These days, the market for second-hand mobile phones is growing rapidly in India. The second-hand smartphone market allows users to purchase smartphones from premium brands at an affordable price. Although questions are raised about the genuineness of refurbished or resold mobile phones, buyers prefer them for their affordability. You will find second-hand mobile phones on many online platforms and apps, but before buying them, definitely check whether these are stolen phones or not. Otherwise, you can get into trouble and incur huge losses.
Generally, genuine refurbished mobile phones are available on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and others. These second-hand mobiles are often sample or dummy units. These platforms sell these smartphones at an affordable price. However, there are many buyers who prefer the offline market for buying second-hand phones. In such a situation, you must check their source before buying them. The government has made it very easy to check the genuineness of a phone through just one SMS.
How to check?
- For this, you must first know the IMEI number of the phone, which is usually written on the phone's box.
- If the phone you are buying does not have a box, then go to the dial pad of the phone, type *#06#, and press the send or call button.
- You will get a 15-digit IMEI number on the screen.
- After noting the IMEI number, you have to go to your message app.
- Then you have to send a message to 14422.
- In the body of the message, type KYM followed by a space, and then enter the 15-digit IMEI number.
- For example, send 'KYM 123456789012345'.
- After this, send it to 14422.
After sending the message, you will receive a message from the government, which will tell you whether the phone is stolen or not. If ‘blacklisted’ is written in the message, then this phone is stolen and its IMEI number has been blacklisted. You may also get into legal trouble if you buy a stolen phone. That is why you must inspect the phone thoroughly before buying it.
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