Can I flash my stolen iPhone to cricket and get it to work?

I bought a stolen sprint iPhone 4 from eBay for 250 and it was reported stolen there are no refunds so I thought of like switching it to cricket and using it from there I really need this thing to work I spent money I didn't have on it help me the best you can thanks

Flashing a phone with a blacklisted ESN will not make it work, as the serial number is still blacklisted. Sprint does maintain a list of blacklisted phones and as Cricket uses the Sprint network for the bulk of it's coverage, the blacklisted ESN will be seen, and the phone will not be allowed to work.

This gets into the murky waters of the legality of possessing a stolen phone, as it is technically illegal as being under "possession of stolen goods" thing. It is doubtful that you would hear anything much of it though, as long as the issue is not pressed.

There's something referred to as "ESN cloning" that is a work around, however the legality of ESN cloning itself is also murky, as no definitive law nationwide has been made yet. There has been a number of proposals to make ESN cloning illegal nation-wide, as a means of cracking down on cell phone theft. As some places, such as New York state have laws against ESN cloning, I will not give details here on that.

Unless the ad for the phone mentioned that the phone explicitly had a bad ESN due to being stolen, you can file a complaint with eBay in regards to the phone, as selling stolen goods is not only illegal, it is also forbidden by eBay policy. If you paid with PayPal, and the window of being able to make a claim against the seller is still open, you can seek refund of the cost of the phone from the seller. You can also file a police report against the seller and seek damages in small claims court as well, if you so choose to do so.