IMEI Phone, Battery Housing, Box Not Matching

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drago10029

Senior Member
Nov 19, 2008
1,062
207
Phazon Mines
Like the title says!

Bought a phone listed as new on Ebay, the *#06* IMEI and Battery Housing IMEI Match so I know the phone is not fake... I hope lol, the retail packaging IMEI don't match though.

Question it, How do I tell if the phone was a new handset replaced with a new handset by AT&T or if it's had replacement parts put it?

The phone Housing does look new, but that obviously doesn't say much. Also it's running 4.3 and the initial set-up screen time zone was default to Seuol (South Korea). Can someone give me insight? or some extra things I could look into? Thanks!
 

Larry2999

Senior Member
Feb 7, 2014
363
78
Atlanta, GA
Like the title says!

Bought a phone listed as new on Ebay, the *#06* IMEI and Battery Housing IMEI Match so I know the phone is not fake... I hope lol, the retail packaging IMEI don't match though.

Question it, How do I tell if the phone was a new handset replaced with a new handset by AT&T or if it's had replacement parts put it?

The phone Housing does look new, but that obviously doesn't say much. Also it's running 4.3 and the initial set-up screen time zone was default to Seuol (South Korea). Can someone give me insight? or some extra things I could look into? Thanks!

Other than an assessment of the physical & cosmetic condition, difficult to tell. Of course, there is always a risk when buying from that online auction site. The fact that the IMEI on the packaging does not match the phone shows evidence of tampering and who knows how far the tampering went? There are different sites you could go to check the IMEI (imei.info; imei-number.com etc) but these will only let you know if it's a valid ESN. You could, of course, call AT&T wireless support to find out if the phone has been previously activated on their network. You could tell them you want to switch to this handset but you'd like to find out if the ESN is clean.