Help required with blacklisted device

[Athique]

Hi,

I'm really hoping someone can help or get this escalated as I'm very frustrated right now.

I bought a device...a private purchase not from O2 back in June. This was a sealed brand new Galaxy Fold just before O2 started offering it for sale themselves. I immediately popped my O2 SIM into it and started using the device and did so from June to September. In late September it suddenly stopped working...in fact no SIM would connect to the voice network so I assumed it was a hardware fault with the SIM card slot. I sent it to Samsung and it has only just been returned to me because it turns out there is no hardware fault...it has been blacklisted.

I checked using CheckMEND and it does indeed show as blacklisted but this makes no sense to me.

This IMEI has only ever been used with my O2 monthly number since it was bought from new so how is it possible that someone has been able to blacklist it? It means I'm currently stuck with an expensive device that does not connect to any cellular network...as far as I'm concerned it's an expensive brick now.

I tried to explain this to customer service but they had a hard time understanding and couldn't see any restrictions on my account...even though I explained my account wouldn't show any restrictions...this is an independently bought device. They were in fact able to see the IMEI being used on my account between June and September but couldnt see any restrictions like I said. She told me to go in store...but they had access to even less data than the advisor on the phone did so that was a wasted trip.

What are my options here? Someone's actions have caused my device to be blacklisted...surely O2 should be able to see this IMEI has only ever been used with my number? I have seen several other threads on devices being mistakenly blacklisted perhaps due to typos so can this be reversed?

thanks in advance!

[MI5]

@Athique 

Unfortunately you have been scammed by the person who sold you the device.

They will have claimed on their insurance by reporting it lost so they have been paid twice for the device.

The insurance company then blacklist the device so it cannot be used, and as they paid out on the claim, the phone now belongs to the insurance company.

Sadly it's a common scam and all you can do is report it to the police, and the insurance as fraud, but you've lost the phone and your money unfortunately.

[jonsie]

It makes no difference if the phone was boxed sealed as all they would need to blacklist it would be the IMEI number

Expensive lesson when buying from an untrusted source such as eBay or the like

Report it as a scam to the police so that the seller will be prosecuted

[TallTrees]

It's not eBay or the like who is at fault really, it's the Temptation (get thee behind me 👹)
It's always out there for everyone on all sorts of items.....holidays, cars, all kinds of expensive items for l e s s ...c h e a p ...free.. playing with
Greed ... avarice.... many have flirted with it... some get caught some get real and walk away 😁
Learn a hard lesson, be the better for it ..move on. ( and don't let it happen to you again ).
That's not to say that the scum should get away with it, I would pursue it report it etc.
Good luck with that.