How to find out if you are being sold a stolen iphone 8?

I'm going to be buying an iphone 8 on craigslist and it is in supposedly like new condition. What caught my is that the seller is selling the phone for only $250 compared to the $400 that I'm seeing everywhere else.

My question is, what steps should I take in finding out it is a genuine iphone 8 and if it was stolen or not?

Look really closely.

When you take a look at the phone, ask the seller to log off his iCloud account. If he/she says he/she forgot the password, then that is a sure way to know that it is stolen. Also, consider meeting at a carrier store so that they can look up the IMEI and see if it is blacklisted.

If you are buying it from a legitimate phone store,
there should be no problem.

Other sources should be regarded with great caution.

First sign: it's being sold cheaply on Craigslist.

Do not under any circumstances pay for the device until you see them factory reset it and remove their Apple ID.

If they can't do that the device is locked to that user, meaning almost assuredly it is stolen.

Also you can google an IMEI checker to see if it's listed as a stolen/blacklisted device.

"If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is."