Is there a way to see if a cell phone is stolen?

Question

My 'friend' wants to sell me a cell phone but I think its stolen. Is there a way to tell for sure. FYI: The serial code is scrapped off.

Answer 1

If you can turn the phone on, somewhere in the programming will be what's called an IMEI #, and the carrier can tell you who it is supposed to belong to.
Just BUY a phone from a store, even if it's a thrft store, youll have a receipt.
There is too much trouble you can get into over foolishness -the phone your friend has might belong to a missing person or a homicide victim, then where will you be?
Watch Court TV, the Fed & some local municipalities can track your whereabouts by way of the very towers that transmit a phone's signal, and I suspect you would NOT want to be implicated in something heinous.

Answer 2

I had mine stolen out of my car.I left my car unlocked and alone for 3 minutes.I just carried a case a beer in the house came back out and it was gone.It was on new years eve so i could not get a hold of anyone to cancel it.They racked up a 100 dollars on it ,before it was cancelled.The cell phone company did not charge me for it since i filed a police report the minute i realized it was stolen.I gave the police the phone bill with all the numbers that they called,but nothing was really done about it.The police have more things to worry about than a stolen cell phone.

Answer 3

if the esn is on the reverse list that means it is stolen. you can call verizon adn see if the phone can be activated. but if stolen. you will never get the service to opeate.

ex vz employee