Unknowingly Selling a Stolen Item on Ebay

My question involves criminal law for the state of: New York

I sold a Galaxy S7 on eBay last April to someone in CA. Then today I received a message from the seller saying "I bought a Samsung Galaxy S7 off you last April. Yesterday is was disabled because the previous owner reported it lost or stolen. I gave you $600 for a phone I used for 11 months - I would like a refund in return for the phone otherwise I am going to contact the police. This is fraud."

I purchased the phone on eBay a month prior to selling it and had no issues when I had it. I factory reset it before shipping it and was unaware that the phone was potentially stolen. I am still skeptical of the buyer's claim that the phone has been disabled due to it being reported as lost or stolen.

Any idea on what I should do? Can they take action against me? Just want to make sure I am going about this the right way to protect myself and not be potentially scammed, thanks!

Start by asking for documentary proof of his assertion even to the point of telling him to go ahead and call the police.

After a year, I think he's the one attempting the fraud or he would have called the police already.

If the phone was stolen, refund the money and take the phone back and turn it over to the police, or refund the money after you have confirmed that your buyer has turned it over to the police. If the police contact you, you had best scrounge up proof that your purchase of the phone was a good faith transaction, and provide whatever information you can muster about the eBay seller.

If it was not stolen, then you don't have a problem and can tell the buyer to go away.

Do you still have the IMEI for the phone written down/photographed anywhere? If you do, you can check it's status yourself.

Thanks, yes they kept threatening to go to the police so I told them to feel free to do so. I know I did not/would not knowingly sell stolen goods. I have all the details of the transaction between myself and the seller I bought the phone from so I am prepared should I be contacted by police. Unfortunately I do not have the IMEI information any longer. Hopefully eBay can provide police with as much information as they can should the police investigate.

You don't have to knowingly sell stolen goods in order to lose your money if it turns out to be stolen.

I suspect that, after all this time, the buyer got a much better deal on a new phone and is trying to scare you into a refund.

If it was me, I'd tell him to prove it or get lost.

I suspect that this is yet another story (we've had several) of somebody setting up a sideline business buying electronics for a price that is "too good to be true", then selling it at a profit. We've had some of those stories in which the person seemed to be acting in good faith, and others in which the person seemed to be engaged in a long pattern of shady behavior that suggested that they knew the whole time that they were selling stolen goods.

Thanks folks, yes if they prove that they turned it in to the police and it is indeed stolen I will issue a refund. I bought and sold the phone, at a loss, because I am very indecisive when it comes to my tech and I didn't like the smaller sized screen on the S7 and I missed my phablet (it drives my wife crazy lol). I have sold many things on eBay and this is one of the few times I was not the original owner. I will have to be much more careful when selling things that I didn't originally purchase. I have a great seller rating (seller id: thebear0110) because I always try to do right by my buyers but I just wanted to make sure I'm not too nice and get scammed.

So how much did you pay for the phone when you bought it?

I bought it for $600 and sold it for the same price. Because eBay takes a cut when selling, I lost out on a little bit of what I initially paid for it.

What was the point then?