iPhone Scam

Dublinstiofán

Was just speaking to a friend of mine who has fallen victim to an unfortunate skam.

Guy sold her an iPhone 3GS for €200. It worked for two weeks and the signal went.
I had a look at it restored it a few times but nothing. Couldn't get the signal back
thought it was a general hardware fault and i gave it back to her.

She decided to send it off to one of the recycling firms to see if she could get even
€100 of her money back to offset the cost and tonight she received an e-mail saying
that the iPhone was checked using the CheckMend system and that it had been
blacklisted and will be destroyed in 30 days if it is still red flagged by then.

Anyway long and the short of it is:

A) the guy who sold it to her stole it and sold it on in a hurry
the guy who sold it blacklisted it and claimed on his insurance
C) Unlikely, but the original owner or another previous owner before both of them
suddenly discovered how to blacklist a previously stolen device.

Anyway i feel very sorry for her she had saved up and tried to pick the best iphone she
could afford so i'd love to set up some sort of sting to get the guy in my presence to
'ask him' some questions. Or better still get his mobile number and get the gards on
to him.

joshuahemedi@hotmail.com is his e-mail address

This is the actual add, its still online

Any suggestions on how to catch the bugger would be great!

StupidLikeAFox

Try get onto Gumtree and see what they say

http://gumtree.force.com/Help/articles/FAQ/I-ve-been-the-victim-of-a-scam-What-should-I-do?retURL=%2Findex.jsp&popup=false&at=I%27ve%20been%20the%20victim%20of%20a%20scam.%20What%20should%20I%20do?

Shield

This needs to be reported to the Gardaí now because someone else could be taken in. Give them all the gumtree info, a printed screenshot if possible, and they will take it from there.

jive

http://www.iclarified.com/entry/comments.php?enid=657#commentsanchor

you could just try changing the IMEI and the phone will work fine but I'm not sure how legal that is so you might want to look into that if you're worried about it.

try adding him and from there you can find out what he looks like + show image to the guards or find out where he's from / going to be going on a certain day and confront him about it yourself if needs be

A good way to get his phone number would be adding him with a females account and chatting him up. I'm not condoning any of the above behaviour / routes of action but I am just giving you some ideas


EDIT: Not sure if I'm allowed to post someones FB profile so mod can edit this if needs be, read forum charter and it doesn't specify but it may understandably be against the rules of boards.ie as a whole, I'm not sure though

Dublinstiofán

psni wrote: »

This needs to be reported to the Gardaí now because someone else could be taken in. Give them all the gumtree info, a printed screenshot if possible, and they will take it from there.

Sent on the info to Gumtree.

Will tell her to report it to the gards.

Have also taken a few other steps

roast

jive wrote: »

you could just try changing the IMEI and the phone will work fine but I'm not sure how legal that is so you might want to look into that if you're worried about it.

A lot more difficult than it sounds, and also very illegal.

jive

roast wrote: »

A lot more difficult than it sounds, and also very illegal.

Not particularly difficult with the iPhone looking at that tutorial above!

Thought as much about it being legal or not though! Worst comes to worst OP you can sell the phone to someone abroad because it won't be blacklisted (it will still be blacklisted in UK as far as I know) on their networks and should work fine

Dublinstiofán

I think what you don't understand is that the phone is gone. She got an e-mail from the phone recycling company saying it will be destroyed in 30 days if its not taken off the Blacklist, which is unlikely (As it can only be done by the person who blacklisted it in the first place)

So changing the IMEI is just not gonna happen, illegal or not!

StupidLikeAFox

Wait a sec, who gives the phone company the right to destroy the phone?

matchthis

Guessing if it is blacklisted by mistake, then it can be easily reactivated if legit. It would only have been blacklisted if it were reported lost/ stolen and in their eyes they could not give back out a stolen phone. Same goes with anything stolen, although maybe it should be turned over to the guards. Possibly mail them back op and find out

seanybiker

I'd ask for it back so I could use it as evidence against the person who sold it to me. Even if they wont send it back to your mate I would chance asking them to send it to the local guarda station so it could be used as proof of scam

massy086

i fully agree they have no right to keep or destroy the phone demand it back or they will strip it for parts and sell the parts

Dublinstiofán

Not a bad idea. However i doubt she is going to take the case any further. She cant really prove the previous owner blacklisted it and hasn't got the phone anymore so the evidence is also missing.

She received correspondence from them today stating that it was infact blacklisted in June 2010. Now how it could have been used for almost another full year i'll never know.

I don't know whether it suggests guilt on the previous buyers part at all that being the case. Maybe he had used the trick above and changed the imei. And when the software was updated on the phone the original IMEI was restored and the block became effective again.

I would like to see her get the phone back though if possible. I really dont believe they have any right to keep it. I'd prefer it to be sent to the Garda station and rotting in the evidence drawer than those guys maybe doing something with it or sending it back to Apple to be Refurbished and sent on to O2! As i'm sure they are.

jive

Dublinstiofán wrote: »

I would like to see her get the phone back though if possible. I really dont believe they have any right to keep it. I'd prefer it to be sent to the Garda station and rotting in the evidence drawer than those guys maybe doing something with it or sending it back to Apple to be Refurbished and sent on to O2! As i'm sure they are.

There's no way they have the right to hold onto your phone. Just because it's blacklisted doesn't mean you don't want to use it for games or music. I don't know what company you are dealing with but I'd tell them where to go if they refused to give me my phone back.

Dublinstiofán

ColHol wrote: »

Try get onto Gumtree and see what they say

http://gumtree.force.com/Help/articles/FAQ/I-ve-been-the-victim-of-a-scam-What-should-I-do?retURL=%2Findex.jsp&popup=false&at=I%27ve%20been%20the%20victim%20of%20a%20scam.%20What%20should%20I%20do?

Just a quick update on this, i got no response from Gumtree on this
matter since i posted this. And my friend has contacted the recycling
firm trying to get the device back but to no avail.

Lesson learned people!

freeze4real

Dublinstiofán wrote: »

Just a quick update on this, i got no response from Gumtree on this
matter since i posted this. And my friend has contacted the recycling
firm trying to get the device back but to no avail.

Lesson learned people!

Tell your friend to contact his solicitor or lawyer. What if the gardai wanted the phone as evidence.

Without the phone there's no evidence.

If she doesn't get it back she should sue them.

tsoparno

Dublinstiofán wrote: »

Just a quick update on this, i got no response from Gumtree on this
matter since i posted this. And my friend has contacted the recycling
firm trying to get the device back but to no avail.

Lesson learned people!

i would let the company know that the matter is now with the gaurds and if they destroy it they are destroying evidence of a crime imo it should be enough to get it back.
but in saying that we dont know what rules they have to adhere to.

Dublinstiofán

tsoparno wrote: »

i would let the company know that the matter is now with the gaurds and if they destroy it they are destroying evidence of a crime imo it should be enough to get it back.
but in saying that we dont know what rules they have to adhere to.

In their terms and conditions it doesn't say anything about keeping/destroying a phone that is on the list. It mentions that it will consult the database to check that the phone is not stolen but doesn't mention the implications if it is.

I spoke to her last night and she said she would send an e-mail off to them today to try get it back, mentioning its evidence in a garda investigation.