Apple product seriel numbers

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gnfb

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#304457 5-May-2023 13:23

Hope this is ok forum for question

I was asked the other day on Trademe for the serial number of my iPhone 14.

What obvious or possible ramifications could there be to doing this? Is there some technique or scam that would allow them to go forward once they have the serial number?

Ther use to be a database you could put the serial in online and it would tell the history etc

anyway opinion comments?

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dfnt

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#3072682 5-May-2023 13:44

Can't imagine there's any implications to providing this, they may want to check warranty via https://checkcoverage.apple.com/

xpd

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#3072713 5-May-2023 14:40

Yeah think they'll just want to confirm its a legit device and matches what you're advertising.

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boosacnoodle

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#3072757 5-May-2023 18:06

Don’t do this. Scammers can harvest your serial number to swap to another device to bypass Find My activation lock. The likelihood of this is low but not zero.

Linux

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#3072759 5-May-2023 18:30

Check they might want the IMEI

gehenna

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#3072762 5-May-2023 18:46

It's really common to provide an Apple serial number given it's what's used to search it's AppleCare status.

gnfb

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#3073145 6-May-2023 14:49

Dont feel so stupid asking the question now as there doesnt seem to be a consenus

Thanks for input.

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TheMightyKiwipeso

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#3073191 6-May-2023 19:57

gnfb:

Dont feel so stupid asking the question now as there doesnt seem to be a consenus

Thanks for input.

Apple serial numbers used to directly correspond with models, however they changed away from directly corresponding to models a few years ago.
This used to let you check the specifications directly from the serial number in a database like MacTracker on MacOS for looking up Apple products.

So a previous model like perhaps a iPhone X would be vulnerable to serial number shiftiness, but iPhone 14 is not.
I hope that helps.