Hello guys,
Back in April I have purchased my first Fairphone, a Fairphone 4. Since I live in Romania (currently), I was able to find the phone, alongside the Fairphone 5 on a web store called eMAG (it’s like Amazon).
Long story short, after purchasing it and arriving the second day, I was thrilled to start enjoying my new Fairphone 4. It was all working great, but last week when I opened the My Fairphone app, I noticed a message/notification stating that my Fairphone was Flagged as either lost or stolen and it is blocked from use. I can confirm that my Fairphone works completely fine, no issues; I’m just confused by this message.
I would also like to mention that on the day I received my Fairphone, I also registered it and extended its warranty; the IMEI nr. of the phone matches the one from the box - no issues there.
I’ve gone through the process of contacting the support team and they also said that it appears the phone might be lost or stolen - I also provided the purchase receipt, but I haven’t gotten an answer yet.
The thing is, this message from the app hasn’t appeared before, just after the latest app update.
Has anyone else encountered this situation? Any details or information towards clearing things out for me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!
Hi
I am also in this situation and like you I registered the phone back in January,Now May and has just been flagged , Checked the IMEI and comes back clean and unlocked Want to know if this number related to the sim card only? Don’t believe so as it’s on the sealed box it came in.
Phone has worked fine for five months and fairphone has it registered and extended warranty cleared . If the phone had been reported stolen or lost should it not already have been bricked ?
Hi there
Yes, that’s exactly what I thought as well. Everything works great - apps, features, communication (Wi-Fi, cellular data, calls, SMS), everything flawless, just that puzzleling message in the app.
Giving the fact that we got this message after the latest app update, I suppose that all we can do is to wait until the next update and see if anything changed. Maybe it’s just a bug within the app.
Hiya Chris
Good to hear from you although not a good subject am glad I am not the only one experiencing this as I have already ask my bank to refund/reclaim my monies from the seller no offense . Am in contact with support and have supplied the information that have asked for and will let you know the outcome.
Must say though it’s highly concerning messaging from fair phone and if it is an Update error I have already set the wheels in motion, banks not going to e happy neither is the seller.
Good luck to you in clearing all of this up.
Thanks Steven, and thanks for letting me know; I do get your point, it’s pretty fair giving the situation at hand.
I’ll let you know if I come across any new or useful information
Wishing you good luck as well!
Hi there!
Just for curiosity:
Steven where did you bought your Fairphone? Directly on Fairphone website or through a third party reseller, like Christoph?
Hi Oliver, hope your well?
Was bought via refurbished third party , guess it’s my own fault however I have recycle etched in my soul these days.
I don’t blame you, I myself like offering a second life to objects, when possible 
Just my 20 cents, but I feel it’s a low probability that it’s only a software bug, knowing your phone provenance…
More probably it could be a new functionality they implemented recently to check if the IMEI is in their list of lost/stolen. That could be why it only poped-up this month…
Hi Oliver
Thanks for your input really appreciate it
Understand your points , I paid for a universal IMEI check as fairphone seems terribly slow at returning messages considering the situation and bombarding the phone with stolen phone prompts
All came back clean and unlocked Fairphone have all the details, conflicting messages example, please take phone to local authorities and when they have issued a crime number for phone they will unlock it for me ,???
The phone is unlocked and why unlock it for me if police would be holding it? also they advised to send back to seller,??? Why if they knew it was locked and stolen, surly this does not stop the market or Indeed stop others from making money on stolen items.
Hi there Oliver
I haven’t thought about that - good point.
I wonder if there’s any reason to worry about it, giving the fact that the phone is fully functional.
Thank you for the insight!
I understand your frustration, especially if you have an official proof the phone is not stolen. 
From what I understood the phone is still usable, just this annoying pop-up that comes to the screen.
Could it be possible to deactivate notifications from “My Fairphone” app; while waiting that the support people at Fairphone comes back to you?
Very frustrating as I am worried I can get arrested for handling stolen goods, as the phone does not come up as stolen on the database!
If a policeman stops and checks the IMEI will it come up reported on his also ? Then I’m arrested and in cell for however long!
If it id new software on fairphones part then please share your source and help us check before we buy and not get informed 5 months down the line.
Thanks for advice on notifications
Already tried to turn off via settings does not work unfortunately .
As mentioned any thoughts and help appreciate d.
,helps just hearing another’s view on the situation as I am feeling like being made out a criminal with fairphones policy on this .
Well as much as I understand its a bad situation, thats just pure speculation.
Its still possible you bought a stolen phone
It is indeed possible, waiting for fairphones clarification and explanation on what I see is a very serious situation is exactly my point . Hard to contact a priority case I assume also?
Hi!
I made an account to give my two cents to this conversation!
I have bought my FP4 second hand already a year ago from a not very suspicious person here in Finland. Used it fine during the year until yesterday when I used my battery to 0%.
When I got it charging and turned on, the phone had the message of it being bmaybe stolen. I didn’t really believe it from the start, because the phone worked exactly as before and didn’t restrict me in any way. I emailed to the address and read the answered email. But didn’t want to go through with any of the things it said. I have no idea how I would get any receipt from the previous owner. So I turned off the phone and back on. Then the notification was gone!
Happy again!
Hi ekko
Thanks for your input , May I ask did you contact fairphone?
Was they helpful and may I ask was this very recently.
I did contact Fairphone by email, but it was an automated message that said: you must prove the buying process by a receipt or something. I don’t have a receipt of course.
This happened a day before my original message so a week ago.
My phone has been working fine
Thanks everyone for flagging this. We indeed had an issue where this notification and pop up was displayed incorrectly to users. We have addressed this and fixed it in MyFairphone App Version 3.3.3 which was released last night. Sorry for the confusion it caused!
Speculation, If that’s a word for I know for sure I didn’t buy a stolen phone yeah it’s speculation, Sorry Brother/ Sister that just made feel as bad as Fairphone did for taking two months to admit it was an update fault ,meanwhile I’m down the police station telling them to take the phone of me because I’ve been told by the company it’s definitely stolen , peace!