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Help s4 blacklisted?

F

fieldzy0

Lurker
I unlocked the s4 my son bought and nothing was working, so I looked up imei on Canada block list and yup its on the blacklist. Now what do I do and how to fix this? A lot of people are getting ripped off with this stuff.
 
Who did your son buy the S4 from? If from a store, take it back to them for a replacement.

If from another individual, it is possible that it was stolen - if so, you may be out of luck. Check with your local law enforcement to see if they can apprehend the person who sold it to you.
 
This is pissing people off, you have these little pricks selling phones to people knowing that they are stolen and will not work. What is going on in this world.
 
This is why buying second hand phones from someone you don't know or have reason to trust is not a good idea.

I hope it was cheap because you are probably out of luck.
 
A big suggestion and one I've personally used when I've purchased phones: do it all in person and meet at a cell phone store. Back when I used to buy and sell phones to make a little extra money I would always meet the person at a cell phone store to buy the phone. If they wouldn't agree to meet me at a simple AT&T store to verify the phone was clean, I didn't buy.

I know in your case you purchased online but still follow one golden rule: have them supply the IMEI and a pic of it on the actual phone if possible. If they don't comply then don't buy.
 
The only issue with that is that with a GSM phone, what's stopping the person from reporting it as stolen AFTER selling it to you?
 
That is indeed an issue and there has been at least one thread here where that happened. A user bought a phone that worked perfectly for a couple of weeks but then it mysteriously stopped working. It turned out that it had been reported stolen after being sold and had been blacklisted.

As far as I am aware, there is no way to protect yourself against this. At least we aren't iPhone users, apparently it's even more rife in that community.
 
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