Anyone know if a phone can be remotely disabled/bricked?

[The Mad Atheist]

Had my Moto G100 package shipped to a Amazon locker, but looks like someone within Amazon opened the package, unsealed the outer Moto G100 box, took the inner Moto box with everything in it, left the out box, and resealed the Amazon box with a shorter piece of Amazon tape.
Looks like I have the IMEII and other numbers on the box left inside.

Been trying to do a online police report to give to Amazon for a refund, but it didn't happen at my home or business. They're claiming it was delivered and the package weight was right at time of delivery.

Did anything like this happen to anyone else?

 

[Zepher]

The IMEI number can be blacklisted and the phone will lose service or not able to be activated.

My friend recently went through that when he bought a used Pixel 4 from Amazon a couple of months ago. Activated the phone on his Verizon account and wasn't able to make calls or anything.
Found out his Verizon account was restricted due to trying to activate a blacklisted phone on the account and spent most of the day trying to get service back on his old phone.

He sent the phone back to Amazon and got a replacement. He called up Verizon when he got the replacement one and had them check the IMEI before he activated the phone to make sure it wasn't blacklisted.

 

[The Mad Atheist]

The IMEI number can be blacklisted and the phone will lose service or not able to be activated.

My friend recently went through that when he bought a used Pixel 4 from Amazon a couple of months ago. Activated the phone on his Verizon account and wasn't able to make calls or anything.
Found out his Verizon account was restricted due to trying to activate a blacklisted phone on the account and spent most of the day trying to get service back on his old phone.

He sent the phone back to Amazon and got a replacement. He called up Verizon when he got the replacement one and had them check the IMEI before he activated the phone to make sure it wasn't blacklisted.

Been peeling off the sticker on top of IMEIs and P/N. Glad the IMEI sticker is plastic.

Moto is useless, they can't track or brick the phone with IMEIs.

 

[T4rd]

Been peeling off the sticker on top of IMEIs and P/N. Glad the IMEI sticker is plastic.

Moto is useless, they can't track or brick the phone with IMEIs.

Yeah, any OEM would be useless to blacklist a phone. It has to be reported to carriers and/or insurance for it to be blacklisted on US carriers. This is usually done after the phone has been activated and used already on a carrier, so not sure if your carrier will allow you to blacklist if it never made it onto a network before being stolen. I'm sure carriers have done it for stores that have had new phones stolen from their stores, so I'd say the best you can do is call your carrier's customer support to report it stolen.

Otherwise I'm not sure I'd care to bother with all that outside of ensuring Amazon replaces the stolen phone.

 

[porthas]

Hi!
Yes, it is technically possible for a phone to be remotely bricked or disabled, but it would likely require access to the phone or the manufacturer's servers. In your situation, the phone may have been stolen during the delivery process. You should contact Amazon and provide them with the details and the IMEI number of the phone, if possible. It may also be helpful to file a police report in your area.

 

[Gomar]

I buy cellphones local, at BestBuy or T-Mobile location; not Amazon or eBay.

 

[The Mad Atheist]

I buy cellphones local, at BestBuy or T-Mobile location; not Amazon or eBay.

I'll be getting my S6 Lite 2022 and S8 Ultra from Bestbuy just up the road if scAmazon won't give me my refund. For some reason they can't deliver a simple cable to their hub locker these past to days and returned them to the warehouse.....

 

[cpufrost]

WAY too much work IMHO!

Amazon is weird with returns. If this happened to me, I would just initiate a return, item defective or wrong item shipped and drop it off at Kohls. You'd get your money back by the end of the day and be done.
If there is an issue let them contact you and then start there. With these big companies if you start up front with a bunch of info it's like bending over in front of an approaching train and farting expecting it to stop. It won't. ;-)