Buying a used mobile

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Hi all,

after losing my work phone, and smashing the screen on mine, am looking through gumtree to buy a temporary phone.

My quation, what is to stop a thieving scrote logging their phoen as lost after they sell it to me?

Trying in vain to find a phone for sale with a landline number, at least that will give me some confidence.
 
Nothing. I wouldn't buy one from gumtree under any circumstances!

Check tesco/carphone warehouse. They invariably have dirt cheap basic phones.

Expanys also have sim free ones and refurbs.
 
Thats what i thought...

Will have a nose at the local supermarkets - need a cheap phone that i can tether to, so that may rule out a lot of the cheaper ones. Thanks both
 
Stolen phones usually come with no box and sometimes no charger. Just make sure you get both, with matching numbers.

If you are buying used it makes sense to get the very cheapest. On ebay Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the bargain phone. I am more than happy with mine until they get 4G well across the country.

Other option is Nexus 4 from Google, but note that nexus 5 is due almost any day now.
 
daugirdas said:
Stolen phones usually come with no box and sometimes no charger. Just make sure you get both, with matching numbers. If you are buying used it makes sense to get the very cheapest. On ebay Samsung Galaxy Nexus is the bargain phone. I am more than happy with mine until they get 4G well across the country. Other option is Nexus 4 from Google, but note that nexus 5 is due almost any day now.
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Not if they've got them on a contract or used a stolen card to get one. It's quite the done thing to sign up for a long contract to get an expensive phone free. Then sell the phone and cancel the payments. Eventually the network bars the imei and you have a paper weight.
 
Looks like gumtree is out for a mobile.. Going to wait for one to pop up on here. Not sure how long work are going to take to replace my phone.

can't believe how useless i have been with my phones the past week!
 
Rapscallion said:
Looks like gumtree is out for a mobile.. Going to wait for one to pop up on here.
Click to expand...

It's not that clear cut, gumtree just needs more care taken with buying, as you mentioned earlier, get a landline number if possible, only buy it if you can go to the sellers house (don't agree to meet at MacDonald's or similar). Only buy if it comes with the box and original charger etc. Ask for paperwork if they say it's an unwanted upgrade.

Just be careful, there are still genuine people on Gumtree.

You could also look at eBay, buy from someone with good feedback and it's pretty safe there as well.
 
srichards said:
Not if they've got them on a contract or used a stolen card to get one. It's quite the done thing to sign up for a long contract to get an expensive phone free. Then sell the phone and cancel the payments. Eventually the network bars the imei and you have a paper weight.
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Of course they can, but with nexus family this far less likely. They are simply not bought on contract most of the time

But by all means ask to see all papers, and sign a binding contract with a seller
 
daugirdas said:
Of course they can, but with nexus family this far less likely. They are simply not bought on contract most of the time

But by all means ask to see all papers, and sign a binding contract with a seller
Click to expand...

Like signing a contract is going to mean anything to someone who is selling a stolen phone.

Also being someone who had their account hacked a coupe of years back they are very clever. Ordered 2 phones and contacts plus 1 or 2 sim only contacts changed my billing address and the first I knew about it was when £900 iirc was taken by direct debit. They stopped using the phones the day before the billing date and they were never used again. Took me about 4 or 5 months to get the money back even though they admitted it was fraud and they had let someone change all my account details without any security questions. So as I said contacts mean nothing
 
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