activating a stolen phone BEFORE it gets reported?

I would imagine their system would not let the same phone be registered on 2 accounts concurrently.

 

Beyond that, if for some reason it wasn't active on another account and was reported stolen, the ESN would be blocked, ie the phone would stop working and questions would arise that most likely a police officer would ask.

 

Again, if you didn't realize your phone was missing and someone else tried to activate it the system would not allow the activation because it was already activated on another account. If you did inadvertently receive a stolen phone from an ebay seller you would be guilty of receiving stolen property, whether or not you knew it was stolen or not.

-Jay

 

Not Jay, but let me give it a try also.

It is two entirely different scenarios:

1. Your old e815 or lg400 are no longer active. You can certainly sell or give them away and the new owner will be able to activate them.

2. A lost or stolen phone is still active on the rightful owner's account. All the other posters before me have already explained the consequences of trying to activate a lost or stolen phone.

Hope this helps

 

But then the phone would be deactivated, right?

 

Bottomline here is, don't try to activate a phone you know has been lost/stolen because it is either still active on the owner's account, or if not, they might report it and the phone will stop working and you won't be able to activate it again.

The point is, regardless the case:

- if you have a phone that you know was lost/stolen
- if you acquire a phone that you know was lost/stolen

Do do not try to activate it, do not sell it, do not buy it.

Hope this makes it clear.

The best course of action is, if you know they original owner, or have some way to get in touch with them (the phonebook is a good place to start looking), the best thing to do is return the phone to the owner. That's about the only way the phone can be active on the network again without problems.

 

Wirelessly posted (LGE-VX8300/1.0 UP.Browser/6.2.3.2 (GUI) MMP/2.0)

I think he was asking about a phone new still in box stole from a store or shipment ?

 

I think the legality sector we're getting in here requires close moderation and/or that the thread be closed/deleted. Regarding activating a stolen phone that was taken prior to being activated on an account, the phone would most likely be activated, however, once the phone's EIN is reported, the system will shut the phone off automatically, plus the authorities would be alerted to the subscriber's physical address and so forth.

My personal advice: If you've stolen a phone from someone or a business, go for it, walk into a corp store and try to activate it, worst that's gonna happen is the law will catch up to you. It's not worth trying to steal phones, as EIN's are tracked from the time of imprintation, during shipping, etc, and in the case of VZW or a dealer, once that number is reported (and it will be) it's automatically blacklisted in the system and authorities are alerted.

 

I agree, This thread should be closed. The OP should know by now that if a stolen phone is activated Verizon will discontinue service as soon as it is reported stolen.

-Jay

 

on sites like ebay one is buying in good faith so the ? put forth is good and should be looked at from all angles and i did not say i stole or any one stole one them selves. but with internet sales it is a good question.

 

I would recommend contacting the seller and getting the phone's serial number, then call your provider and ask if they would activate the phone on your account before you bid (don't activate then, just ask if it can be activated). This way there will be no suprises once you have already paid, and you are stuck with a phone you can't activate.

-Jay

 

if stolen from a storge house or from store room might be months befor it is noted as lost during a inventory of sold and stored items a hotle i worked had pre paid cells to cell to guest who need them and often we would find a cuople missing after a inventory of what we should of still had and sold. so i only deal with power sellers that have been on ebay from the dawn of time. for some items.
one most remember all the items that go missing at a loading dock from a boat and air port. every day.(funny the amount of theft of items under closly gaurded ports if they cant see that how do they see a threat)

 

If that is the case that you want no possibility of purchasing a stolen phone then you need to purchase it directly from your carrier. In any other instance if you do purchase a stolen phone it will cease to function after it is reported stolen. That is why there is so much discussion on closing the thread. Your question has been answered many times over. No matter what "What if?" questions come up a stolen phone will be deactivated once reported. If it is currently activated on another account it cannot be activated. I'm not quite sure how to make this more clear.

 

I'm done with this thread. If you already think you have the answer then why do you continue to ask the same question.

 

yea why do you need to know this. are you like stealing mass quanitys of phones or something

 

If you are asking question here is because you have a reason to believe that the phone may be stolen and as such you should do your best to find out. Unfortunately, nobody here will know if the phone was stolen or not. The best place to ask is the original buyer or the original carrier. Being an "innocent buyer" from Ebay is not an excuse. If the phone turns out to be reported stolen, then you should not be using it.

End of story.