A phone that powers on and connects to Wi-Fi can still be unusable on a cellular network — reported lost, stolen, or left with an unpaid balance by a previous owner. A one-minute check before you pay catches this every time.
Do this before you hand over any money
- 1Get the IMEI from the seller in personAsk them to dial *#06# on the actual phone in front of you, or open Settings → General → About (iPhone) / About phone → Status (Android).
- 2Compare it against the box and SIM trayIf the phone has its original box, the IMEI printed there should match. Some phones also print it on the SIM tray.
- 3Run a checkUse IMEI checks to confirm blacklist status, and general model/carrier details, before you commit to buying. This takes under a minute and works from any phone or laptop browser, right there in the room.
- 4Confirm it isn't carrier-locked, or that you're fine with the network it's locked toSee carrier-locked vs. unlocked phones if you need to unlock it afterward.
| Check | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Blacklist status | Whether the phone was reported lost, stolen, or left unpaid |
| Carrier lock status | Whether it's restricted to one network — see the locked-vs-unlocked guide |
| Activation lock (iCloud/Google) | A separate account-level lock — see the guide on iCloud/FRP locks |
A blacklist flag and an account lock (iCloud Activation Lock or Google FRP) are two different problems, and neither one is something a carrier unlock fixes. See iCloud and FRP locks vs. carrier locks so you know which questions to ask the seller.
Marketplace vs. private sale
Buying through a marketplace with buyer protection adds a layer of recourse a private, in-person sale usually doesn't have — but neither replaces checking the IMEI yourself. A listing that already states 'clean IMEI, unlocked' is a claim, not a guarantee, until you've verified it against the actual device in front of you.
Shipped purchases add one more wrinkle: you can't dial *#06# on a phone that hasn't arrived yet. Where possible, ask the seller to send a photo of the IMEI dialed live on the phone with today's date visible somewhere in frame, and run the check before the item ships rather than after — a return process is a worse fallback than not paying for a bad phone in the first place.
If everything checks out
A clean IMEI check doesn't guarantee the phone is unlocked to every network — check that separately, and if it's locked to a network you don't want, unlocking it is a normal next step, not a red flag on its own. It also doesn't tell you about cosmetic condition or battery health, which are worth checking with your own eyes regardless of what any report says.
