How to find out if your used iPhone has been stolen

apple icloud activationlock
Apple has created a tool that lets you know if your used iPhone has been stolen.

Buying a used iPhone can be a shady process.

If you're buying it from a third party on a site like Craigslist or eBay (EBAY), there's a chance your "new" used iPhone could have been stolen -- iPhones are a hot black market item.

To help customers avoid purchasing a stolen iPhone, Apple (AAPL) has created an online tool that lets people check whether their iPhone has been remotely wiped by its owner.

When people lose an iPhone (or have it swiped), there's a likelihood they'll try to enable "Activation Lock" in iCloud's "Find my iPhone" feature -- a kind of anti-theft tool Apple makes available to its customers. Apple's new tool lets people plug in an iPhone's unique serial number or International Mobile Equipment Identity number to determine whether Activation Lock has been enabled.

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If it has, that means you won't be able to use the phone until Activation Lock has been turned off by its owner.

Does the iPhone 6 Plus bend? CNN tests.
Does the iPhone 6 Plus bend? CNN tests.

It's best not to buy that iPhone. It was probably stolen.

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