Activating a reportedly lost Handset

I was looking over some phones on Ebay, and in the description of a
phone, of a seller with very good feedback had the following statement:

"I reported this phone lost to sprint, replaced it with an upgrade, and
then found it. The ESN on this phone must be reset in order to activate
with Sprint."

I emailed asking what "reset" meant, and got the following reply

"Dear Bidder,
Just tell them you bought the phone off of ebay. There is a
short waiting period where they free the esn from the lost
list, and then it is ready to activate."

As I mentioned above since the seller has good feedback, this leaves me
to believe he has know experience with doing this, but I have not seen
anything of this nature on the forum.

It was a older phone, and I really have no interest in bidding on this
particular phone, but was wondering if anyone could verify or ridicule
the scenario. Doesn't sound right to me???

[posted via phonescoop.com]

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› See More: Activating a reportedly lost Handset

From my past experience and knowledge this is completely false. He
probably has ERP on his phone, reported it lost so he can get another
for $35 and now wants to sell this one. You will not be able to use
this phone.

[email protected] (p lane) wrote in article
<[email protected]>:
> I was looking over some phones on Ebay, and in the description of a
> phone, of a seller with very good feedback had the following statement:
>
> "I reported this phone lost to sprint, replaced it with an upgrade, and
> then found it. The ESN on this phone must be reset in order to activate
> with Sprint."
>
> I emailed asking what "reset" meant, and got the following reply
>
> "Dear Bidder,
> Just tell them you bought the phone off of ebay. There is a
> short waiting period where they free the esn from the lost
> list, and then it is ready to activate."
>
> As I mentioned above since the seller has good feedback, this leaves me
> to believe he has know experience with doing this, but I have not seen
> anything of this nature on the forum.
>
> It was a older phone, and I really have no interest in bidding on this
> particular phone, but was wondering if anyone could verify or ridicule
> the scenario. Doesn't sound right to me???
>
> [posted via phonescoop.com]

[posted via phonescoop.com]

Ask them to tell you the ESN, and then check with Sprint.

I don't know this for sure, but this seems to be a total load of B.S. If
this were true, then it would be open season on cell phone theft. Just steal
a phone, wait out the 'short waiting period' then post the phone on eBay. If
this scenario were possible, there would be no point to dis-incentive to
steal phones.

To me, this does not compute.

"p lane" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> "Dear Bidder,
> Just tell them you bought the phone off of ebay. There is a
> short waiting period where they free the esn from the lost
> list, and then it is ready to activate."
>

"p lane" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I was looking over some phones on Ebay, and in the description of a
> phone, of a seller with very good feedback had the following statement:
>
> "I reported this phone lost to sprint, replaced it with an upgrade, and
> then found it. The ESN on this phone must be reset in order to activate
> with Sprint."
>
> I emailed asking what "reset" meant, and got the following reply
>
> "Dear Bidder,
> Just tell them you bought the phone off of ebay. There is a
> short waiting period where they free the esn from the lost
> list, and then it is ready to activate."
>
> As I mentioned above since the seller has good feedback, this leaves me
> to believe he has know experience with doing this, but I have not seen
> anything of this nature on the forum.
>
> It was a older phone, and I really have no interest in bidding on this
> particular phone, but was wondering if anyone could verify or ridicule
> the scenario. Doesn't sound right to me???
> [posted via phonescoop.com]

Boy, I HOPE that's not true. I had a phone stolen a few weeks ago so I
reported it to Sprint and I ended up buying a replacement. I'd hope that if
someone tried to activate a phone that was reported stolen then purchased on
eBay, Sprint would either refuse or at least contact the original owner to
confirm that it was found.

I and others had questions on this subject some weeks ago;' I would hope
that a stolen phone would never be able to used; but there apparently
is some process whereby a "lost" phone can be brought back on line; I
assumed only by the previous legitimate owner. Some of the sprint
people had offered some opinions but it left me unclear as to exactly
what the policy was.
One of them seem to suggest that after a certain length of time, they
could be re activated without the original owner being involved. The
distinction would be that the phone was not stolen,.

Probably I just need to call c/s and ask.


"mcg" <[email protected]> wrote in article
<[email protected]>:
> "p lane" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > I was looking over some phones on Ebay, and in the description of a
> > phone, of a seller with very good feedback had the following statement:
> >
> > "I reported this phone lost to sprint, replaced it with an upgrade, and
> > then found it. The ESN on this phone must be reset in order to activate
> > with Sprint."
> >
> > I emailed asking what "reset" meant, and got the following reply
> >
> > "Dear Bidder,
> > Just tell them you bought the phone off of ebay. There is a
> > short waiting period where they free the esn from the lost
> > list, and then it is ready to activate."
> >
> > As I mentioned above since the seller has good feedback, this leaves me
> > to believe he has know experience with doing this, but I have not seen
> > anything of this nature on the forum.
> >
> > It was a older phone, and I really have no interest in bidding on this
> > particular phone, but was wondering if anyone could verify or ridicule
> > the scenario. Doesn't sound right to me???
> > [posted via phonescoop.com]
>
> Boy, I HOPE that's not true. I had a phone stolen a few weeks ago so I
> reported it to Sprint and I ended up buying a replacement. I'd hope that if
> someone tried to activate a phone that was reported stolen then purchased on
> eBay, Sprint would either refuse or at least contact the original owner to
> confirm that it was found.
>
>

[posted via phonescoop.com]

i can speak for sprint. but with other carriers it is the original owner
of the phone. ie the one who reported it lost/stolen who must have the
esn cleared.

[email protected] (p lane) wrote in article
<[email protected]>:
> I was looking over some phones on Ebay, and in the description of a
> phone, of a seller with very good feedback had the following statement:
>
> "I reported this phone lost to sprint, replaced it with an upgrade, and
> then found it. The ESN on this phone must be reset in order to activate
> with Sprint."
>
> I emailed asking what "reset" meant, and got the following reply
>
> "Dear Bidder,
> Just tell them you bought the phone off of ebay. There is a
> short waiting period where they free the esn from the lost
> list, and then it is ready to activate."
>
> As I mentioned above since the seller has good feedback, this leaves me
> to believe he has know experience with doing this, but I have not seen
> anything of this nature on the forum.
>
> It was a older phone, and I really have no interest in bidding on this
> particular phone, but was wondering if anyone could verify or ridicule
> the scenario. Doesn't sound right to me???
>
> [posted via phonescoop.com]

[posted via phonescoop.com]

p lane wrote:

> I was looking over some phones on Ebay, and in the description of a
> phone, of a seller with very good feedback had the following statement:
>
> "I reported this phone lost to sprint, replaced it with an upgrade, and
> then found it. The ESN on this phone must be reset in order to activate
> with Sprint."

> I emailed asking what "reset" meant, and got the following reply
>
> "Dear Bidder,
> Just tell them you bought the phone off of ebay. There is a
> short waiting period where they free the esn from the lost
> list, and then it is ready to activate."

Hehehe... no, it's not that easy at all. A random eBay bidder can't
just waltz into a Sprint store and have a lost phone reactivated.
Sprint has no way of determining that you actually did get the phone
legitimately, or that the seller did.

If this truly was a legit phone, then the SELLER would go to a Sprint
store, and say "gee whiz, I found my phone! Can you remove it from the
blacklist?" and then after presenting his photo ID and verifying that it
is he, the owner of the phone, requesting this, they would unblock it
after a few days waiting period. And then he wouldn't have to place his
little blurb about it being a blacklisted phone on the auction page, and
the winning bidder could activate this phone and never be the wiser.

If he's unwilling to do this, then either a. the phone was never
legitimately his to begin with, or b. he had his phone replaced through
the equipment replacement program and realizes that this "found" phone
is actually now the property of the insurance company who replaced his
phone.


> As I mentioned above since the seller has good feedback, this leaves me
> to believe he has know experience with doing this, but I have not seen
> anything of this nature on the forum.

Regardless of feedback, I would be wary. It's similar to shopping for a
used car and the seller says something like "this car was reported
stolen and I bought a new one, but then one day I found it again
alongside the road! All you have to do is take this car to the police
department and tell them it's not stolen anymore, and you're all set!"
Do you honestly think the cops would believe your story? Probably not,
so neither should you believe *his* story.



--
E-mail fudged to thwart spammers.
Transpose the c's and a's in my e-mail address to reply.

"p lane" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...

> "Dear Bidder,
> Just tell them you bought the phone off of ebay. There is a
> short waiting period where they free the esn from the lost
> list, and then it is ready to activate."

Many years ago, in driver education courses (given my driving record you'd
think I never took such things) the instructor offered a saying regarding
headlight use. "If you wonder, 'Should I be using my headlights?' then you
probably should."

Here's my comments on your eBay situation: If you wonder, "Is there
something suspect about this transaction? Am I buying something which will
cause me grief?" then it probably will and you ought to avoid such a
transaction.

Hopper