"New" phones on marketplace -dodgy?

[OldGermanHeaps]

Looking for a galaxy s23 ultra for the mrs.
There are a few, listed as brand new for around £400, which seems cheap. They appear local, ask for cash on collection and the sellers only list one phone, not dozens like the usual marketplace send a deposit scams.
Are these likely to be dodgy or not?
Is it possible these people are bumping a contract, and if so will the imei end up blacklisted?
Or am i being paranoid?
It just seems weird that they are new and still have the protective film on them, i would be less sus if they were used.
What am I missing?

[FazerBoy]

‘Are they likely to be dodgy?’

Is that a serious question?

[OldGermanHeaps]

Is there any likely scenario they wont be a scam?
It doesn't appear they are asking for money to be sent, it is cash on collection. How are they getting the phones, and will they stop working later?

[guitarcarfanatic]

Check how long they have been on facebook - normally < 2 years.

I think what happens is you agree the sale, they then say someone else is interested, pay a deposit and it’s yours sort of thing.

[ambuletz]

Of course it's dodgy. phone contracts these days are essentially you paying for the phone in installments ontop of the plan.

[scorcher]

There will be a scam somewhere. Most likely a deposit via a bank transfer or friends and family payment on PayPal like already mentioned.

[Zedboy]

guitarcarfanatic said:

Check how long they have been on facebook - normally < 2 years.

The classic check and giveaway… I’m so surprised how well this red-flag still works.

[muscatdxb]

Say you are paying £40 a month for a phone and reach the end of your contract. You could take a new phone, sell it, and then continue paying £40.

It’s probably cheaper to go sim only, but for a quick £300-£500 cash I can see why people would take the phone and sell it.

I normally take the upgrades when offered and give them to wife or daughter as I’ve not been bothered with upgrading since about iPhone 13.

[5lab]

There are legit reasons for selling a phone like that - I've done it when I needed a fairly high use contract but not a new phone, the best value option was to get a contract phone and flog it off. However, if the asking price is less then cex will pay for a hassle free sale, something is going on.

https://uk.webuy.com/product-detail?id=ssams918bd1...

[Far Cough]

They sign up a new contract and get a shiny new phone. They sell it to get the cash and then report it stolen. SIM and IMEI gets blacklisted and mysteriously the phone stops working. As old as the hills.
You are then left with a bricked phone and no recourse. Only option is to flog it abroad.

[lancslad58]

Could be like the scam of people selling laptops, show you a legit high laptop, you buy ,still all nicely boxed up.

When you get home and open the box, inside is just a couple of magazines roughly the same weight as the laptop.

Used to be done with high end home speakers, you get a box with a few bricks in it.

[QuattroDave]

Until very recently I always bought my phones from sellers on gumtree, usually top end android phones from iphone users looking to change (but didn't like it!). Never had an issue and each phone has been as good and as cheap as it looked.

However, when trying to find a replacement for my S22 ultra I started looking on FB marketplace as gumtree seems to have dried up. So many dodgy looking adverts, either wording, photos or profile.

I did some research and found out that there's now a strong market for fake top end phones, I was looking for S23 ultras and a lot of phones looked just like it, had the samsung branding, worked as it should (on the face of it) and even has the packaging.

There's loads of videos on youtube where fakes are tested and they look very convinging to the untrained eye https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lS27qOgxhk

These fakes cost around £150 so selling it on for £400 makes a decent profit for the scammer.

In the end I decided that I didn't fancy sifting through the scams to find a 'real' phone so bought one new direct from samsung with a cracking trade in offer.

I personally wouldn't risk it on FB marketplace, just too dodgy and time consuming.

[xx99xx]

Far Cough said:

They sign up a new contract and get a shiny new phone. They sell it to get the cash and then report it stolen. SIM and IMEI gets blacklisted and mysteriously the phone stops working. As old as the hills.
You are then left with a bricked phone and no recourse. Only option is to flog it abroad.

But aren't they still on the hook for the monthly payments of the contract - except with no phone because they sold it?

[Fatboy]

xx99xx said:

Far Cough said:

They sign up a new contract and get a shiny new phone. They sell it to get the cash and then report it stolen. SIM and IMEI gets blacklisted and mysteriously the phone stops working. As old as the hills.
You are then left with a bricked phone and no recourse. Only option is to flog it abroad.

But aren't they still on the hook for the monthly payments of the contract - except with no phone because they sold it?

I'd assume the scammer has insurance on the phone, so gets a new phone that way...

[Pit Pony]

xx99xx said:

Far Cough said:

They sign up a new contract and get a shiny new phone. They sell it to get the cash and then report it stolen. SIM and IMEI gets blacklisted and mysteriously the phone stops working. As old as the hills.
You are then left with a bricked phone and no recourse. Only option is to flog it abroad.

But aren't they still on the hook for the monthly payments of the contract - except with no phone because they sold it?

No because they took out the optional no quibble phone insurance. And will wait till they have actual cash.
See also travel insurance that covers electronic goods.
Plus, you will never meet the actual person who has the contract. It will be his mate. As soon as you suggest you take a picture of his passport with his home address on it, it will go quiet.

[OldGermanHeaps]

Not worth the risk, especially after spotting the new htc, better specs than the s23 and 460 brand new with a warranty

[WrekinCrew]

Are the ads something like this?

At least this seller makes clear (if you scroll down enough) that, although it's an "S23 Ultra", it's not a "Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra".

Lots of similar ads are not quite so honest.

[OldGermanHeaps]

WrekinCrew said:

Are the ads something like this?

At least this seller makes clear (if you scroll down enough) that, although it's an "S23 Ultra", it's not a "Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra".

Lots of similar ads are not quite so honest.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/1999936863737189/

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/83821830...

The other 3 similar listings have disappeared since yesterday.

Going to get a new htc u24 pro instead, was only looking at samsung as she is used to her s21 ultra, but the price of the s24ultra is a joke.

[littleredrooster]

Far Cough said:

They sign up a new contract and get a shiny new phone...

Is this still a popular way to buy a phone? I've not done it this way for about twenty-odd years.

[twister]

littleredrooster said:

Is this still a popular way to buy a phone? I've not done it this way for about twenty-odd years.

It can be. Having been SIM only for the past 4 years whilst wringing every last drop of life out of my old phone, it was time to finally accept that it had deserved a well earned rest in my box of random bits of old electronics.

Spent a few hours going over all the options for the handsets I was interested in, and ended up going for a 2 year contract with EE (my current provider) as their existing customer offer for the handset + suitable contract worked out at something like 40 quid more expensive over the 2 years than buying the handset up front and then getting an equivalent SIM only contract. And for that sort of difference, I'd rather keep the majority of the handset cost in my account for as long as possible, rather than have to pay it all out up front...

So it's always worth running the numbers to see what actually is the best option, rather than just continuing to assume that whichever way you've done it in the past is still the best way to go now - bit like renewing your car insurance, just because most of the time you'll save money by moving doesn't mean that's always the case.