one day your phone becomes blacklisted and T-Mobile won't do anything for you.
 
You are SOL. You should check the IMEI and ESN before buying any used phone rather on ebay or CL etc. You have a paperweight.
 
Even if the IMEI comes up fine at the time, if the original owner goes delinquent, it will eventually get blacklisted with no notice to you.
 
yeah ill just buy new phones from now on, not worth the risk. Scummy people on this earth (mostly on craigslist) lol
 
Not worth dealing with CL crooks. Bunch of scammers to waste your time. I would recommend swappa instead.
 
Clemo said:
yeah ill just buy new phones from now on, not worth the risk. Scummy people on this earth (mostly on craigslist) lol
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^This. Very very risky. You don't even have to be dealing with someone shady to get screwed. The phone may screw you by deciding to start malfunctioning literally while in transit. Bullshit you say? People win the lottery every week. Odds are not good. Phones are too delicate and I'm done buying used. 4 at bats: 1 complete and total fail 2 semi fails and 1 win. No thanks.
 
yeah, it's an expensive lesson learned. Never again.
 
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Clemo said:
yeah, it's an expensive lesson learned. Never again.

Do you guys think the cops will do anything about this if I file a report with them?
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I sold my sisters old phone which was a smart phone you didnt have to activate with the data plan which made it a hot item. The guy asked me if it was stolen I said no and we made the transaction and i was actually paying the bill at the time and i guess VZ asked him too many questions about the phone so he called me back and asked for a refund. I refunded him, went to VZ asked them WTF and they apologized. I upgraded her phone so the old phone was more than clean, it was free in the clear. I sell a lot of craiglist and always tell people. Dont like it or it fails in a day or two. call me directly. Done. I hate scammers. I wouldnt be able to sleep a wink if i caused someone distress. Infact.
 
Suggestions: if you buy used smartphones on Craigslist, meet the seller at your wireless provider's store to verify the ESN is clean. The store employees will check while you are both there waiting, and it only takes a few minutes.

Or, buy on ebay, remember you have warranty protection from ebay if product is defective (stolen = defective, and ebay will refund and go after seller for you).
 
biggles said:
Suggestions: if you buy used smartphones on Craigslist, meet the seller at your wireless provider's store to verify the ESN is clean. The store employees will check while you are both there waiting, and it only takes a few minutes.

Or, buy on ebay, remember you have warranty protection from ebay if product is defective (stolen = defective, and ebay will refund and go after seller for you).
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That will not help.
 
This is why (if I ever buy a phone off of craigslist) it will be on premise at whatever wireless provider the phone belongs to so they can check it there instantly.
 
Once again, that won't do a damned thing. If the original owner goes delinquent later on, the phone gets blacklisted even if whatever retail outlet you went to said it was fine (because it was at the time).
 
As a last resort you can find a friend or family member that has a Nexus 5 and attempt to clone the EFS onto the blacklisted phone. The IMEI will be the same but it shouldn't be an issue if you use it on different networks. Badly made Samsung roms often wipe away the IMEI and users are often told to back up their EFS partition before doing any flashing. This method works for Samsung phones but you'll have to experiment with it for the Nexus 5.
 
Blue Fox said:
Even if the IMEI comes up fine at the time, if the original owner goes delinquent, it will eventually get blacklisted with no notice to you.
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This is the unfortunate truth.

Scam formula here:

1. Buy phone in-contract for $100 (or whatever)
2. Sell cheap, but over the cost of in-contract purchase. While the phone is still clean.
3. Don't pay.
4. Guy you sold it to gets screwed, scammer makes off with profit
 
I sold it on ebay for the same price I paid for it, so I guess it's okay. I specified in the ad that it has a bad imei, so they are aware.
 
Clemo said:
I sold it on ebay for the same price I paid for it, so I guess it's okay. I specified in the ad that it has a bad imei, so they are aware.
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There are people who like these devices for a Wi-Fi only device so that's probably why, or they just didn't see your note.
 
Trimlock said:
There are people who like these devices for a Wi-Fi only device so that's probably why, or they just didn't see your note.
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Nope, said it in title, in body, and in description. Through a 3rd party provider, I can remove the imei ban for $59.99. So that's probably why they bought it.
 
Clemo said:
I can remove the imei ban for $59.99.
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Wow, that's not a bad solution at all... didn't know you could do that. I've thrown so much good money after bad on this one phone I bought used... long story why I kept trying to fix it but I've replaced the battery replaced charging port, replaced headphone jack... It's in pretty good shape now. But you don't want to know how much I spent fixing a bloomin iPhone 4s.
 
Clemo said:
yeah ill just buy new phones from now on, not worth the risk. Scummy people on this earth (mostly on craigslist) lol
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i can second to that ive also been taken on craigslist with a moto x f**kin* scumbag mof**ke*r
 
Yup you got scammed. Happened to me and I just sold it on eBay as-is as a bad/banned IMEI phone and recouped a few hundred dollars for my S3.
 
update -

wasn't scammed. buyer contacted me today saying he was on vacation. He called t-mobile to tell them that he paid it off and to remove it from blacklist. works fine now and im happy!
 
Clemo said:
update -

wasn't scammed. buyer contacted me today saying he was on vacation. He called t-mobile to tell them that he paid it off and to remove it from blacklist. works fine now and im happy!
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That's good, too bad the person want on top of their bills prior to vacation.
 
Clemo said:
update -

wasn't scammed. buyer contacted me today saying he was on vacation. He called t-mobile to tell them that he paid it off and to remove it from blacklist. works fine now and im happy!
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Didn't you sell the phone already on ebay?
 
Clemo said:
update -

wasn't scammed. buyer contacted me today saying he was on vacation. He called t-mobile to tell them that he paid it off and to remove it from blacklist. works fine now and im happy!
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The eBay buyer will be happy!
 
ComputerBox34 said:
Didn't you sell the phone already on ebay?
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I explained the situation to buyer and he agreed to camcel the transaction so long as I refunded him first which I did.

edit - i just picked up your connotation, pretty harsh crowd here.
 
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Clemo said:
I explained the situation to buyer and he agreed to camcel the transaction so long as I refunded him first which I did.

edit - i just picked up your connotation, pretty harsh crowd here.
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?

I wasn't making a connotation - just asking a question
 
i quite literally bought a Nexus 5 from google this morning, hah even though its retail (350) I'm still glad to pay it if it means avoiding drama like this.

Turns out the seller wasn't a scum bag, but when you deal with "the public" it's always a headache.
 
collegeboy69us said:
i quite literally bought a Nexus 5 from google this morning, hah even though its retail (350) I'm still glad to pay it if it means avoiding drama like this.

Turns out the seller wasn't a scum bag, but when you deal with "the public" it's always a headache.
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yeah google play after tax and overnight shipping was $381 i believe, so i saved $100. some times its not worth it, this time it actually paid off and seller came through. But it was still auspicious since he ignored my calls for 3 days until i told him i was going to the cops with video of his face and license plates. then all the sudden he told me he called tmobile and they said it was paid off then I refreshed tmobile imei checker and voila it was off the blacklist. So i'm sure he didn't have it paid off at the time, but at least it had a happy ending and i saved $100.
 
wow this is an interesting story. I didnt know mobile phone operators had the ability to remotely disable phones for contract breaches.

Some may remember a while back I posted about how I got my S3.

As a reminder my sister owed me money, gave her the idea since she was incapable of allocating cash to give to me instead of going on expensive holidays etc. to get a S3 on contract and give me the phone as a way of writing of some of the debt, she agreed and I got the phone, she also gave me the sim. As the deal wasnt for me to be able to use the contract I told her I would only use the sim for testing purposes. Basically I started getting text messages when the sim was in about unpaid bills and eventually the sim stopped working, barred outgoing calls, this was only after about 1-2 months so she pretty much defaulted on the contract right away, wasnt bothered as I moved my own contract sim to it. However my phone still works fine, it hasnt been barred.
 
The phones are not remotely disabled. They are barred from using said carrier's network.
 
Blue Fox said:
The phones are not remotely disabled. They are barred from using said carrier's network.
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and some carriers share banlists from what i understand (like tmobile and att), so you should just not buy a banned phone
 
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