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Buying a Refurbished IPhone? Follow These Tips to Avoid Any Fraudulent Practice

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Jeremy Hill
Buying a Refurbished IPhone? Follow These Tips to Avoid Any Fraudulent Practice

The refurbished sales market is a great field for frauds of all stripes. Many people buy smartphones and other gadgets on online auction ad shopping platforms.

Thousands of gadgets are sold and bought at such sites, including popular Apple devices. There are many ways to fool a victim who is going to sell/buy a phone from a third-party vendor. Let’s read about the most popular ones:

  1. Stolen devices

If you are buying a refurbished iPhone, there is a good chance that you would be offered a stolen device. There is no way to know the surety, you need to look for indirect signs. Make sure that you check the seller’s profile and reviews from other customers. Look through other ads posted by him. Also while checking the device, make sure to compare the serial number, IMEI number, compare the code of the device.

  1. Broken devices and phones made of wax and paper

Not just individuals, but even local stores and online stores can deceive you. It’s a fact that many fraudsters are able to convince buyers with excuses like the battery is low and you need to charge it by yourself and sell broken or defective devices.

In an incident reported by a victim, he happened to get in contact with a man through a Craigslist ad, and bought iPad Mini and iPhone 4S.  The seller, at the time of delivery, took the money and ran away leaving behind Apple boxes with bricks of melted wax and a paper notebook.

  1. Too low a price and advanced payment

Be careful when you are offered goods at a very low price, especially if it comes with an obligatory advance payment. Fraudulent sellers use many convincing arguments like gifted devices, need for money etc. but you never know if you get broken device, a used device instead of a new one, or no device at all. An advance payment is a big no-no too. The only exception is if you are buying a refurbished iPhone from a trusted salesman, portal or a shop specializing in the same.

  1. Chinese iPhones with Android OS

Some people wittingly buy fake iPhones from Chinese manufacturers, just because of their cheap price. These iPhones often run on Android OS, than iOS. Well, that’s their choice! But since they look like real ones, these forgeries are also sold as original devices. If you wish to check your device for the same, all you need to check is which store it supports. If it has a Google Play store, it’s a forged device, while if it has an App Store, it would be an real iPhone.

  1. Robbery, counterfeit notes, cheating and other old-fashion frauds

If you are buying a used or refurbished iPhone from a local seller, arrange a meeting at a public place to protect yourself from robbery and check the device on the site itself if it works properly.

If you are paying cask, try to pay the exact amount of money to avoid getting any counterfeited notes in change. Do not agree to exchange your money for smaller or bigger denominations. Be vigilant and never shy to re-count your money or check the device again.

  1. Fake shops and unfair sellers/buyers

There’s no limit to the fakeness these days. Hackers also create day-fly websites that are actually fake online shops to gather information about credit cards and other sensitive data. They can fetch your banking information, allegedly for a money transfer or to steal money from your credit card.

Final Words:

All of the above advices work well for trade of any kind of gadget. Apple devices, especially Apple iPhones, are attractive to fraudsters and as a vigilant customer, you should keep the above points in mind when shopping for a refurbished iPhone next.

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Jeremy Hill
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