Question about the ESN on cell phone.

[JCE10]

I was looking for a used cell phone being the broke college student I am. As I was searching, some people advertised the fact that the ESN is "clean." What do they mean? To my understanding the ESN is some sort of serial tagging identification. Do "dirty" ESN mean they are stolen cell phones? How do I even reverify it is "clean."

Your input is valued!

 

[Invisible Evil]

Clean means you can activate it. Not on an account or Stolen/Lost

 

[JCE10]

Thanks! Any tips on avoiding a stolen or lost ESN phone?

 

[Raduque]

Ask for the ESN before hand and verify it with the carrier. A trick I learned is to ask for a good shot of the back of the actual phone under the battery area. Compare the ESN given by the seller to the ESN in the picture. A seller on fleabay attempted to scam me by giving me a clean ESN, but provided a shot of the back of the phone showing the ESN well enough that I could tell it was different - and when I checked with Verizon, it was disconnected for non-payment.