Tuesday Tip: Has Your Used Phone Been Reported Stolen?

Crop unrecognizable guy with mobile phone browsing and showing photos to female friends while sitting together near table with laptop in daytimePhones are expensive. Instead of automatically buying a new phone when you need one, many people look for used versions of popular models to save some money. If you know what you are doing, you can get a great deal by taking this route.

Just like anything you buy used, however, you need to make sure the phone is good working order and not stolen.

If it is stolen, you can find yourself in a situation where your carrier will not connect it to their mobile network, negating your good deal since you now have no way to use it.

Good news: the wireless industry created Stolen Phone Checker, an easy online tool where you can check to see if the phone you want to purchase is stolen. Simply go to the site and enter the phone’s IMEI, MEID, or ESN number in the search box, and it will tell you if the phone has ever been stolen.

To find your IMEI and MEID number on an iPhone, go to Settings, tap General, tap About, then scroll down to see your phone’s unique numbers. This service is limited to 5 free queries per day by U.S. consumers only, but that shouldn’t be an issue for most people.

Happy and safe phone shopping!

Kristen Evangelista Headshot

Kristen Evangelista: In her role as Client Manager II with Network 1, Kristen is the liaison and main point of contact for clients in both the medical and financial professions. She is skilled at listening to her clients’ needs and acting as a liaison between them and the field engineers and support team.

Network 1 designs, builds and supports the IT you need to run your business more securely, productively and successfully. Whether you want to outsource all of your IT needs to a reliable, responsive, service-oriented company, or need to supplement the work of your internal IT staff, we will carefully evaluate where you are now, discuss where you want to go and implement and support a plan to get you there with as little interruption as possible.
Leave a Comment



Related Posts