Buyer Says the Mac Is 'Stolen' — How to Protect Yourself

You sold your Mac, wiped it properly, signed out of everything, and shipped it in good faith. A few days later a message arrives: the buyer claims the machine is "stolen," or "locked," or "reported," and wants a full refund — sometimes while keeping the Mac, sometimes with a vague threat about reporting you. It's an unsettling accusation precisely because it plays on a seller's honesty. Here's what's usually really happening, and how to keep a clean sale from turning into a loss.

What this scam actually is

In the overwhelming majority of these cases, the seller did nothing wrong. The "it's stolen" or "it's locked" claim is a pressure tactic aimed at extracting a refund on a machine that is working fine. Sellers on eBay's own forums describe exactly this pattern. One thread from a seller who was completely ripped off walks through a buyer manufacturing a problem after delivery to force money back. Another, titled Possible Mac Apple ID scammer, captures the specific Mac version: a buyer who leans on Apple ID and lock status to build a story that the machine can't be used, hoping the seller will refund out of guilt or fear.

The mechanics vary. A buyer might re-lock the Mac to their own Apple ID and then claim it "arrived locked." They might insist a properly erased machine is "still tied to someone" — which, if you signed out correctly, it isn't. Some simply assert the item is stolen with no evidence at all, betting you won't want the hassle of a dispute. The Apple Support Communities have long-running discussions from people trying to sort out whether a used Mac is safe and legitimate, including a thread on whether it's safe to re-ship a MacBook, which shows how much genuine confusion exists around lock and ownership status — confusion a bad-faith buyer is happy to exploit.

How to protect yourself before you ever ship

Your defense is built before the accusation arrives, not after. A few habits make these claims fall apart:

• Photograph the machine and its serial number before it leaves, so you can prove exactly which unit — in what condition — you shipped.
• Sign out of your Apple Account and erase properly, so there is genuinely no lock or account tie for anyone to point at.
• Keep every record: the listing, the messages, the payment confirmation, and the tracking with delivery scan.
• Don't communicate off-platform, where a marketplace can't see the conversation if a dispute is opened.

If the accusation lands anyway

Stay calm and factual. Do not refund on the strength of a message alone, and do not agree to refund and let the buyer keep the Mac — that's the outcome the scam is engineered to produce. If the sale happened on a platform with buyer/seller protections, let the dispute process run and submit your evidence rather than settling privately under pressure. A real stolen-property issue would come from law enforcement, not from a buyer's chat message demanding cash back within the hour. It also helps to keep your replies brief and unemotional; scammers are fishing for a reaction, and a seller who calmly points to records and platform process is a far less appealing target than one who panics.

The claim	What's usually true	Your move
"It arrived locked to someone"	Buyer re-locked it, or you're being tested	Show proof you signed out and erased
"This is stolen, refund me"	Pressure tactic, no evidence offered	Don't self-refund; use the platform dispute
"Refund me but I'll keep it"	The scam's actual goal	Refuse; require return before any refund

The version of this that simply can't happen

The reason this scam works at all is structural: in a person-to-person sale, money and machine change hands on the buyer's word, and the buyer controls the story after delivery. Selling to a dedicated buyer removes that entire dynamic. With Encore you get an instant online offer in about 30 seconds, a free prepaid, insured label, and payment once the Mac arrives — and the accepted offer is what you're paid, full stop. There's no individual buyer who can invent a "stolen" claim to claw money back, no chargeback exposure, and no stranger to argue with. Because Encore buys broken and damaged units too, you're also not stuck holding a machine that private buyers treat as suspect. It won't always beat a flawless private sale on headline price, but it takes the "buyer says it's stolen" nightmare off the table completely. If a private listing is starting to feel like more risk than it's worth, it's easy to see what your Mac is worth as-is first.