Will a US Cellular Smartphone work?

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chris

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My girlfriend bought a Samsung Galaxy S phone from someone on craigslist. I think it was probably a stolen phone. Could she make it her US Cellular phone or would she it in trouble if it is stolen? If not can it at least be used for the wifi internet and to listen to music? Is there any way someone can be tracking it with everything wiped clean? Thank you.
 
Even if the phone wasn't stolen, she probably couldn't use it on US Cellular, unless it's a US Cellular branded phone, because it might not be compatible. Most of the time (in the USA anyway), in order to expect a phone to work on US Cellular or any other carrier, you have to get a phone *made* for that carrier.

As far as whether it would at least work for WiFi and music, likely not. I think most phones don't really let you do anything except make 911 calls until they have been activated with a carrier.

And as far as anyone being able to track it, even if the phone is *really* wiped clean, it may still have a unique ID that will show up on the network, and in theory anyway, the carrier could tell who it really belonged to, and realize that someone else was trying to activate it. In practice I don't think carriers go beyond just making sure such phones can't be activated; I don't think they try to call the cops too (too much work).
 
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