Could my Stolen Verizon Droid 2 be in use on Page Plus?

[David Cramer]

Hi,

My phone was lost, then presumably stolen, a week ago. I found an eBay listing the first business day after it disappeared - it was definitely a stolen phone, and may have been mine.

• I asked seller for ESN
• The ESN was not valid on Verizon
• The ESN was valid on Page Plus
• The ESN was different from mine
• The Phone came with a generic charger only, no box, etc...
• The seller had orginally posted that he was selling a phone with an invalid ESN
• Posting was removed, resposted as Page Plus Droid 2
• Seller was selling other phones, some with valid others with invalid ESNs.
• Phone was lised first business day after I lost my phone, in the same city mine was lost
• I reported to eBay, automated response said deal with it through police
• Police wrote up report, have not heard since
• After informing the seller I had lost my phone and asking if this could be mine, he pulled the listing from eBay

Could this phone have a reprogrammed ESN? Which means, could it be mine?

If so, any advice on what to do? In the meantime, I have already purchased a new phone, but wold like to get this back.

Thanks for any tips, discussions,
David

[Vatothe0]

I had 100% ironclad proof of an ebay seller that sold a radio stolen from my car. Ebay and the police did nothing.

Sent from my DROIDX² using Tapatalk Pro

[David Cramer]

Did you try to contact the buyer?

[Vatothe0]

yeah. I even said, "The radio you sent to Eclipse for "repair" and never got back was mine. They sent it to me. Please contact me about the sale" and never heard back.

[David Cramer]

Ebay proftits off of theft, so why would they stop it.

Plus, I'm curious to know if stolen phones can be used on Page Plus with ESN reprogramming. If so, it would seem that Page Plus also profits from theft.

[WaltA]

... it was definitely a stolen phone, and may have been mine.

• The ESN was different from mine

If the ESN the seller sent you was indeed the ESN off the phone (and not simply one made up for his reply), then it could not be your phone.

[WaltA]

Plus, I'm curious to know if stolen phones can be used on Page Plus with ESN reprogramming. If so, it would seem that Page Plus also profits from theft.

I have some serious doubts that a person who casual finds a "lost" phone has the (expensive) equipment and parts required to re-program an ESN.

Also, Page Plus uses Verizon's network. While the ESN might have initially passed Page Plus's ESN checking, it would have to then pass all of Verizon's checking too before being truly activated.

[David Cramer]

Again, I called both Verizon and Page Plus to verify the ESN. Verizon said the ESN was invalid or lost/stolen. Page Plus said the ESN was for a Droid 2, active on its network. They even gave me the number of the phone which I was able to call. It rang, no answer.My guess is that the seller owns some sort of cell phone business.

How was the seller able to activate a phone with an invalid Verizon ESN on Page Plus? Did he reprogram it, or does he have some special access to Page Plus?

[WaltA]

Good question. If the ESN was still active on your Verizon account, any attempt to activate by anyone on Page Plus should eventually fail (even for you). The Verizon network can't have the same ESN associated with two different phone numbers/accounts. However, if you changed the ESN on your account (changed to a new phone), there might have been a very brief time period where someone else could activate the ESN before it got black listed.

I don't understand why you keep asking if your "lost" phone has had its ESN reprogrammed since you admit its original ESN is active on Page Plus? Am I missing something?

[David Cramer]

Verizon blacklisted my ESN as soon as my number was transferred over to a spare phone. I verified that my ESN is blacklisted on Page Plus as well.

I got the ESN used by the eBay seller, which I used to get the phone number tied to the phone. This ESN is not valid on Verizon, yet is in use on Page Plus with an associated telephone number. The seller claimed he could transfer the phone over to any other Page Plus account.

[Steve.G]

Wirelessly posted (Steve\'s phone: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; DROIDX Build/VZW) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1 480X854 motorola DROIDX)

There are millions of people using Ebay and lots of droids out there

[MountainBikerMark]

Wirelessly posted (Incredible y cool : Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; ADR6300 Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

If your home town is Mayberry or Hooterville then you may have a case but anywhere with a population of more than 14 and it being a very popular model I'd be a bit sceptical but not so absolute of it being yours

[veriztd]

Wirelessly posted (Incredible y cool : Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; ADR6300 Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

If your home town is Mayberry or Hooterville then you may have a case but anywhere with a population of more than 14 and it being a very popular model I'd be a bit sceptical but not so absolute of it being yours

Agreed!!

In most municipalities, the theft of a cell phone would be considered petty theft and hardly worth wasting resources to track it down, let alone prosecute the thief (if caught).

[UrbanBounca]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; DROID2 Build/VZW) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1 480X854 motorola DROID2)

Wirelessly posted (Incredible y cool : Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-us; ADR6300 Build/FRF91) AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1)

If your home town is Mayberry or Hooterville then you may have a case but anywhere with a population of more than 14 and it being a very popular model I'd be a bit sceptical but not so absolute of it being yours

Agreed!!

In most municipalities, the theft of a cell phone would be considered petty theft and hardly worth wasting resources to track it down, let alone prosecute the thief (if caught).

Wrong! If the phone is worth $250+, it goes from misdemeanor theft to felony theft.

[veriztd]

And yet, it still makes no difference from my prior statement. I am not a lawyer and I don't play one on television. The police won't waste their time tracking down a stolen cellular phone.

I suppose you are just looking to start a useless argument.