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iPhone Warranty Check by Serial Number
An iPhone warranty check uses the serial number to show coverage dates. It does not show who owns the phone.
An iPhone warranty check by serial number tells you whether Apple limited warranty is active and when it ends. Apple’s own identifier for the device is the serial, not the IMEI. Coverage, AppleCare, and many service records hang off that serial. The IMEI is for the cellular network.
Get the serial from the phone
Open Settings, General, About. The serial number is near the top. Current Apple serials are about 10 to 12 characters and include letters. Fifteen digits is an IMEI. If a listing only offers 15 digits, you can still run a blacklist check, but you cannot treat that as a warranty check.
How to use the dates
Write down the coverage end date and the purchase date when the report includes them. If the seller says the iPhone was bought last month and coverage ended last year, the serial may not belong to the phone in front of you. A replaced or refurbished flag means a major part or the whole unit was swapped. Ask what was repaired. That changes the price. It is not, by itself, a reason to invent a different owner.
What warranty does not prove
A phone can be in warranty and still have Find My on, a GSMA blacklist block, a SIM lock, or MDM. Pay for those checks when you are buying used. Warranty also does not prove the battery health shown in Settings. Read that on the phone, on the same visit as the serial number warranty check.