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Risk of Phone getting blacklisted?
Hi, i recently bought a phone off of eBay. It is a brand new, sealed , never opened IPhone from Russia. I have confirmed that it has never been activated, and everything looks clear from an IMEI check...
$700? New? That is so far below the actual value of the phone. That should be the first indication it's extremely likely to be a scam. Even a new 256GB iPhone 11 (non-Pro) is $1,059 Canadian. That same phone in Russia is 69 990.00 pyб or $1,200 Canadian. Makes even less sense
There is a long running eBay scam where scammers are selling what look like sealed retail boxed iPhones but the box either ships with a weight or a rock inside or some other old model of phone. It's entirely possible that the IMEI that the seller gave you isn't even from a Russian or European phone. It's also possible that the scammer bought an empty iPhone box online from the US or other country and is just trying to use it to draw in potential victims. If there is an iPhone in there you should also be cautious if it's a stolen one from the looting in the US earlier this year. Apple will have blacklisted those ones internally so the IMEI won't matter. Additionally Apple devices stolen from the US have been smuggled to Russia and are being re-sold from there.
Some additional reading:
Buy local or don't buy one at all especially from Russia. Unless you want to throw it away and be out X amount of money..I guess if you purchased through eBay and paid with paypal you would be somewhat protected but still it's high risk.
