Help!! Re: EBAY purchase possible insurance fraud/scam

[632627]

Hey guys, im new here, so any help and advice would be much appreciated.

2 weeks ago i bought a brand new touch pro2 from ebay from an ebay power seller with over 99% feedback. The phone arrives 2 days later directly from sprint, however it is adressed to a different name. I find it odd but call up sprint and have the phone activated. From some of the posts here and on sprintusers.com, i come to realize this phone was sent to me as part of an insurance scam.

Here is my dilemma.... I have already sold my old phone, and the only other phone I would be interested in is a samsung intrepid but i cant find one on ebay. I like the tp2 alot and got it for a pretty good price. My main concern is that 2 or 3 months down the line Sprint might brick my phone and im SOL. I asked a friend who used to work for sprint, and she said that once the phone is activated on my account, they cant block the esn #.... which for some reason i find hard to believe.

Should I just keep the phone and take my chances and if anything bad happens file a dispute with paypal? or should i call up sprint and report the incident and hope they let me keep the phone? one thing I dont want to do is just send the phone back to the seller and keep my fingers crossed that he issues a full refund.

thanks for your time guys!

[MadlyAlive]

So the phone is activated on your account?

How do you know it was a part of an insurance scam?

[632627]

because I bought it from ebay, and it was sent directly to my address 2 days later from Sprint, but the name on the box wasnt mine, and inside was a packing slip listed to that persons name and phone #

I had this type of thing happen to me with the LG Voyager, except the package came in my name. I had purchased it off of ebay, had it activated and everything was good. A month later a guy named Bruno from VZW Corporate Security called me to let me know that the phone I had purchased off of ebay was stolen. We talked a little but and came to the conclusion that I would return the phone to the VZW store in my area who he notified. I went there to return it, when i also found out that the phone was a refurb, not brand new as stated by the ebay seller. There they took the phone and sent it back to law enforcement in CA (where the phone was shipped from) and gave me a brand new LG Voyager. Supposedly there was a "stolen cell phone ring" as I was told out there and that I wasn't the first to have it happen that exact same way. If Sprint is nice enough they should do the same for you, you had no knowledge that the phone was stolen.

[dimitri]

I would definitely contact Sprint and let them know. You don't want anything coming back on you and I would also contact PayPal. Might even be able to get your money back and get a phone from Sprint for letting them know what is going on.

[es101346]

Originally Posted by 632627

Hey guys, im new here, so any help and advice would be much appreciated.

2 weeks ago i bought a brand new touch pro2 from ebay from an ebay power seller with over 99% feedback. The phone arrives 2 days later directly from sprint, however it is adressed to a different name. I find it odd but call up sprint and have the phone activated. From some of the posts here and on sprintusers.com, i come to realize this phone was sent to me as part of an insurance scam.

Here is my dilemma.... I have already sold my old phone, and the only other phone I would be interested in is a samsung intrepid but i cant find one on ebay. I like the tp2 alot and got it for a pretty good price. My main concern is that 2 or 3 months down the line Sprint might brick my phone and im SOL. I asked a friend who used to work for sprint, and she said that once the phone is activated on my account, they cant block the esn #.... which for some reason i find hard to believe.

Should I just keep the phone and take my chances and if anything bad happens file a dispute with paypal? or should i call up sprint and report the incident and hope they let me keep the phone? one thing I dont want to do is just send the phone back to the seller and keep my fingers crossed that he issues a full refund.

thanks for your time guys!

The person could of just bought the phone, and didn't like it, so they sold it. Doesn't necessarily mean it was insurance fraud. If the ESN is clean, its clean. When its reported to Sprint to either being lost or damaged, the ESN is not cleared. So your good to go.

[banzaiwolfe]

Originally Posted by es101346

The person could of just bought the phone, and didn't like it, so they sold it. Doesn't necessarily mean it was insurance fraud. If the ESN is clean, its clean. When its reported to Sprint to either being lost or damaged, the ESN is not cleared. So your good to go.

If that was the case, it still wouldn't have shipped FROM SPRINT.

[dimitri]

Originally Posted by banzaiwolfe

If that was the case, it still wouldn't have shipped FROM SPRINT.

That's my thought exactly. If it wasn't some sort of scam, why would it be shipped from Sprint and sent to someone else's name. Makes no sense.

[Little Abner]

Sprint should be able to sort this out for you easily, either through their Fraud or Technical support department. The ESN would have to be attached to someones account if it came from their distribution center. Also Sprint and thier insurance carrier use different distribution centers. More than likely Brightpoint/Sprint, Asurion/Insurance. Good Luck!

[em2y0]

Call Sprint and tell them about the situation, if they give the ok go ahead and activate it. If they decide a month or two later to shut the phone off and tell you it was stolen, tell them you spoke to a sprint rep and they informed you everything was good to go. Now if they say SOL i would want to speak to someone higher up since you were told everything was ok

So Have you even tried contacting the seller for answers?