A recent scamming case in Lethbridge has prompted a warning from police. The Lethbridge Police Service (LPS) says people buying a cell phone on the used market should be aware of potential scammers who sell phones that end up blacklisted by service providers and become unusable.
“Fraudsters will buy a new phone with zero down or a very small deposit and finance the outstanding balance. They turn around and sell the phone for cash, then default on the contract,” reads a news release from LPS. “Once a phone has been blacklisted it cannot be connected to wireless networks. The new owner usually has no recourse and is out the money and the phone.
There are variations to the scam, including reporting a phone as stolen after a sale in order to get a replacement, while pocketing the buyer’s cash.
“While you can check a phone IMEI number on DeviceCheckCanada to see if its been blacklisted – which is always recommended – in cases where the scammer reports the phone as lost or stolen or defaults on their contract after selling the device, doing an initial check before the sale won’t identify any issues leading buyers to believe it is safe to proceed with the transaction,” LPS says.
Police say the best way to avoid being a victim is to only buy used cell phones from reputable distributors or someone you know and trust.
