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They are getting smarter. A family member had their phone stolen and Find My iPhone reported that the phone was off for months and so she gave up searching. One

They are getting smarter. A family member had their phone stolen and Find My iPhone reported that the phone was off for months and so she gave up searching. One day, she got a text on her new phone saying "Find my iPhone has found your phone, click here to login to Find my iPhone". It turned out to be a phishing page for her AppleID credentials. She fell for it and I'm assuming the thieves were able to finally get into her phone. To this day I have no idea how they were able to get her phone number. From the SIM maybe?

jakejarvis 7y ago
Similar story here, but instead of a phishing email it was a legit Find My iPhone email six months later saying her phone pinged from Morocco. So yup, sounds like they’ve either resorted to stripping them for parts or selling them whole (and still firmware-locked) to innocent buyers in places where you’d have practically no legal recourse — who then become victims to the theft as well, ironically. And by then, of course, you’ve likely had a new phone for long enough to not lose much sleep over it.
rampant_ai 7y ago
> To this day I have no idea how they were able to get her phone number Guessing here but maybe using "emergency call" and another phone to get the caller ID?
- dewey 7y ago
  How would that work? I though you can only call emergency numbers from that mode?
helloindia 7y ago
Brian Krebbs covered phishing of users who lost their iPhones, although he doesn't talk about how the "thief" managed to retrieve phone number from the the stolen phone. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/03/if-your-iphone-is-stolen-these-guys-may-try-to-iphish-you/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/03/if-your-iphone-is-stolen...
yoz-y 7y ago
My wife's phone has been the same. I have left a "lost" message on it with my number just in case, that's probably where they have got it from.
Izkata 7y ago
> To this day I have no idea how they were able to get her phone number. From the SIM maybe? Emergency contacts (accessible while the phone is locked) + Facebook?

jakejarvis 7y ago

Similar story here, but instead of a phishing email it was a legit Find My iPhone email six months later saying her phone pinged from Morocco. So yup, sounds like they’ve either resorted to stripping them for parts or selling them whole (and still firmware-locked) to innocent buyers in places where you’d have practically no legal recourse — who then become victims to the theft as well, ironically. And by then, of course, you’ve likely had a new phone for long enough to not lose much sleep over it.

rampant_ai 7y ago

> To this day I have no idea how they were able to get her phone number Guessing here but maybe using "emergency call" and another phone to get the caller ID?

dewey 7y ago
How would that work? I though you can only call emergency numbers from that mode?

helloindia 7y ago

Brian Krebbs covered phishing of users who lost their iPhones, although he doesn't talk about how the "thief" managed to retrieve phone number from the the stolen phone. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/03/if-your-iphone-is-stolen-these-guys-may-try-to-iphish-you/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/03/if-your-iphone-is-stolen...

yoz-y 7y ago

My wife's phone has been the same. I have left a "lost" message on it with my number just in case, that's probably where they have got it from.

Izkata 7y ago

> To this day I have no idea how they were able to get her phone number. From the SIM maybe? Emergency contacts (accessible while the phone is locked) + Facebook?