I had an iPhone stolen from me (Verizon; iPhone 6), and received a near-identical replacement model from Asurion. The iPhone I received works fine in every way, except Siri does not recognize voice input. (This is not a mic problem, the mic works fine for everything else) This is not really a problem for me, because I don't really use Siri, but it got me thinking…
I googled it, and it seems Asurion makes their "refurbished" iPhones out of any available parts, often using third-party replacement parts not made by Apple, resulting in a Frankenstein-like combination of parts. I also heard many horror-stories about people receiving iPhones from Asurion with no Apple logo on the back, or ones that run a version of Android OS skinned to resemble Apple's iOS.
Lucky for me, my iPhone has an Apple logo on the back, and as far as I can tell, seems to be running a genuine version of iOS 10.1. But what seems suspicious is that the printed IMEI is blacked out, with a new one printed underneath. People on the internet say that Asurion replacements are often not recognized by Apple as genuine iPhones.
This leads me to two questions
1. Would Apple consider this to be a fake iphone and refuse to service it?
2. If I update iOS, will it be "bricked" by Apple? (see attached article)
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/02/05/iphone_fix_bricked/
Added (1). I would also like to add that, according to the Apple website, my phone's serial number belongs to a White iPhone 6. My phone is black.
Read more: Are third-party refusbished iPhones considered fake?