Bought used phone with clean ESN - how to prove ownership?

[UncleMike]

I bought a used LG Ally last week and it has a clean ESN, which I verified with Verizon. While on the phone I asked how I could now document the phone as mine, so that in the event the original owner reports the phone lost or stolen, or their account goes into default, the phone doesn't get blacklisted. Their answer was that once the phone is activated on my account it is considered by Verizon to be mine. This sounds all well and good, except that I would be relying on Verizon to keep track of it, and my intent was to (and I already did) activate the phone on Page Plus (a Verizon MVNO).

What else, if anything, can/should I do to protect myself from the phone being reported lost/stolen, or the original account going into default?

 

[Californium89]

once the ESN is open and you Activate it on your Account it is considered yours... Verizon will have documents to see that it was taken off the original owners Account and put on yours.(only way to get that done is by the original owner doing a hardware swap or upgrading ) so your in the clear

 

[UncleMike]

Thanks for the info. Any idea if the same logic would apply when activating the phone on a Verizon MVNO, as opposed to Verizon itself? I know Verizon would have access to the fact that it's activated on their network, but they would have no way to tie that information to a specific customer.