Before you pay the seller
Is this phone safe to buy?
Is this used phone safe to buy? Type the IMEI and find out before you pay the seller.
£2.99 for the report. The checksum and the make and model are free.
This is not a government website and not a mobile network. PhoneCheck is a private company service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or authorised by any mobile network, the police, the GSMA or any government body. We charge £2.99 for our own service, which runs the check, explains the answer and delivers it as a report with the buyer's checklist. You can go elsewhere: the government's guidance on stolen mobile phones at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/stolen-mobile-phones/stolen-mobile-phones, free, read 24 September 2026, and a single consumer check at CheckMEND at https://www.checkmend.com/uk/consumer/checking, £1.99 for one check, read 24 September 2026.
What you get
Free, on the next page
- Whether the 15 digits are a valid IMEI (the checksum)
- The make and model the first eight digits decode to, from an open list
IMEI report, £2.99
- Blacklist status: whether a UK or overseas network has blocked this phone
- Lost or stolen status from the shared device registry
- Insurance claim record, where one is held
- IMEI checksum result and the make and model the IMEI decodes to
- The buyer's checklist for the day you meet the seller
- Report on screen and as a PDF by email, with every source and the time it was read
Every section of the report shows its source and the time it was read. Where a record could not be read, the report says so and says why. It never prints a blank.
How it works
Why check before you buy
A phone that was reported lost or stolen is blocked by the networks. It looks fine in the seller's hand, on their SIM, on Wi-Fi. The block is on the IMEI, and it follows the phone to you. A blocked phone cannot make calls or use data on any UK network, and no shop will take it in part exchange.
An iPhone with Find My still on, or an Android phone with the old owner's Google account still on it, is locked to that person after a reset. The seller can wipe it from anywhere. No shop can remove that lock for you.
A check takes a minute and costs less than a coffee. If the seller will not give you the IMEI, that is your answer.
The buyer's checklist
The same checklist is printed in every report. It is plain guidance, not a record.
Before you meet
Ask the seller for the IMEI. Dial *#06# on the phone and it appears on the screen. Check it matches the number on the box and under Settings.
Run this check on that IMEI. A blocked, lost or stolen phone is never a bargain, whatever the price.
Ask for the original receipt or the network contract. A seller who bought the phone can usually show one.
On an iPhone
Find My must be off. Settings, the seller's name at the top, Find My, Find My iPhone, off. The seller types their Apple password to switch it off.
Then the seller signs out of their Apple account: Settings, their name, Sign Out. Erase All Content and Settings should leave the phone at the Hello screen with no activation lock.
If the phone asks for someone else's Apple ID after the reset, walk away. That is an activation lock and you cannot remove it.
The Android and meeting day parts are in the report.
Where the free part comes from
The checksum is arithmetic. The last digit of an IMEI is computed from the other 14, and we do that sum here. The make and model come from the Osmocom TAC database, an open community list of 22,524 codes published under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 licence, exported on 2026-09-24. It is thin on phones from the last few years, so when a code is not in it we say so rather than guess.
Osmocom TAC database, tacdb.osmocom.org, licence read 24 September 2026.