iPhone 4 falsely reported as stolen, now what???

cr_ · Jan 15, 2012

Ok, here's the story - a friends daughter got the bright idea to share a phone on her boyfriends account, they break up, he reports her phone stolen, he receives a replacement, now her phone doesn't work (of course). My friend buys her daughter a new iphone, the one reported stolen lies around for 5 months collecting dust.

So the question is, how would we go about using this phone? I think they tried something months ago, but they are not the most tech savvy people and couldn't really tell me what the outcome was, other than Verizon gave them the run-around. The phone was insured through a third party as near as I can tell, so I don't know how Verizon really feels about the whole thing.

What do you all think would be the best course of action? Anyone have experience in a situation like this? Switch to ATT? Sell it on ebay?

thepushercg · Jan 15, 2012

sell it on ebay as a bad esn. chances are slim to none you would get verizon to relist the esn, plus the insurance has allready paid out. so the phone could possible be used on another carrier , or for parts or for a ipod

Member · Jan 15, 2012

There are also alternates to sell on like, Craigslist.

popi09 · Jan 16, 2012

You should be able to use it after 6months or so. I found a bad esn phone for over 6 months and tried to activate it and it worked! Or you could sell it on CL or ebay

cr_ · Jan 16, 2012

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll wait another month or two and see if it clears, then if it doesn't maybe I will try to learn how to "flash" it to another carrier. Anyone have any thoughts on that idea? Is it possible? Recommend a tutorial?? We are in a smallish town (Medford Oregon) so our selection of carriers is limited. c

allykatt · Jan 24, 2012

We don't advocate such behaviors here!

SweetPoison · Jan 24, 2012

We don't promote dishonest activities here!

This thread has been re-opened. Please understand that there will be consequences attached to any further discussion of dishonest and illegal advice.

appleiphonepro · Feb 13, 2012

call apple support

thewitt · Feb 13, 2012

cr_ said:
Ok, here's the story - a friends daughter got the bright idea to share a phone on her boyfriends account, they break up, he reports her phone stolen, he receives a replacement, now her phone doesn't work (of course). My friend buys her daughter a new iphone, the one reported stolen lies around for 5 months collecting dust.

"He receives a replacement"

Contact his insurance company. They may be able to help since the phone was not actually stolen and they replaced it. They own it now by the sounds of this anyway...