Can google/carrier blacklist a grapheneos phone?

treenutz68

So I am looking to purchase a mint condition, almost new pixel on craigslist and a friend asked me what is to stop the person selling it to you from reporting it stolen.

If I legitimately purchase a phone from someone off craigslist that is unlocked and I flash grapheneos onto it, is there a way that google or various carriers can blacklist the phone so it essentially becomes bricked?

If that is a possibility, I'll probably just bite the bullet and pay more for a new one instead, but I wasn't sure if grapheneos has some way to protect from that compared to standard android.

DeletedUser87

treenutz68 and why exactly would the person selling the phone do that?!

de0u

treenutz68 If I legitimately purchase a phone from someone off craigslist that is unlocked and I flash grapheneos onto it, is there a way that google or various carriers can blacklist the phone so it essentially becomes bricked?

If the IMEI is added to the list of stolen devices (carriers can do this), it won't be "bricked" but it won't work on most celluar networks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Equipment_Identity#Blocklists_of_stolen_devices

treenutz68

DeletedUser87

I don't know, the question is theoretical in nature.

DEADCAT

DeletedUser87 this is a kind of scam where they insure the phone before selling it so they can get the money from selling it plus the insurance money when they report it stolen

GlytchMeister

I have not heard of this scam before, but I also cannot think of a way to mitigate it without telling Google and/or cell carriers your IMEI and your personal information.

I would look into buying refurbished from a tech retailer with cash, as opposed to from a random stranger in Craigslist. That way, you can keep the receipt just in case.

Or you could buy a new 8th gen instead of 9th gen. 8th gen is the first one to have the... What was it, the memory tagging or the hardware attestation? Can't remember. Anyway, 8th gen is the one that got the last major hardware security features, from what I remember. You wouldn't be missing out on much, and it would still be a lot cheaper than 9th gen, and it's still new, or refurbished by someone who ostensibly knows what they're doing.

secrec

There's an even simpler angle to think about here;

What if the phone WAS ACTUALLY stolen, and the thief is selling it to you before the original owner had the opportunity to report it stolen and have its serial numbers blacklisted?

NetRunner88

Selling insured phones on second hand market then report them stolen to have twice the money is not uncommon unfortunately..