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11:49 am
Is it good to give out a phone's IMEI number? I'm trying to sell a phone and a potential buyer asked me for its IMEI number. I can understand you can use it to verify whether it's stolen or not. But I'm just worried about what else you could do with it once you have it. ie. Could they use it to clone their own stolen phone?
Does anyone have any thoughts/recommendations on what to do here? Give it out? Don't give it out?
Thx.
12:04 pm
March 15, 2008
Offline
Could they use it to clone their own stolen phone?...
They could, however, without also having your SIM they can't rack up charges on your account. If they use the phone to commit a criminal act (above and beyond the crime of cloning) and the IMEI gets tracked back to you it will be clear to the cops that a different SIM from yours was used.
They could also mischievously report it as stolen so that it ends up on the blocked phone database, etc. and you end up not being able to use your phone. But then anyone can get your EMEI by reading it off the phone if you lend it to them or leave it unattended.
IMO the risk is minimal. But yeah, it's not impossible for the number to get abused.
