Bought an Iphone 4 off of craigslist, How do I go about activating it? (Probably stolen)

[Seraphise]

If I was to plug in the phone would it be recognized by itunes as a stolen phone? Im an at&t customer so I dont need to flash the phone, I just need to activate it.

[Ksandra]

All right, I'll bite. Why the fuck are you buying stolen goods for? You know if they catch it and they find out you knew it was probably stolen, you're held liable right?

[DAKPluto]

unless I'm mistaken all you need to do is put in your microsim and you are good to go. But probably more to it than that >.>

[hey]

All right, I'll bite. Why the fuck are you buying stolen goods for? You know if they catch it and they find out you knew it was probably stolen, you're held liable right?

Wouldn't that make buying anything from Craigslist illegal? Because everything posted is "probably stolen".

Serious question, i don't know how that law works.

[Ksandra]

Wouldn't that make buying anything from Craigslist illegal? Because everything posted is "probably stolen".

I don't think everything is probably stolenthere, but I'd avoid electronics for the most part. I'm not sure how they view craig's list tbh, but I know it's true that if you suspect something is stolen but buy it anyways you could be held liable if they think you knew.

[hey]

but I know it's true that if you suspect something is stolen but buy it anyways you could be held liable if they think you knew.

Right. I guess what i am asking is how sure one needs to be that something is stolen. Surely just having some tiny suspicion that something could possibly have maybe been stolen is not enough?

[Ksandra]

Right. I guess what i am asking is how sure one needs to be that something is stolen. Surely just having some tiny suspicion that something could possibly have maybe been stolen is not enough?

I'm not sure what it is exactly, I think it's going to depend on how bitchy the cops are if they find you having it.

article on it:

criminalattorney.com/news/online-fraud/


@ op, if you haven't actually picked it up yet, some good advice I read is that if you don't want to buy it stolen, ask to see the bill. If they can provide a bill for it then it's probably not stolen. But ya, sad thing for you is, even if they don't press charges, if they do find the phone they'll give it back to the owner and you won't get your money refunded.

[Overburn]

It depends by state, but it generally comes down to the whole 'reasonable doubt' aspect that you knew it was stolen. That usually means that either the person selling it to you said it was stolen and you bought it anyways, or there was concrete proof that it was stolen and you did nothing to report it.

[Militant]

Do ATT phones use ESN numbers? If so, always, always, always, call the provider before purchasing and run the ESN number, if it's reported on the stolen list, it'll never work.

[hey]

It depends by state, but it generally comes down to the whole 'reasonable doubt' aspect that you knew it was stolen. That usually means that either the person selling it to you said it was stolen and you bought it anyways, or there was concrete proof that it was stolen and you did nothing to report it.

Ah, i see. Thanks.

article on it:

criminalattorney.com/news/online-fraud/

Seems inconsistent? That says both that you would need to prove you didn't know it was stolen, and that the police would need to prove you knew it was stolen.

Also,

Avoid sellers who take a long time to reply to questions or who try to persuade you to trade offline.

[Ksandra]

Seems inconsistent?

That's why I said I think it's going to be based of your jurisdiction and how pissy the officers are who handle it more than anything. Some may be insanely strict on it, some might not.

[Militant]

Rule of thumb; If its a "too good to be true" type of deal, like say, an iPhone 4 for $100 or something, some places will say you should have known it was stolen at that price, and therefore you could be charged with having stolen property.

[Tyche]

How much did you pay for it? I'd venture to guess it's stolen if it's not damaged and under $250. What's really strange is eBay will pay you over $300 for the cheapest model iphone 4 up front, no auction.

[Tyche]

A lot of iphone's have tracking software as well, so, if it is stolen, good luck.

[Seraphise]

So legality aside, does anyone know what steps I can take to make it work. Even if it is stolen and gets bricked I still wouldn't mind using it as an ipod.
What measures would I need to bust through the Passcode. Is it possible to do a full restore on it without connecting to itunes?
Basicaly when it's identified by itunes it won't do anything until you enter the passcode for the phone.
Should I look into methods of jailbreaking to see if there is a form of jailbreak that you can do without accessing the net from the phone?

[Tyche]

First thing to do is check it for a sim card, and if there's one there, rip it out. Find my iphone is terrible security as it can be thwarted by simply discarding the sim. There's some jailbreak security apps that are much better, and if installed, it would report your phone number and location to the owner. Just wipe the phone before you put in your sim and you should be fine. Or you could buy my iphone that isn't stolen.

[Denchi]

Restore iPhone with passcode = DFU restore. Look on the internets.