The Used-Phone Trap: When an Unpaid Balance Bricks Your Phone

A used phone can appear fully functional when sold, then become restricted after the original owner stops paying a carrier installment plan. This episode explains how financing follows the original account, how separate lost-and-stolen, activation-lock, and financing controls developed, why carriers block or restrict devices, whether that treatment is fair to an innocent buyer, when a seller may have committed fraud, and what buyers can do before and after a phone is disabled.

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https://factolio.com/?p=2401