Vodafone phone, checking for outstanding finance

[GusGF]

I bought a second-hand mobile phone off of eBay and when I booted it up it came up with a Vodafone screen. So it got me a little worried. If this phone (launched March 2023) is still under contract it could potentially be disabled at some time in the future if the contract holder reneged or stated they'd lost the phone. Then again they may well have upgraded.

So is there any way for me to check independently. Would Vodafone be able to help? I'm not a Vodafone customer though I'm using Lebara which is a mobile virtual network operator using Vodafone. I know there are IMEI checking sites online but which ones are trustworthy as it's been several years since I used one.

[AnnS]

Vodafone won't block the phone, the seller would be free to sell the phone, if the phone was IMEI blocked that would be the sellers decision.  A common scam would be to block the phone shortly after sale and report the phone as lost or stolen, claim on the insurance and have double the money.  You can always check on sites like CheckMEND, but it would be unlikely to immediately show.

Vodafone won't have sold you the phone, if anything goes wrong, it will be between you and the seller.  Due to GDPR data protection, the network won't help or divulge any information.

[GusGF]

I'm assuming you mean Vodafone would block the phone if the seller were to report the phone lost or stolen. So essentially like any phone bought secondhand it could end up being blocked at some point in the future! That's a worry so how can people protect themselves?