How to check if a used phone is stolen, blacklisted or still financed (Canada and US)

Both are free public services. devicecheck.ca blocks automated tools, so use it in a normal browser, on your own phone at the meetup.

Find the IMEI

The IMEI is a 15-digit number that identifies the phone’s hardware, not the SIM or the account. Carriers block stolen phones by IMEI, which is why it is the number to check.

• Any phone: dial *#06# from the phone app. The IMEI appears on screen. Dual-SIM phones show two (IMEI and IMEI2); check the first.
• iPhone: Settings > General > About. On iPhones with a SIM tray, it is also printed on the tray.
• Android: Settings > About phone (on some phones, under Status or IMEI information).
• The box: the label on the original box lists it.

All of these should match. A number on the screen that differs from the tray or the box is a stop sign: it can mean a swapped board, a box from another phone, or a listing assembled to look legitimate. Don’t accept an IMEI typed out in a message instead of read off the phone in front of you. A seller can send the IMEI of any clean phone.

Run the check

In Canada:

1. Open devicecheck.ca in your phone’s browser.
2. Enter the IMEI from the phone in front of you, and complete the human check if it asks.
3. Read the result. It tells you whether the device has been reported lost or stolen in Canada. Take a screenshot.

In the US:

1. Open the CTIA Stolen Phone Checker.
2. Enter the IMEI from the phone in front of you.
3. Read the result, which covers reports from participating US carriers. Take a screenshot.

What the results mean: a “reported” result means a carrier has listed the phone as lost or stolen, and participating networks won’t connect it. Don’t buy it. A clean result means only that no report had been made at the moment you checked. It doesn’t mean the phone is paid off, unlocked from the owner’s account, or that it wasn’t stolen last night.

Financed phones and later blacklisting

Most phones from the big Canadian carriers are now sold on monthly device financing. Until it is paid off, the balance is owed, and carrier practice differs on what happens to the phone if payments stop. Some carriers have blocked financed phones whose owners defaulted, and a buyer can be left with a phone that worked fine on the day of the sale.

That isn’t theoretical. In a CBC Go Public story, a Montreal family’s second-hand phone was blacklisted by Bell, not because it was stolen, but because the original buyer hadn’t paid for it under their contract. The family took Bell to court.

There is no public lookup for financing, so protect yourself the old-fashioned way:

• Ask directly. “Is it fully paid off?” Watch how the question lands.
• Ask for proof. The final bill showing a zero device balance, or the receipt for an outright purchase.
• Get a dated receipt with the model, the IMEI, the price, and the seller’s name, signed. If the phone is blocked later, that receipt is what you take to the seller, the carrier or the police.
• Prefer sellers with history. A profile with years of activity and a phone bought outright is a different bet from a brand-new profile selling a phone released last month.

Stolen-phone warning signs in listings

• A very recent model at a price well under what others ask.
• “Locked”, “iCloud locked”, “for parts” or “no password” on a phone that otherwise looks perfect.
• No box, no receipt, and no explanation of where it came from.
• A seller with several of the same phone and no history.
• Refusal to meet somewhere you can test it, or insistence on a quick handover in a car.
• A story that keeps shifting: a gift, then an upgrade, then a friend’s phone.

None of these proves a phone is stolen. Together, they are enough to walk away.

Tablets and watches

Cellular iPads, Android tablets with a SIM slot and cellular smartwatches have IMEIs too, and the same checkers work for them. An iPad shows it in Settings > General > About; an Apple Watch in the Watch app under General > About (Apple). Wi-Fi-only tablets and GPS-only watches have no IMEI, so the serial number and the Activation Lock check carry all the weight. See buying a used iPad, Apple Watch or AirPods.

The check that an IMEI can’t replace

A phone can pass the IMEI check and still be useless: Activation Lock on an iPhone, or the Google account lock (FRP) on Android, ties it to the previous owner’s account whatever its IMEI says (Apple). Always see the phone erased and removed from the seller’s account, then start setup yourself. The method for every device is in iPhone Locked to Owner, and the full meetup routine is in the 10-minute iPhone check and the Android guide.

If the IMEI comes back reported

• Don’t buy it, however good the story.
• Don’t confront the seller. Say it isn’t what you’re looking for, and leave.
• Report the listing to Facebook or Kijiji from the listing’s menu.
• If you think it was stolen, tell your local police on their non-emergency line, with the listing link and the IMEI.

If you’ve already bought a phone that comes back reported, contact the seller first, then the police with your receipt. Don’t expect the carrier to lift the block for you: the report belongs to the account holder who made it.

With Sift

On a computer, Sift, a free browser extension for Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji, recognizes phone, tablet and watch listings and adds the check to the listing itself. Check the IMEI (Canada) is the first Check elsewhere link on Kijiji, or anywhere for a Canadian home, and opens devicecheck.ca; elsewhere, Check the IMEI (US) opens the CTIA checker. You still read the IMEI off the phone and enter it yourself.

It also reads the seller’s wording, in English and French, and flags Blacklisted or bad IMEI (“blacklisted”, “bad IMEI”, “reported lost or stolen”) and Still financed (“on a payment plan”, “balance owing”, “financé”, “solde restant”), with negations understood. A seller who writes “clean IMEI” gets a green Clean IMEI good sign: that tells you what they claim, and you check it anyway. AirPods and MacBooks have no IMEI, so they get no IMEI link. Start a hunt > Phone in Options > Presets saves a preset with the parts block words already on.

Sift never runs the check itself and doesn’t know whether a phone is stolen or financed. It runs in Chrome, Edge and Brave on a computer and isn’t affiliated with any carrier, Apple, Google, Meta or Kijiji.