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Things the guys who stole my phone have texted me to try to get me to unlock it

480 points by neaden 2y ago

joesmith56 2y ago
[dead]
infotainment 2y ago
> I checked Find My and my phone was indeed in China. It looked like it was in an office building conveniently located around the corner from an Adidas store, about 8,000 miles from me. You’d think for a police state, China would be just little bit better at cracking down on obvious crime that happens within their borders. But I guess not.
- gadflyinyoureye 2y ago
  Well this isn’t against a citizen. Also look at the murders going on in China now.
  - seadan83 2y ago
    Do you have any supporting citations on the crime/murder rate in China?
    - sugarkjube 2y ago
      I was curious after reading this, so I looked it up. Seems murder rate in china is 12 times lower than usa (source wikipedia). Actually murders rate in china is about the same as people killed by police in usa.
      - ImJamal 2y ago
        Do we have any evidence that China is telling the truth?
  - whimsicalism 2y ago
    do you honestly think the murder rate in China is anywhere close to our own?
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- ronsor 2y ago
  1. Chinese government is not as competent as it tries to appear. 2. They do not care about foreigners or crimes unless they involve Chinese citizens.
  - factormeta 2y ago
    >2. They do not care about foreigners or crimes unless they involve Chinese citizens. Don't know if they really care that much about Chinese citizens. Probably just the ones in the politburo.
    - whimsicalism 2y ago
      It's worked out remarkably well for Chinese citizens given they don't care at all about them, then
      - postingawayonhn 2y ago
        Their GDP per capita still lags significantly behind Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan who all aligned themselves with the west. Millions also died due to their rulers through the 20th century.
        whimsicalism 2y ago
        India seems like the much more obvious comparison than those countries
        zztop44 2y ago
        Millions died due to their rulers in the decades before the Communist Party, too.
  - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
    Chinese citizens are treated fairly similarly. There are plenty of unlawful activities that go unpoliced/unpunished (massage parlors), unless there happens to be a specific crackdown going on (otherwise, the police know what is going on and are probably getting a cut).
- Xylakant 2y ago
  The police state is interested in maintaining the power structure in the police state. As long as petty or even organized crime does not upset the balance of power, the authorities couldn’t care less - crime against Americans is no danger to them. Just as the Russian government has no interest in cracking down on its blackhat population, as long as they target non-Russian orgs.
  - genter 2y ago
    Russian government is the blackhat population.
    - TrainedMonkey 2y ago
      I have a theory that Russians foster black hat population while collecting evidence as a matter of national policy... so they could slowly recruit / quickly gang press talent from. Kind of like strategic reserve of hackers / zero days / etc.
      - netsharc 2y ago
        Yeah, a bit like corrupt politicians in China (or anywhere, really), you can be corrupt, but if some other powerful politician doesn't like you, they'll arrest and ruin your life for corruption... Even though maybe the judge and police are also corrupt. Or in Egypt, you have to bribe to get a job as a police officer, your superior expects a tribute each month because his superiors expect one, all the way to the top, so you bully the public for bribes/protection money, that's why the police were so passionate about suppressing anti-government protests during the Arab Spring, their livelihood depended on it. Meanwhile the Egyptian military had its own economy to supply themselves (eg a factory making soap, or bread) and were viewed by the public as trustworthy. All in a fascinating book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25622863-thieves-of-state https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25622863-thieves-of-stat...
    - zer00eyz 2y ago
      I have worked with a bunch of Russian devs over the last few decades. They really aren't the same group. Black hats (criminals), Government, and commercial devs are pretty distinct, and dont often over lap on a day to day basis. That having been said the government jobs are available to either group (sometimes not by "choice") and there is a revolving door there. It's not so far removed from the university, drug company/reseearch, FDA revolving doors that we have for Drug development in the US.
- barnabask 2y ago
  Misconception: police solve crimes. Truth: police protect their employers.
  - mrguyorama 2y ago
    Misconception: Police are trained to investigate and solve crime Reality: Police absolutely hate doing the "boring" parts of their jobs. Property crime clearance rate is an abysmal ~10% and everyone knows a handful of people who reported a theft, large or otherwise, and got nothing but a police report. Meanwhile they had plenty of time to come to our local supermarket and harass a 6 year old that tried to pocket a candybar. They took him into the security camera room and hassled this kid for several hours, zero parents involved. The American police do not feel required to do their damn jobs, unless it involves physical activity or a gun. The boring stuff, like submitting hundreds of stored rape kits to labs to literally catch rapists, doesn't get done, ever.
    - eevilspock 2y ago
      On any given day, in any police department in the nation, 15 percent of officers will do the right thing no matter what is happening. Fifteen percent of officers will abuse their authority at every opportunity. The remaining 70 percent could go either way depending on whom they are working with. ~ I'm a black ex-cop, and this is the real truth about race and policing, http://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8661977/race-police-officer http://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8661977/race-police-officer
      - estebank 2y ago
        > Fifteen percent of officers will abuse their authority at every opportunity. The remaining 70 percent could go either way depending on whom they are working with. This is why I find it bizarre that the behavior of bad cops is minimized by calling them "a few bad apples", when the entire aphorism is "one bad apple spoils the bunch".
        mrguyorama 2y ago
- JumpinJack_Cash 2y ago
  > > cracking down on obvious crime As inconvenient as it is for the author and those in their similar situation this sort of petty crime is about on the same level as bustinng a massage parlor. And honestly it woul hold the same low priority everywhere not just in China
- colordrops 2y ago
  China is not a police state, they are a military state. The US is a police state. In China the local cops are generally far more hands off than an in the US. China is more top-down from the national level. In the US, local police are the typical mechanism for control.
  - emptysongglass 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - seoulmetro 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
    Cops are hands off. When they need hands on, they call in the PAP. They are armed and have the riot control gear. China is top-down, except when it isn't, then its very bottom up. Is is sort of dichotomy of a central government with absolute authority but a limited attention span.
    - lazide 2y ago
      The central gov’t is a bit eye-of-Sauron like. When it notices you, you’re in deep shit. But for the most part, it doesn’t notice 95% of what is actually happening.
- darth_avocado 2y ago
  Often stances of the governments across the world are: we’ll ignore it unless it becomes a problem for us. Often, in organized crime, money flows back to the government and creates job opportunities for people that keeps them happy. There is a reason. Why there’s so many scam call centers in India. The government will turn a blind eye until someone comes in with proof that raises a stink or if other international government agencies get involved.
  - mschuster91 2y ago
    > There is a reason. Why there’s so many scam call centers in India. According to a commenter on HN from a few months ago [1], the reason is a political division - the scam callcenters are in West Bengal, where the ruling political party turns a blind eye due to corruption and to provide annoyance towards the federal government ruled by the BJP. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968542
    - darth_avocado 2y ago
      Corruption is definitely part of it, but I wouldn’t blame it purely on politics. Kolkata in West Bengal definitely has scam call centers but that’s only one of the cities. Gurugram near New Delhi [2], Hyderabad [1], Bangalore [3] and Pune all have scam call centers and all of them fall under the governance of different regional and national political parties. [1] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/fake-call-center-duping-us-citizens-raided-in-hyderabad-115-cyber-fraudsters-held/amp_articleshow/102656202.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/fake-call... [2] https://www.thestatesman.com/cities/delhi/two-illegal-bpos-busted-in-delhi-26-arrested-for-cheating-us-nationals-1503265651.html/amp https://www.thestatesman.com/cities/delhi/two-illegal-bpos-b... [3] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/call-centre-fraud-72-employees-were-paid-in-cash-ferried-in-school-buses/amp_articleshow/92758061.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/call-cent...
- whimsicalism 2y ago
  If we angled more towards detente with China, they probably would - but why do they have any reason to crack down on crime targeting an 'adversary' state? The US hosts many Chinese criminal financiers and embezzlers that we have no intention of extraditing to China.
- kccqzy 2y ago
  The police does in fact care about phones belonging to Chinese owners stolen in China. They couldn't care less about phones belonging to Americans stolen in America.
  - chasil 2y ago
    I would prefer to see Apple move more manufacturing to India, citing these theft centers as one of many reasons. Whatever country allows it should lose legitimate commerce as a consequence. My own included, if we are found to be guilty.
    - kccqzy 2y ago
      Doesn't solve the problem. The Chinese can still "recycle" phones manufactured in India.
  - seanmcdirmid 2y ago
    Same with illicit fentanyl: sell it in China -> Death penalty, no mercy. Ship it off to America to be sold cheaply to addicts -> no problem.
- seoulmetro 2y ago
  Much like the US or Europe? Yeah... money comes first.
- geraneum 2y ago
  That “police” in “police state” is a different concept than the police you know of.
- seanmcdirmid 2y ago
  China simply isn't a police state. More to the point, it is authoritarian, but you also have things like prostitution going on in broad day light. The central and local governments have a very focused attention span, and if what bad thing you are doing is outside of that, they probably won't notice. Just don't sell/buy drugs, or get into fights when drunk.
- StanislavPetrov 2y ago
  If the police in New York clearly didn't care about a crime that was committed here, why would the Chinese care about it 8,000 miles away from where it happened?
- IncreasePosts 2y ago
  The law in China is: if it affects social order, then feel the state's wrath. Anything else is a free for all.
Fripplebubby 2y ago
Not from the article, but from the comments below it. > My phone was stolen while I was going through TSA security at JFK and the TSA guy must have been in on it because he wouldn't let me get it even though we were able to locate it using my husbands phone. When we used the find me app later we saw it was somewhere in Queens so definitely wasn't stolen by someone else flying that day. I had never heard of that happening before. Great, another thing to be anxious about at the airport. TSA does not pay very well, so I can understand the impulse.
- barnabask 2y ago
  This is 11 years old but relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLxsLbl16IM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLxsLbl16IM
- ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
  You understand the impulse to steal because a job doesn't pay well? I don't. I would understand the impulse to go back to school to develop a marketable skill, but not to use the force of the state to steal from people. Edit: Would you still find this behavior understandable if the TSA agent directly stole from passengers as their bags were scanned? What if the passenger in question ignored the collaborating-TSA-agent and moved to confront the thief; would you understand their behavior if they arrested the iPhone owner, you know, since they're underpaid. Would you accept the same behavior from a local NYPD beat cop? They aren't paid well when they first join the force, can they steal from random people too?
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
  - Fripplebubby 2y ago
    I don't accept or condone theft. That's an extreme position. But I do try to understand the way our flawed world works, instead of just wishing that people would see things the same way I do.
imglorp 2y ago
So, what's the right procedure here? Is the dichotomy in the post true? a) remove from account and help the recycle crooks, or b) risk them crack it having your data Aren't there crack wares at this point in the wild?
- krackers 2y ago
  If it's wiped then there's no data for them to get?
  - ipython 2y ago
    how did the thieves get the phone number of the author, then? is it on the lock screen when the phone is wiped, in order to facilitate its return?
    - muffinman26 2y ago
      Presumably the phone hasn't actually been wiped, or wasn't when the crooks first got the phone number. Smart phones generally let you add an Emergency Contact number that anyone can use the phone to call/text without entering a password, in order to facilitate an honest person returning the phone or someone contacting your family if you are found incapacitated.
    - ovalite 2y ago
      From the comments, the author was contacted via iMessages from the iCloud email that shows up when it asks for a password.
      - happyopossum 2y ago
        It doesn't show the full email, it's got the middle of it **'d out. OP likely had a message set for lost mode.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - deleted 2y ago
bnchrch 2y ago
Honestly. This is a pretty good advertisement for Apple. I appreciate the effort that they've put into making my device less valuable to thiefs.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
  These days, it's not worth it to steal an iPhone. It's a useless brick. That Apple knows where it's at.
  - kernal 2y ago
    I disagree. There are a lot of uses for an iCloud locked iPhone, such as a music player, podcast player, security camera, etc. Edit: I should clarify that the embedded video clearly showed that a number of the iPhones she had were still able to be used. Perhaps the owner didn't or wasn't able to iCloud lock them, but that's what I originally meant.
    - ms7m 2y ago
      No, if an iPhone is iCloud locked, you're not able to use the phone unless you enter the password of the account.
      - notatoad 2y ago
        >if an iPhone is iCloud locked but that still leaves the possibility that it isn't locked, and therefore it is worth it for theives to steal it. Even just the chance that it's not locked would make it worth stealing.
        hifromwork 2y ago
        Yes, but your response doesn't make sense in context. GP specifically said that there are a lot of uses "for an iCloud locked iPhone", parent debunked it.
123456atx 2y ago
this happened to me once in the mexico city airport ~2010. my broken macbook went missing in check baggage then a guy that was working at the airport messaged me on facebook 8 months later asking for the password. lol!
KeplerBoy 2y ago
What information do thieves get from an erased iPhone and how did they contact the legitimate owner? Does it say something like "locked and linked to sarah96@icloud.com" or can it display custom messages like "owned by sarah xyz, please call +43..."? Could it possibly get you into situations where people can successfully threaten to physically harm you because your contact information doxxed you?
- pqdbr 2y ago
  I assume they just eject the SIM card tray and get your phone number from the SIM by simply putting it into another phone.
  - SirMaster 2y ago
    This person seems to be from the USA and it's an iPhone 14 Pro. The iPhone 14 Pro sold in the USA does not have a SIM card slot. It's eSIM only.
- dmitrygr 2y ago
  By default you can set the "lost mode" message. many people put their contact info into it, in case someone wants to be helpful. This is how these scammers get this info. There is no other way to get the icloud contact info from a phone with a PIN/password.
- mr_toad 2y ago
  “Mark As Lost locks your screen with a passcode and lets you display a custom message with your phone number to help you get it back. You can also remotely erase your device if needed. Your custom message continues to display even after the device is erased.” https://support.apple.com/en-us/108794 https://support.apple.com/en-us/108794
Hizonner 2y ago
What I'm seeing here is that Apple has a really shitty, poorly thought out design. To keep the phone useless to somebody who steals it, you have to keep it exposing your contact information so that people can threaten you.
- kelnos 2y ago
  In the case that I lost my phone, though, instead of it being stolen, I really might want my contact info displayed on the lock screen so someone who finds it can get it back to me. Yes, I know, in many anti-social places in the world (like most US cities), it's much more likely that the phone was stolen, or that even in the lost-phone case, the person who finds it will be shitty and not try to return it. But in many (most?) other places people are generally honest and will try to return something that's lost. Then again, if you know that it was stolen, you should be able to keep the thief from getting your contact info.
- INTPenis 2y ago
  Well this also applies if someone friendly finds your phone and wishes to return it. It's a catch 22 there.
  - BeefySwain 2y ago
    Return it to an Apple store? Apple knows who to contact.
    - yreg 2y ago
      Most countries, including mine or the ones I'm likely to travel to, don't have Apple Stores.
      - mlyle 2y ago
        If my phone gets stolen from my pocket in the US, the chance of it wandering to the third world and then a Good Samaritan trying to give it back seem abysmal.
writeslowly 2y ago
This seems like a lot of work for one (or two, once it got to China) people repeatedly trying to get into the phone. I wonder if this is like debt collection agencies where the stolen phones get repeatedly fenced at a steadily decreasing value, and each new owner has a go at sending out these unlock copypastes until it's clear that it's only value is in being scrapped.
- AndroTux 2y ago
  Doesn't seem like a lot of work to me. Sending out that message takes a few minutes, and I would assume that most people would simply cave in and delete it. It's gone anyways, so they don't really lose much, and being threatened does things to people.
  - uptown 2y ago
    Yeah but flying Miami back to the US to murder their whole family does seem like a lot of effort.
    - factormeta 2y ago
      [flagged]
  - writeslowly 2y ago
    It stood out to me that after the initial text, they followed up two weeks later, and then once per day after that over a few days from different numbers. I would have expected to see someone send out a few threatening messages on one day and then move on to the next stolen phone when it was clear they weren't getting anything.
  - m463 2y ago
    take a picture of the message, OCR it, and it can be automated. threats as a service, in language of choice.
- j-bos 2y ago
  Doesn't seem too much, some people write hundreds of comments/tweets per day with no expectation of pay.
blackhaj7 2y ago
Is it true that if you remove it from Find My iPhone then they are able to unlock it? I didn’t see any warnings of this when I erased my phone after I recently lost it (and someone found it but decided to keep it)
- dmitrygr 2y ago
  > Is it true that if you remove it from Find My iPhone then they are able to unlock it? Yes, as long as it is in your account, nobody can activate it. When you remove it, it can be activated by someone.
- bri3d 2y ago
  The Activation Lock remains if you use Remote Erase - all documented on Apple's site: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108794 https://support.apple.com/en-us/108794 Only Remove Device specifically deactivates Activation Lock.
- titanomachy 2y ago
  Yeah, when I sold my old iPhone I wiped it and removed it from my account so that the new owner could use it. The site I was selling on warned me multiple times that it would be unusable without that step.
valleyjo 2y ago
This happened to my sister. She got her phone stolen at a bar in Austin. They’ve tried to phish her multiple times and now it’s gotten to intimidation texts where they are threatening physical and sexual violence to her unless she unlocks the phone. She put it in lost mode right away and due to my assurance she knows she is safe but honestly it does make you kind of just want to unlock and get the nightmare over with. She has tracked the iPhone via find my through a few us cities and finally it’s in China.
- consf 2y ago
  [dead]
- thinkling 2y ago
  > She has tracked the iPhone via find my through a few us cities and finally it’s in China. I wonder… if people whose phones get stolen start tracking the locations they see it travel to using Find My, and a site were available to report these to, could enough evidence be collected to motivate a police/FBI visit to the location of fences in the US who are shipping these to China? (Could one prevent such a tool from being used maliciously to swat someone?—I suppose in the end a specific victim would have to go to the police in person, limiting that risk? I’m imagining the address-collecting site might respond “yes I’ve seen more than (say) 20 phones reported at that location, you may want to work with local police if you can”.)
  - joecool1029 2y ago
    > I wonder… if people whose phones get stolen start tracking the locations they see it travel to using Find My, and a site were available to report these to, could enough evidence be collected to motivate a police/FBI visit to the location of fences in the US who are shipping these to China? Probably not. Below their pay grade to stop petty crime. There's also the chain of custody on evidence that becomes questionable for the prosecution. They need to collect it using their own methods and reality is they have easier or larger crime to go after. My observation on this is that it needs to be more of an 'institutional' level of crime to get them motivated if it doesn't happen in their own investigation. Ultimately this is 'helpful' crime for Apple's bottom line, unlike parts smuggled in to legitimately repair devices. Other example of what I mean: I've witnessed a craigslist deal go south on a purchased motorcycle when the seller never titled it from previous owner. Cops were called, and told the two parties to stop arguing and file a claim in court else disorderly persons charges would be brought. (thankfully the seller was able to contact the former owner, and drive with the purchaser to have the title transferred properly) If however this was a situation like a bank calling about forged checks, the police would move to arrest and prosecute the forger immediately. There wouldn't be this onus on the bank's part to file a civil claim.
dmitrygr 2y ago
And THIS is why i support parts pairing. 3 years ago, the LCD and battery could be resold making this worth it. This year - nope. I dream of a world where even the little screws that hold my iPhone together are parts-paired so stealing it costs more in effort than the possible $ recovered from it!
- ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
  Agreed. Anti-theft is a higher priority for me than repairability.
  - BizarroLand 2y ago
    I value autonomy more. I'm not someone interesting enough to observe, but I still want my privacy. I'm not so poor as that I have to take whatever I can get, but I still want to own what I buy, and have the freedom to do anything with it, including crimes if I so choose. I won't commit crimes, and if I do I will pay the price, but I don't want a nanny to prevent me from doing precrimes that I would not have done in the first place. I am not a mindless sheep, I require no societal shepherd. All of that was said to say, I want the devices I purchase to be repairable by anyone that I deem worthy of repairing it, including myself.
  - mqus 2y ago
    fine, pair the parts, but also: let the owners unpair them, same as you can lock/unlock your phone. Voila! both repairability and anti-theft gained! Pairing is just anti-repair atm. if you want to know how: put the part ids (which are used for pairing) into the apple id account and verify them when switching on the phone.
    - mqus 2y ago
      just noticed: re-pair-ability is basically all we want (pun intended)
- oynqr 2y ago
  The part pairing isn't the problem, it's that you can't unpair parts. Creating a secure unpair process would not be beyond Apple's capabilities.
borbtactics 2y ago
>“hackers” might “contact my family” to, what, send them thousands of photos of my dog?? I'm confused. The attacker doesn't have access to the author's photos or family contacts, right?
- FrancoisBosun 2y ago
  They don’t. They’re using another phone and texting the original owner, threatening them, in order to scare them into unlocking the device. When you boot the “Lost” phone, it asks for the password of the owner’s iCloud account. There is probably an information leak where the original email or phone is presented and the thief can track the original owner through that.
  - evanjd 2y ago
    The original iCloud email address is partially obfuscated “eg. e***@icloud.com”, so it’s unlikely to be useful. For this, they’re most likely reading the phone number from the physical SIM card left in the device.
    - krallja 2y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40579119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40579119
Havoc 2y ago
>it was in an office building conveniently located around the corner from an Adidas store lol no. That location is the Huaqiangbei electronics market - one of the largest electronics markets in the world w/ a thriving 2nd hand parts ecosystem.
- zer00eyz 2y ago
  So as I understand it, all of the "parts" are mostly worthless because they wont just work in another iPhone. How do you maintain this functionality and give the "right to repair"? I would assume that it's possible but would add a fair bit of cost to devices (not that someone like apple cant bear said costs)... But IM just guessing on that front as I have zero experience with hardware locking.
  - bmicraft 2y ago
    Easy, only allow components that aren't currently registered to someone elses iCloud account (read: stolen)
  - chemmail 2y ago
    Most parts will indeed work. It will just show "unkown part" in the settings. The main thing that is really paired is the front camera for faceID. Also changing the screen without the original paired chip makes you lose autobrightness and truetone which is need to get to MAX brightness on 14 and up.
    - philistine 2y ago
      Sounds like people are swapping a screen on those iPhones without doing a calibration.
    - m463 2y ago
      auto brightness also broken on earlier phones + 3rd party screen source: i have this problem iphone 8
  - Havoc 2y ago
localfirst 2y ago
long time ago i had my samsung galaxy stolen ive not reported as stolen because my carrier said i needed proof of the receipt (which i lost years ago) its such a crappy experience i dont wish it on anyone. Samsung has been next to useless in finding it. having said that this article makes me glad I bought an Apple just wish they'd kept the hardware touch button on the non-SE phones and back button. this is the first iPhone for me but i keep searching for the "alt+tab" and back button. it was ridiculously hard to switch between apps (have to physically press the touch button twice which makes me lose grip on teh phone). honestly its so close to being perfect but the iPhone has some obvious interface flaws coming from Android
- hahamaster 2y ago
  You're just used to Android. It's hard to put buttons on a phone that's nearly all screen.
  - localfirst 2y ago
    on the iphone SE there is ample space where the speaker is and at the bottom I don't see why they couldn't have added a back button its so ridiculous that I have to tap twice in the back and three times to activate "alt+tab" it doesn't even work consistently when you have a case. I know this is based off the old phone but geez I had no idea it was this bad. on the bright side im very pleased with the software experience. just ties everything nicely together right out of the gate. Apple is definitely for a different crowd. I'm not sure if I will buy another iPhone after this I just realized as a long time Android user, I didn't miss much, in fact I would've given it up long time ago.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- nebula8804 2y ago
  If I am understanding you correctly, you are having trouble with the "double tap" of the Touch ID models right? This operation was much easier on the smaller iphone SE. They probably designed it for that design(iphone 4-5S) due to its smaller size that allowed one handed operation and then carrying it over to the current SE design(iphone 6-11) is probably not ideal for that form factor(thinner and rounder). I believe the FaceID models solve this by having you slide the app up slightly to then select between it and any other open apps or go back to the home screen. Maybe that would work better for you? Also, this is just my opinion but like I mentioned, the iPhone SE Gen 2+ uses the last gen design language which started back in 2014(iphone 6) and has been gone from the main line for years now. It always felt super slippery and prone to dropping(too thin and those rounded edges are difficult to grip) which is why I held onto my iPhone SE Gen 1 until the new iPhone 12 came out. This is just my opinion but maybe you should go to a store and check out their other models.
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
While sort of funny, it is also crazy and disappointing the extent to which these scammers go. It’s not fun receiving death threats and having that stress over you. I wish we had more the law could do in bringing these criminals to justice.
- remram 2y ago
  For real, without a strong sense of resentment, you would probably give up just to stop the texts. It's not like you lose anything further (apart from increased chances of theft in the future for everyone I guess).
pingou 2y ago
If that isn't already the case, Apple should warn you when you put your phone in lost mode that the robbers may contact you to get you to remove it from your iCloud account, and to never do it. Or add a big warning when trying to remove a device previously put in lost mode.
- notatoad 2y ago
  Is there a good reason why you might want to remove an iPhone marked as lost from your iCloud account? It seems like something that should just not be possible.
  - pkulak 2y ago
    Maybe you don't want some random phone in China clogging up your map until you die? I could see wanting to get rid of it. Be nice if you could hide it or something. Maybe a button to brick it out of spite and be done with it forever.
    - mentos 2y ago
      Bricking stolen phones is probably the best way to fight this
    - sureIy 2y ago
      We’re talking about possible improvements: - hide the Lost device from the map after a month without unlocking it for them to sell. - gather more information: is it lost? Stolen? What to do next. - the device should be locked and blacklisted until you mark it as actually found.
  - krallja 2y ago
    …if you find it?
throw310822 2y ago
Actually, they should have tried with "ignore all previous instructions".
blamazon 2y ago
> Apple’s own “helpful” iMessage feature was sort of fooled: the auto-filled contact name said “Maybe: Apple Pay.” Maybe! This seems problematic? In article screenshot shows that it pulled in a misleading contact photo as well. I know they also have a separate UI color scheme for business messaging that is meant to address phishing and trust but perhaps they should not auto suggest contacts containing the word Apple.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
Zefiroj 2y ago
Ostensibly huaqiangbei has a few ways of getting around the activation lock. But a more common scenario is the phone gets used for parts. As for the icloud account. AFAIK you used to be able to get the full account email with GSX. Not sure about now.
chemmail 2y ago
iCloud removal seems extra hard nowadays. I gave my dad a new ipad and took his old one and signed out of his account and put mine instead. A few months later i had it sitting dead and turned it back on a million icloud login messages popped up with his account then mine then his a bunch of times. His account was back on! I took it back to him to try and remove it from his phone and it took a lot of tries. I think the end combo i had to wipe the ipad and then it appeared back on his icloud list and remove it again. Something similar happened to another friend who i was trying to repair.
1024core 2y ago
How did they get her number, to message her?
- betaby 2y ago
  Physical SIM card?
bachmeier 2y ago
Seems that stealing a phone with the wrong information on it would be a good way to end up at the bottom of a river. > watching my phone move around Manhattan before it finally stopped at Rockefeller Center. I didn’t bother confronting the thief. Sure, this person didn't confront them, and most probably wouldn't. The one out of a thousand that does might not be messing around.
- callalex 2y ago
  Most criminals are unbelievably stupid, particularly when it comes to risk assessment.
happyopossum 2y ago
The author claims in a comment that the scammer was able to contact her because Apple leaked her email address with the activation prompt. That's not likely, as that prompt **'s out most of the email address (you get the first letter of the part before the @). She most likely had a 'lost mode' message set for the device.
- onesociety2022 2y ago
  Agree - what the author claims doesn’t seem likely. I would be worried about my email address leaking. My email address has my full name. So they can easily find out where I live and work if they spend a bunch of time googling my name. Exposing my Phone number would almost be preferable over exposing my email address in this scenario.
catlikesshrimp 2y ago
It wasn't even an Iphone 15. It's an iphone 14 in March. I doubt a citizen in a first world country can become a target of an international cartel for $1000 at most. Not /s: Imagine the logistics and the cost of opportunity
sugarkjube 2y ago
If you can set the device to "lost", couldn't apple make it beep 100% of the time? Wouldn't that be a deterrent for thieves?
- pedalpete 2y ago
  Yes, but that would also be awful for all the people around your phone when it may not have been stolen and could have just been actually lost.
  - consf 2y ago
    [dead]
nielsbot 2y ago
The Gothamist page is returning a 500 error now. There's a version on archive.org tho https://web.archive.org/web/20240604225617/https://gothamist.com/news/things-the-guys-who-stole-my-phone-have-texted-me-to-try-to-get-me-to-unlock-it https://web.archive.org/web/20240604225617/https://gothamist...
- guffins 2y ago
  Gothamist (New York Public Radio) engineer here. Sorry about that! Are you still receiving a 500 error?
  - nielsbot 2y ago
    Works for me now
StanislavPetrov 2y ago
This episode makes me thing that in addition to "lost" mode you should be able to set your phone to "brick" mode when you know you have no chance at getting it back so the phone itself is becomes nonfunctional and your data can never be accessed.
- consf 2y ago
  [dead]
mullen 2y ago
If someone in China starts harassing you or threatening you, just start sending messages that the two of you are conspiring to overthrow the Chinese government and the messages will stop real quick. These Chinese mafia types talk tough until you start sending anti-Chinese government copy-pasta to them and they shut up real quick.
- MOARDONGZPLZ 2y ago
  They don’t. I have tried this and other similar things such as sending images banned in China (but otherwise totally fine). Perhaps they weren’t in China I suppose.
- yumraj 2y ago
  Serious question: have you tried this or are you theorizing?
  - mullen 2y ago
    This is a well known tactic to do to Chinese scammers or any person you don't want to talk to that is in China or has to go back to China.
    - datpiff 2y ago
      aka "I read it online"?
      - gembeMx 2y ago
        [dead]
      - leshenka 2y ago
        Can’t hurt to try anyway. You lose nothing, but can get some laughs.
- altairprime 2y ago
  It's probably best not to declare war upon China in writing. Instead, ask how many students died in the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. That specific phrase should specifically auto-alert the censors to a known forbidden topic, without resorting to threats against China. How long of a lost phone message can one set, anyways?
daft_pink 2y ago
What happens when you do this? Does the old device just stay on your account listed as a device forever?
OnionBlender 2y ago
Isn't it illegal to knowingly buy stolen property? (I'm referring to the youtuber that bought the stolen phones).
jpmattia 2y ago
> As long as I didn’t remove the phone from my Apple account or the Find My app, the phone was essentially bricked to anyone without the passcode and my iCloud password — unusable by the thieves, or the fences who I assume bought it from them. I did not know this, and I wish it were better publicized.
sh1mmer 2y ago
If the phone was locked, passcoded, remote erased and sim-locked how did they know her number? I’m not doubting the story I’m just curious how they figured that out.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- remram 2y ago
  I was wondering the same thing. Maybe it was on the lock screen? Seems unlikely that they managed to remember its association with the phone throughout, though. edit: we have the answer https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40579230 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40579230
- raziel31 2y ago
  > As you can see, most of the phones she tried didn’t have passcodes but were still linked to iCloud accounts I guess she didn't have passcode on.
seneca 2y ago
What a poorly written article. It could have been an interesting profile of what scammers do to scare people into undoing security measures, and how to avoid that. Do these outlets not have editors? I'm surprised anyone would publish this.
flemhans 2y ago
That escalated gradually!
searealist 2y ago
This is a fake story. > Veronica leads the digital news and audience team at WNYC and Gothamist, which includes breaking news, newsletters, and social, among other things. I expect such fake stories on the front page of reddit, not HN.
- shrimp_emoji 2y ago
  This. Have an updoot my good sir Nice try, FBI. Bold of you to assume I have friends. ¯ \ _ ( ツ ) _ / ¯ EDIT: Thanks for the award, kind stranger!
- remram 2y ago
  I don't know, millions of phones are stolen every year. Seems likely that some reporter's would be stolen once in a while. It's a little too mundane to be made up.
- katamarimambo 2y ago
  I do not get the link between the quote and the accusation
mdip 2y ago
Kind of sparked a thought in another comment but my thinking is that the best action in this situation is to simply not reply to the scammer. The author didn't explain "how the scammer was texting her". I don't own an iPhone. On my Android device, they'd have to have my phone number which I don't know how they'd get from the locked phone. Of course, I -- like many -- provide an alternate number on the screen for "helpful people who might want to return, rather than re-sell, my crappy old Samsung phone." And I'd imagine that would be the way to get "the first reply". But if you could avoid that[0], it keeps you from feeding a likely gambling addiction, or at least makes the game a little less satisfying. Consider that they've got a box of bricked phones. Every text is a chance to turn one of those into a few hundred dollars. Every reply is a small "high" that they're still in the game. Every message that goes off into the Ether, ignored, is "additional confirmation that this phone is a permanent brick" and you don't even get the satisfaction of feeling like maybe you intimidated someone a little. [0] And to a lesser extent, even if you can't. I've blocked scammmers and seen the progression of repeated "Hello?"s ... somewhere in there it's connected that whatever they're trying to send me is not meeting my eyeballs. Had a funny one that was like 30 messages in a row, followed by "whatever" and "ass hole" ... I remember thinking it was odd that it was always lower case and that they put a space between ass and hole. Not necessarily like a person with a lack of English language skills, but like a tween just learning how to wield profanity.
- docdeek 2y ago
  >> The author didn't explain "how the scammer was texting her". In a comment on the article replying to someone pointing this out the author explained that she was receiving iMessages and not simple texts. The scammers identified an email address linked to her icloud account when trying to reset the phone and set her iMessages to that email address.
humanlity 2y ago
if something involves China, the topic will turn to politics or something else, but the real question is: how to stop the stealer and why this can safely ship to China
sershe 2y ago
Makes me wish we could do proper punishment adjustment, taking into account the percentage of criminals punished, using this app. Let's say punishment X would deter phone theft. Now take the phones stolen, and how many are recovered with criminals punished, 1 in N. To actually deter theft, the punishment needs to be X*N; I'm pretty sure for realistic X (e.g. 6 months in jail?) and N (huge), the proper punishment is death. Every now and then, track one random phone thief down using these apps, and execute them with some fanfare (I use the term "them" loosely; more like, "it"). Deter phone theft, and also make the world a better place.
- idle_zealot 2y ago
  The fact that people like you exist is far more damaging for the world than phone thieves.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - sershe 2y ago
    I can only respond with an echo: "The fact that people like you exist is far more damaging for the world than phone thieves." Unreserved compassion is by far the most harmful atavisms of human evolution. More evil, even, than tribalism and tall-poppy syndrome. The combination with the latter, in a sense of being reluctant to punch down, produces the likes of you - active fellow-travelers to psychopaths. The logical result is either societal collapse or someone like Duterte or Bukele restoring order. I think it's much better to have the right amount of retributive justice to being with.
- mock-possum 2y ago
  Just because cruel and unusual punishment would be an efficient-in-some-regards way to approach punishment doesn’t mean it’s a humane approach. Humane is top priority. Punishments should be commensurate to the crime committed - with under-punishment always preferable to over-punishment.
  - 2y ago
Zuiii 2y ago
Ironically, Apple's monopolistic and predatory restrictions on spare parts will still allow this scumbag to make a profit, even after he has failed to access her phone. Had Apple allowed people to access parts, her phone would be absolutely worthless. Apple's abuse of our laws is what's making iphone thefts still profitable. Ironic.
Aardwolf 2y ago
Stupid question but how are they able to message the original owner? What contact info does a wiped (or is it just locked?) phone give? Is it via the phone number on a physical SIM card? At least my phone (android) shows no contact info when locked as far as I can tell, and an eSIM would prevent knowing the phone number right?
t_mann 2y ago
Fortunately, I've never had my phone stolen so far and I lack the OP's knowledge about how this typically plays out. But I don't find these messages as amusing as she does, and I might actually have gotten fooled by the first message eg. Can someone explain what is happening here? How can the thieves even contact her? What do we need to assume they know about her (eg name)?
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 2y ago
Does it work with Android phones too? I got robbed of my Samsung in Brazil, tried to remotely lock and erase it, and removed it from Find My Device. Was that a mistake? I also submitted IMEI to some stolen phones database, got a police report and received insurance compensation. What's the correct course of actions?
qingcharles 2y ago
I was given a huge box of locked iPhones from someone who ran a bar and had stored all the ones that had been accidentally left behind and never collected. Out of about 20+ phones the only one I could get working was an iPhone 7.
roydivision 2y ago
Dumb, pre morning coffee question - How does the thief know your number to text you if they can't unlock the phone?
- inferiorhuman 2y ago
  If you set your phone to lost mode it'll offer to let whoever has the phone contact the owner. This is done without unlocking the phone and AFAIK is done without revealing your contact info. But… it's easy (and reasonable) to think that whoever has your phone also has your contact info which makes these sorts of scams that much scarier.
  - roydivision 2y ago
    Great, thanks.
paulcapewell 2y ago
> fence Had never come across this term before. Huh.
BrandoElFollito 2y ago
I do not have an iPhone and I do not understand one thing: how could they text her if the phone was locked? How did they know the number to text?
consf 2y ago
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jackstwt 2y ago
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babra4151 2y ago
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Malcomwills 2y ago
[flagged]

480 points by neaden 2y ago

[dead]

> I checked Find My and my phone was indeed in China. It looked like it was in an office building conveniently located around the corner from an Adidas store, about 8,000 miles from me. You’d think for a police state, China would be just little bit better at cracking down on obvious crime that happens within their borders. But I guess not.

gadflyinyoureye 2y ago
Well this isn’t against a citizen. Also look at the murders going on in China now.
- seadan83 2y ago
  Do you have any supporting citations on the crime/murder rate in China?
  - sugarkjube 2y ago
    I was curious after reading this, so I looked it up. Seems murder rate in china is 12 times lower than usa (source wikipedia). Actually murders rate in china is about the same as people killed by police in usa.
    - ImJamal 2y ago
      Do we have any evidence that China is telling the truth?
- whimsicalism 2y ago
  do you honestly think the murder rate in China is anywhere close to our own?
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
ronsor 2y ago
1. Chinese government is not as competent as it tries to appear. 2. They do not care about foreigners or crimes unless they involve Chinese citizens.
- factormeta 2y ago
  >2. They do not care about foreigners or crimes unless they involve Chinese citizens. Don't know if they really care that much about Chinese citizens. Probably just the ones in the politburo.
  - whimsicalism 2y ago
    It's worked out remarkably well for Chinese citizens given they don't care at all about them, then
    - postingawayonhn 2y ago
      Their GDP per capita still lags significantly behind Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan who all aligned themselves with the west. Millions also died due to their rulers through the 20th century.
      - whimsicalism 2y ago
        India seems like the much more obvious comparison than those countries
      - zztop44 2y ago
        Millions died due to their rulers in the decades before the Communist Party, too.
- seanmcdirmid 2y ago
  Chinese citizens are treated fairly similarly. There are plenty of unlawful activities that go unpoliced/unpunished (massage parlors), unless there happens to be a specific crackdown going on (otherwise, the police know what is going on and are probably getting a cut).
Xylakant 2y ago
The police state is interested in maintaining the power structure in the police state. As long as petty or even organized crime does not upset the balance of power, the authorities couldn’t care less - crime against Americans is no danger to them. Just as the Russian government has no interest in cracking down on its blackhat population, as long as they target non-Russian orgs.
- genter 2y ago
  Russian government is the blackhat population.
  - TrainedMonkey 2y ago
    I have a theory that Russians foster black hat population while collecting evidence as a matter of national policy... so they could slowly recruit / quickly gang press talent from. Kind of like strategic reserve of hackers / zero days / etc.
    - netsharc 2y ago
      Yeah, a bit like corrupt politicians in China (or anywhere, really), you can be corrupt, but if some other powerful politician doesn't like you, they'll arrest and ruin your life for corruption... Even though maybe the judge and police are also corrupt. Or in Egypt, you have to bribe to get a job as a police officer, your superior expects a tribute each month because his superiors expect one, all the way to the top, so you bully the public for bribes/protection money, that's why the police were so passionate about suppressing anti-government protests during the Arab Spring, their livelihood depended on it. Meanwhile the Egyptian military had its own economy to supply themselves (eg a factory making soap, or bread) and were viewed by the public as trustworthy. All in a fascinating book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25622863-thieves-of-state https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25622863-thieves-of-stat...
  - zer00eyz 2y ago
    I have worked with a bunch of Russian devs over the last few decades. They really aren't the same group. Black hats (criminals), Government, and commercial devs are pretty distinct, and dont often over lap on a day to day basis. That having been said the government jobs are available to either group (sometimes not by "choice") and there is a revolving door there. It's not so far removed from the university, drug company/reseearch, FDA revolving doors that we have for Drug development in the US.
barnabask 2y ago
Misconception: police solve crimes. Truth: police protect their employers.
- mrguyorama 2y ago
  Misconception: Police are trained to investigate and solve crime Reality: Police absolutely hate doing the "boring" parts of their jobs. Property crime clearance rate is an abysmal ~10% and everyone knows a handful of people who reported a theft, large or otherwise, and got nothing but a police report. Meanwhile they had plenty of time to come to our local supermarket and harass a 6 year old that tried to pocket a candybar. They took him into the security camera room and hassled this kid for several hours, zero parents involved. The American police do not feel required to do their damn jobs, unless it involves physical activity or a gun. The boring stuff, like submitting hundreds of stored rape kits to labs to literally catch rapists, doesn't get done, ever.
  - eevilspock 2y ago
    On any given day, in any police department in the nation, 15 percent of officers will do the right thing no matter what is happening. Fifteen percent of officers will abuse their authority at every opportunity. The remaining 70 percent could go either way depending on whom they are working with. ~ I'm a black ex-cop, and this is the real truth about race and policing, http://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8661977/race-police-officer http://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8661977/race-police-officer
    - estebank 2y ago
      > Fifteen percent of officers will abuse their authority at every opportunity. The remaining 70 percent could go either way depending on whom they are working with. This is why I find it bizarre that the behavior of bad cops is minimized by calling them "a few bad apples", when the entire aphorism is "one bad apple spoils the bunch".
      - mrguyorama 2y ago
JumpinJack_Cash 2y ago
> > cracking down on obvious crime As inconvenient as it is for the author and those in their similar situation this sort of petty crime is about on the same level as bustinng a massage parlor. And honestly it woul hold the same low priority everywhere not just in China
colordrops 2y ago
China is not a police state, they are a military state. The US is a police state. In China the local cops are generally far more hands off than an in the US. China is more top-down from the national level. In the US, local police are the typical mechanism for control.
- emptysongglass 2y ago
  [flagged]
- seoulmetro 2y ago
  [flagged]
- seanmcdirmid 2y ago
  Cops are hands off. When they need hands on, they call in the PAP. They are armed and have the riot control gear. China is top-down, except when it isn't, then its very bottom up. Is is sort of dichotomy of a central government with absolute authority but a limited attention span.
  - lazide 2y ago
    The central gov’t is a bit eye-of-Sauron like. When it notices you, you’re in deep shit. But for the most part, it doesn’t notice 95% of what is actually happening.
darth_avocado 2y ago
Often stances of the governments across the world are: we’ll ignore it unless it becomes a problem for us. Often, in organized crime, money flows back to the government and creates job opportunities for people that keeps them happy. There is a reason. Why there’s so many scam call centers in India. The government will turn a blind eye until someone comes in with proof that raises a stink or if other international government agencies get involved.
- mschuster91 2y ago
  > There is a reason. Why there’s so many scam call centers in India. According to a commenter on HN from a few months ago [1], the reason is a political division - the scam callcenters are in West Bengal, where the ruling political party turns a blind eye due to corruption and to provide annoyance towards the federal government ruled by the BJP. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968542
  - darth_avocado 2y ago
    Corruption is definitely part of it, but I wouldn’t blame it purely on politics. Kolkata in West Bengal definitely has scam call centers but that’s only one of the cities. Gurugram near New Delhi [2], Hyderabad [1], Bangalore [3] and Pune all have scam call centers and all of them fall under the governance of different regional and national political parties. [1] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/fake-call-center-duping-us-citizens-raided-in-hyderabad-115-cyber-fraudsters-held/amp_articleshow/102656202.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/fake-call... [2] https://www.thestatesman.com/cities/delhi/two-illegal-bpos-busted-in-delhi-26-arrested-for-cheating-us-nationals-1503265651.html/amp https://www.thestatesman.com/cities/delhi/two-illegal-bpos-b... [3] https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/call-centre-fraud-72-employees-were-paid-in-cash-ferried-in-school-buses/amp_articleshow/92758061.cms https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/call-cent...
whimsicalism 2y ago
If we angled more towards detente with China, they probably would - but why do they have any reason to crack down on crime targeting an 'adversary' state? The US hosts many Chinese criminal financiers and embezzlers that we have no intention of extraditing to China.
kccqzy 2y ago
The police does in fact care about phones belonging to Chinese owners stolen in China. They couldn't care less about phones belonging to Americans stolen in America.
- chasil 2y ago
  I would prefer to see Apple move more manufacturing to India, citing these theft centers as one of many reasons. Whatever country allows it should lose legitimate commerce as a consequence. My own included, if we are found to be guilty.
  - kccqzy 2y ago
    Doesn't solve the problem. The Chinese can still "recycle" phones manufactured in India.
- seanmcdirmid 2y ago
  Same with illicit fentanyl: sell it in China -> Death penalty, no mercy. Ship it off to America to be sold cheaply to addicts -> no problem.
seoulmetro 2y ago
Much like the US or Europe? Yeah... money comes first.
geraneum 2y ago
That “police” in “police state” is a different concept than the police you know of.
seanmcdirmid 2y ago
China simply isn't a police state. More to the point, it is authoritarian, but you also have things like prostitution going on in broad day light. The central and local governments have a very focused attention span, and if what bad thing you are doing is outside of that, they probably won't notice. Just don't sell/buy drugs, or get into fights when drunk.
StanislavPetrov 2y ago
If the police in New York clearly didn't care about a crime that was committed here, why would the Chinese care about it 8,000 miles away from where it happened?
IncreasePosts 2y ago
The law in China is: if it affects social order, then feel the state's wrath. Anything else is a free for all.

Fripplebubby 2y ago

Not from the article, but from the comments below it. > My phone was stolen while I was going through TSA security at JFK and the TSA guy must have been in on it because he wouldn't let me get it even though we were able to locate it using my husbands phone. When we used the find me app later we saw it was somewhere in Queens so definitely wasn't stolen by someone else flying that day. I had never heard of that happening before. Great, another thing to be anxious about at the airport. TSA does not pay very well, so I can understand the impulse.

barnabask 2y ago
This is 11 years old but relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLxsLbl16IM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLxsLbl16IM
ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
You understand the impulse to steal because a job doesn't pay well? I don't. I would understand the impulse to go back to school to develop a marketable skill, but not to use the force of the state to steal from people. Edit: Would you still find this behavior understandable if the TSA agent directly stole from passengers as their bags were scanned? What if the passenger in question ignored the collaborating-TSA-agent and moved to confront the thief; would you understand their behavior if they arrested the iPhone owner, you know, since they're underpaid. Would you accept the same behavior from a local NYPD beat cop? They aren't paid well when they first join the force, can they steal from random people too?
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- Fripplebubby 2y ago
  I don't accept or condone theft. That's an extreme position. But I do try to understand the way our flawed world works, instead of just wishing that people would see things the same way I do.

imglorp 2y ago

So, what's the right procedure here? Is the dichotomy in the post true? a) remove from account and help the recycle crooks, or b) risk them crack it having your data Aren't there crack wares at this point in the wild?

krackers 2y ago
If it's wiped then there's no data for them to get?
- ipython 2y ago
  how did the thieves get the phone number of the author, then? is it on the lock screen when the phone is wiped, in order to facilitate its return?
  - muffinman26 2y ago
    Presumably the phone hasn't actually been wiped, or wasn't when the crooks first got the phone number. Smart phones generally let you add an Emergency Contact number that anyone can use the phone to call/text without entering a password, in order to facilitate an honest person returning the phone or someone contacting your family if you are found incapacitated.
  - ovalite 2y ago
    From the comments, the author was contacted via iMessages from the iCloud email that shows up when it asks for a password.
    - happyopossum 2y ago
      It doesn't show the full email, it's got the middle of it **'d out. OP likely had a message set for lost mode.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - deleted 2y ago

bnchrch 2y ago

Honestly. This is a pretty good advertisement for Apple. I appreciate the effort that they've put into making my device less valuable to thiefs.

ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
These days, it's not worth it to steal an iPhone. It's a useless brick. That Apple knows where it's at.
- kernal 2y ago
  I disagree. There are a lot of uses for an iCloud locked iPhone, such as a music player, podcast player, security camera, etc. Edit: I should clarify that the embedded video clearly showed that a number of the iPhones she had were still able to be used. Perhaps the owner didn't or wasn't able to iCloud lock them, but that's what I originally meant.
  - ms7m 2y ago
    No, if an iPhone is iCloud locked, you're not able to use the phone unless you enter the password of the account.
    - notatoad 2y ago
      >if an iPhone is iCloud locked but that still leaves the possibility that it isn't locked, and therefore it is worth it for theives to steal it. Even just the chance that it's not locked would make it worth stealing.
      - hifromwork 2y ago
        Yes, but your response doesn't make sense in context. GP specifically said that there are a lot of uses "for an iCloud locked iPhone", parent debunked it.

123456atx 2y ago

this happened to me once in the mexico city airport ~2010. my broken macbook went missing in check baggage then a guy that was working at the airport messaged me on facebook 8 months later asking for the password. lol!

KeplerBoy 2y ago

What information do thieves get from an erased iPhone and how did they contact the legitimate owner? Does it say something like "locked and linked to sarah96@icloud.com" or can it display custom messages like "owned by sarah xyz, please call +43..."? Could it possibly get you into situations where people can successfully threaten to physically harm you because your contact information doxxed you?

pqdbr 2y ago
I assume they just eject the SIM card tray and get your phone number from the SIM by simply putting it into another phone.
- SirMaster 2y ago
  This person seems to be from the USA and it's an iPhone 14 Pro. The iPhone 14 Pro sold in the USA does not have a SIM card slot. It's eSIM only.
dmitrygr 2y ago
By default you can set the "lost mode" message. many people put their contact info into it, in case someone wants to be helpful. This is how these scammers get this info. There is no other way to get the icloud contact info from a phone with a PIN/password.
mr_toad 2y ago
“Mark As Lost locks your screen with a passcode and lets you display a custom message with your phone number to help you get it back. You can also remotely erase your device if needed. Your custom message continues to display even after the device is erased.” https://support.apple.com/en-us/108794 https://support.apple.com/en-us/108794

Hizonner 2y ago

What I'm seeing here is that Apple has a really shitty, poorly thought out design. To keep the phone useless to somebody who steals it, you have to keep it exposing your contact information so that people can threaten you.

kelnos 2y ago
In the case that I lost my phone, though, instead of it being stolen, I really might want my contact info displayed on the lock screen so someone who finds it can get it back to me. Yes, I know, in many anti-social places in the world (like most US cities), it's much more likely that the phone was stolen, or that even in the lost-phone case, the person who finds it will be shitty and not try to return it. But in many (most?) other places people are generally honest and will try to return something that's lost. Then again, if you know that it was stolen, you should be able to keep the thief from getting your contact info.
INTPenis 2y ago
Well this also applies if someone friendly finds your phone and wishes to return it. It's a catch 22 there.
- BeefySwain 2y ago
  Return it to an Apple store? Apple knows who to contact.
  - yreg 2y ago
    Most countries, including mine or the ones I'm likely to travel to, don't have Apple Stores.
    - mlyle 2y ago
      If my phone gets stolen from my pocket in the US, the chance of it wandering to the third world and then a Good Samaritan trying to give it back seem abysmal.

writeslowly 2y ago

This seems like a lot of work for one (or two, once it got to China) people repeatedly trying to get into the phone. I wonder if this is like debt collection agencies where the stolen phones get repeatedly fenced at a steadily decreasing value, and each new owner has a go at sending out these unlock copypastes until it's clear that it's only value is in being scrapped.

AndroTux 2y ago
Doesn't seem like a lot of work to me. Sending out that message takes a few minutes, and I would assume that most people would simply cave in and delete it. It's gone anyways, so they don't really lose much, and being threatened does things to people.
- uptown 2y ago
  Yeah but flying Miami back to the US to murder their whole family does seem like a lot of effort.
  - factormeta 2y ago
    [flagged]
- writeslowly 2y ago
  It stood out to me that after the initial text, they followed up two weeks later, and then once per day after that over a few days from different numbers. I would have expected to see someone send out a few threatening messages on one day and then move on to the next stolen phone when it was clear they weren't getting anything.
- m463 2y ago
  take a picture of the message, OCR it, and it can be automated. threats as a service, in language of choice.
j-bos 2y ago
Doesn't seem too much, some people write hundreds of comments/tweets per day with no expectation of pay.

blackhaj7 2y ago

Is it true that if you remove it from Find My iPhone then they are able to unlock it? I didn’t see any warnings of this when I erased my phone after I recently lost it (and someone found it but decided to keep it)

dmitrygr 2y ago
> Is it true that if you remove it from Find My iPhone then they are able to unlock it? Yes, as long as it is in your account, nobody can activate it. When you remove it, it can be activated by someone.
bri3d 2y ago
The Activation Lock remains if you use Remote Erase - all documented on Apple's site: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108794 https://support.apple.com/en-us/108794 Only Remove Device specifically deactivates Activation Lock.
titanomachy 2y ago
Yeah, when I sold my old iPhone I wiped it and removed it from my account so that the new owner could use it. The site I was selling on warned me multiple times that it would be unusable without that step.

valleyjo 2y ago

This happened to my sister. She got her phone stolen at a bar in Austin. They’ve tried to phish her multiple times and now it’s gotten to intimidation texts where they are threatening physical and sexual violence to her unless she unlocks the phone. She put it in lost mode right away and due to my assurance she knows she is safe but honestly it does make you kind of just want to unlock and get the nightmare over with. She has tracked the iPhone via find my through a few us cities and finally it’s in China.

consf 2y ago
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thinkling 2y ago
> She has tracked the iPhone via find my through a few us cities and finally it’s in China. I wonder… if people whose phones get stolen start tracking the locations they see it travel to using Find My, and a site were available to report these to, could enough evidence be collected to motivate a police/FBI visit to the location of fences in the US who are shipping these to China? (Could one prevent such a tool from being used maliciously to swat someone?—I suppose in the end a specific victim would have to go to the police in person, limiting that risk? I’m imagining the address-collecting site might respond “yes I’ve seen more than (say) 20 phones reported at that location, you may want to work with local police if you can”.)
- joecool1029 2y ago
  > I wonder… if people whose phones get stolen start tracking the locations they see it travel to using Find My, and a site were available to report these to, could enough evidence be collected to motivate a police/FBI visit to the location of fences in the US who are shipping these to China? Probably not. Below their pay grade to stop petty crime. There's also the chain of custody on evidence that becomes questionable for the prosecution. They need to collect it using their own methods and reality is they have easier or larger crime to go after. My observation on this is that it needs to be more of an 'institutional' level of crime to get them motivated if it doesn't happen in their own investigation. Ultimately this is 'helpful' crime for Apple's bottom line, unlike parts smuggled in to legitimately repair devices. Other example of what I mean: I've witnessed a craigslist deal go south on a purchased motorcycle when the seller never titled it from previous owner. Cops were called, and told the two parties to stop arguing and file a claim in court else disorderly persons charges would be brought. (thankfully the seller was able to contact the former owner, and drive with the purchaser to have the title transferred properly) If however this was a situation like a bank calling about forged checks, the police would move to arrest and prosecute the forger immediately. There wouldn't be this onus on the bank's part to file a civil claim.

dmitrygr 2y ago

And THIS is why i support parts pairing. 3 years ago, the LCD and battery could be resold making this worth it. This year - nope. I dream of a world where even the little screws that hold my iPhone together are parts-paired so stealing it costs more in effort than the possible $ recovered from it!

ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
Agreed. Anti-theft is a higher priority for me than repairability.
- BizarroLand 2y ago
  I value autonomy more. I'm not someone interesting enough to observe, but I still want my privacy. I'm not so poor as that I have to take whatever I can get, but I still want to own what I buy, and have the freedom to do anything with it, including crimes if I so choose. I won't commit crimes, and if I do I will pay the price, but I don't want a nanny to prevent me from doing precrimes that I would not have done in the first place. I am not a mindless sheep, I require no societal shepherd. All of that was said to say, I want the devices I purchase to be repairable by anyone that I deem worthy of repairing it, including myself.
- mqus 2y ago
  fine, pair the parts, but also: let the owners unpair them, same as you can lock/unlock your phone. Voila! both repairability and anti-theft gained! Pairing is just anti-repair atm. if you want to know how: put the part ids (which are used for pairing) into the apple id account and verify them when switching on the phone.
  - mqus 2y ago
    just noticed: re-pair-ability is basically all we want (pun intended)
oynqr 2y ago
The part pairing isn't the problem, it's that you can't unpair parts. Creating a secure unpair process would not be beyond Apple's capabilities.

borbtactics 2y ago

>“hackers” might “contact my family” to, what, send them thousands of photos of my dog?? I'm confused. The attacker doesn't have access to the author's photos or family contacts, right?

FrancoisBosun 2y ago
They don’t. They’re using another phone and texting the original owner, threatening them, in order to scare them into unlocking the device. When you boot the “Lost” phone, it asks for the password of the owner’s iCloud account. There is probably an information leak where the original email or phone is presented and the thief can track the original owner through that.
- evanjd 2y ago
  The original iCloud email address is partially obfuscated “eg. e***@icloud.com”, so it’s unlikely to be useful. For this, they’re most likely reading the phone number from the physical SIM card left in the device.
  - krallja 2y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40579119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40579119

Havoc 2y ago

>it was in an office building conveniently located around the corner from an Adidas store lol no. That location is the Huaqiangbei electronics market - one of the largest electronics markets in the world w/ a thriving 2nd hand parts ecosystem.

zer00eyz 2y ago
So as I understand it, all of the "parts" are mostly worthless because they wont just work in another iPhone. How do you maintain this functionality and give the "right to repair"? I would assume that it's possible but would add a fair bit of cost to devices (not that someone like apple cant bear said costs)... But IM just guessing on that front as I have zero experience with hardware locking.
- bmicraft 2y ago
  Easy, only allow components that aren't currently registered to someone elses iCloud account (read: stolen)
- chemmail 2y ago
  Most parts will indeed work. It will just show "unkown part" in the settings. The main thing that is really paired is the front camera for faceID. Also changing the screen without the original paired chip makes you lose autobrightness and truetone which is need to get to MAX brightness on 14 and up.
  - philistine 2y ago
    Sounds like people are swapping a screen on those iPhones without doing a calibration.
  - m463 2y ago
    auto brightness also broken on earlier phones + 3rd party screen source: i have this problem iphone 8
- Havoc 2y ago

localfirst 2y ago

long time ago i had my samsung galaxy stolen ive not reported as stolen because my carrier said i needed proof of the receipt (which i lost years ago) its such a crappy experience i dont wish it on anyone. Samsung has been next to useless in finding it. having said that this article makes me glad I bought an Apple just wish they'd kept the hardware touch button on the non-SE phones and back button. this is the first iPhone for me but i keep searching for the "alt+tab" and back button. it was ridiculously hard to switch between apps (have to physically press the touch button twice which makes me lose grip on teh phone). honestly its so close to being perfect but the iPhone has some obvious interface flaws coming from Android

hahamaster 2y ago
You're just used to Android. It's hard to put buttons on a phone that's nearly all screen.
- localfirst 2y ago
  on the iphone SE there is ample space where the speaker is and at the bottom I don't see why they couldn't have added a back button its so ridiculous that I have to tap twice in the back and three times to activate "alt+tab" it doesn't even work consistently when you have a case. I know this is based off the old phone but geez I had no idea it was this bad. on the bright side im very pleased with the software experience. just ties everything nicely together right out of the gate. Apple is definitely for a different crowd. I'm not sure if I will buy another iPhone after this I just realized as a long time Android user, I didn't miss much, in fact I would've given it up long time ago.
deleted 2y ago
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nebula8804 2y ago
If I am understanding you correctly, you are having trouble with the "double tap" of the Touch ID models right? This operation was much easier on the smaller iphone SE. They probably designed it for that design(iphone 4-5S) due to its smaller size that allowed one handed operation and then carrying it over to the current SE design(iphone 6-11) is probably not ideal for that form factor(thinner and rounder). I believe the FaceID models solve this by having you slide the app up slightly to then select between it and any other open apps or go back to the home screen. Maybe that would work better for you? Also, this is just my opinion but like I mentioned, the iPhone SE Gen 2+ uses the last gen design language which started back in 2014(iphone 6) and has been gone from the main line for years now. It always felt super slippery and prone to dropping(too thin and those rounded edges are difficult to grip) which is why I held onto my iPhone SE Gen 1 until the new iPhone 12 came out. This is just my opinion but maybe you should go to a store and check out their other models.

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago

While sort of funny, it is also crazy and disappointing the extent to which these scammers go. It’s not fun receiving death threats and having that stress over you. I wish we had more the law could do in bringing these criminals to justice.

remram 2y ago
For real, without a strong sense of resentment, you would probably give up just to stop the texts. It's not like you lose anything further (apart from increased chances of theft in the future for everyone I guess).

pingou 2y ago

If that isn't already the case, Apple should warn you when you put your phone in lost mode that the robbers may contact you to get you to remove it from your iCloud account, and to never do it. Or add a big warning when trying to remove a device previously put in lost mode.

notatoad 2y ago
Is there a good reason why you might want to remove an iPhone marked as lost from your iCloud account? It seems like something that should just not be possible.
- pkulak 2y ago
  Maybe you don't want some random phone in China clogging up your map until you die? I could see wanting to get rid of it. Be nice if you could hide it or something. Maybe a button to brick it out of spite and be done with it forever.
  - mentos 2y ago
    Bricking stolen phones is probably the best way to fight this
  - sureIy 2y ago
    We’re talking about possible improvements: - hide the Lost device from the map after a month without unlocking it for them to sell. - gather more information: is it lost? Stolen? What to do next. - the device should be locked and blacklisted until you mark it as actually found.
- krallja 2y ago
  …if you find it?

throw310822 2y ago

Actually, they should have tried with "ignore all previous instructions".

blamazon 2y ago

> Apple’s own “helpful” iMessage feature was sort of fooled: the auto-filled contact name said “Maybe: Apple Pay.” Maybe! This seems problematic? In article screenshot shows that it pulled in a misleading contact photo as well. I know they also have a separate UI color scheme for business messaging that is meant to address phishing and trust but perhaps they should not auto suggest contacts containing the word Apple.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

Zefiroj 2y ago

Ostensibly huaqiangbei has a few ways of getting around the activation lock. But a more common scenario is the phone gets used for parts. As for the icloud account. AFAIK you used to be able to get the full account email with GSX. Not sure about now.

chemmail 2y ago

iCloud removal seems extra hard nowadays. I gave my dad a new ipad and took his old one and signed out of his account and put mine instead. A few months later i had it sitting dead and turned it back on a million icloud login messages popped up with his account then mine then his a bunch of times. His account was back on! I took it back to him to try and remove it from his phone and it took a lot of tries. I think the end combo i had to wipe the ipad and then it appeared back on his icloud list and remove it again. Something similar happened to another friend who i was trying to repair.

1024core 2y ago

How did they get her number, to message her?

betaby 2y ago
Physical SIM card?

bachmeier 2y ago

Seems that stealing a phone with the wrong information on it would be a good way to end up at the bottom of a river. > watching my phone move around Manhattan before it finally stopped at Rockefeller Center. I didn’t bother confronting the thief. Sure, this person didn't confront them, and most probably wouldn't. The one out of a thousand that does might not be messing around.

callalex 2y ago
Most criminals are unbelievably stupid, particularly when it comes to risk assessment.

happyopossum 2y ago

The author claims in a comment that the scammer was able to contact her because Apple leaked her email address with the activation prompt. That's not likely, as that prompt **'s out most of the email address (you get the first letter of the part before the @). She most likely had a 'lost mode' message set for the device.

onesociety2022 2y ago
Agree - what the author claims doesn’t seem likely. I would be worried about my email address leaking. My email address has my full name. So they can easily find out where I live and work if they spend a bunch of time googling my name. Exposing my Phone number would almost be preferable over exposing my email address in this scenario.

catlikesshrimp 2y ago

It wasn't even an Iphone 15. It's an iphone 14 in March. I doubt a citizen in a first world country can become a target of an international cartel for $1000 at most. Not /s: Imagine the logistics and the cost of opportunity

sugarkjube 2y ago

If you can set the device to "lost", couldn't apple make it beep 100% of the time? Wouldn't that be a deterrent for thieves?

pedalpete 2y ago
Yes, but that would also be awful for all the people around your phone when it may not have been stolen and could have just been actually lost.
- consf 2y ago
  [dead]

nielsbot 2y ago

The Gothamist page is returning a 500 error now. There's a version on archive.org tho https://web.archive.org/web/20240604225617/https://gothamist.com/news/things-the-guys-who-stole-my-phone-have-texted-me-to-try-to-get-me-to-unlock-it https://web.archive.org/web/20240604225617/https://gothamist...

guffins 2y ago
Gothamist (New York Public Radio) engineer here. Sorry about that! Are you still receiving a 500 error?
- nielsbot 2y ago
  Works for me now

StanislavPetrov 2y ago

This episode makes me thing that in addition to "lost" mode you should be able to set your phone to "brick" mode when you know you have no chance at getting it back so the phone itself is becomes nonfunctional and your data can never be accessed.

consf 2y ago
[dead]

mullen 2y ago

If someone in China starts harassing you or threatening you, just start sending messages that the two of you are conspiring to overthrow the Chinese government and the messages will stop real quick. These Chinese mafia types talk tough until you start sending anti-Chinese government copy-pasta to them and they shut up real quick.

MOARDONGZPLZ 2y ago
They don’t. I have tried this and other similar things such as sending images banned in China (but otherwise totally fine). Perhaps they weren’t in China I suppose.
yumraj 2y ago
Serious question: have you tried this or are you theorizing?
- mullen 2y ago
  This is a well known tactic to do to Chinese scammers or any person you don't want to talk to that is in China or has to go back to China.
  - datpiff 2y ago
    aka "I read it online"?
    - gembeMx 2y ago
      [dead]
    - leshenka 2y ago
      Can’t hurt to try anyway. You lose nothing, but can get some laughs.
altairprime 2y ago
It's probably best not to declare war upon China in writing. Instead, ask how many students died in the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. That specific phrase should specifically auto-alert the censors to a known forbidden topic, without resorting to threats against China. How long of a lost phone message can one set, anyways?

daft_pink 2y ago

What happens when you do this? Does the old device just stay on your account listed as a device forever?

OnionBlender 2y ago

Isn't it illegal to knowingly buy stolen property? (I'm referring to the youtuber that bought the stolen phones).

jpmattia 2y ago

> As long as I didn’t remove the phone from my Apple account or the Find My app, the phone was essentially bricked to anyone without the passcode and my iCloud password — unusable by the thieves, or the fences who I assume bought it from them. I did not know this, and I wish it were better publicized.

sh1mmer 2y ago

If the phone was locked, passcoded, remote erased and sim-locked how did they know her number? I’m not doubting the story I’m just curious how they figured that out.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
remram 2y ago
I was wondering the same thing. Maybe it was on the lock screen? Seems unlikely that they managed to remember its association with the phone throughout, though. edit: we have the answer https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40579230 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40579230
raziel31 2y ago
> As you can see, most of the phones she tried didn’t have passcodes but were still linked to iCloud accounts I guess she didn't have passcode on.

seneca 2y ago

What a poorly written article. It could have been an interesting profile of what scammers do to scare people into undoing security measures, and how to avoid that. Do these outlets not have editors? I'm surprised anyone would publish this.

flemhans 2y ago

That escalated gradually!

searealist 2y ago

This is a fake story. > Veronica leads the digital news and audience team at WNYC and Gothamist, which includes breaking news, newsletters, and social, among other things. I expect such fake stories on the front page of reddit, not HN.

shrimp_emoji 2y ago
This. Have an updoot my good sir Nice try, FBI. Bold of you to assume I have friends. ¯ \ _ ( ツ ) _ / ¯ EDIT: Thanks for the award, kind stranger!
remram 2y ago
I don't know, millions of phones are stolen every year. Seems likely that some reporter's would be stolen once in a while. It's a little too mundane to be made up.
katamarimambo 2y ago
I do not get the link between the quote and the accusation

mdip 2y ago

Kind of sparked a thought in another comment but my thinking is that the best action in this situation is to simply not reply to the scammer. The author didn't explain "how the scammer was texting her". I don't own an iPhone. On my Android device, they'd have to have my phone number which I don't know how they'd get from the locked phone. Of course, I -- like many -- provide an alternate number on the screen for "helpful people who might want to return, rather than re-sell, my crappy old Samsung phone." And I'd imagine that would be the way to get "the first reply". But if you could avoid that[0], it keeps you from feeding a likely gambling addiction, or at least makes the game a little less satisfying. Consider that they've got a box of bricked phones. Every text is a chance to turn one of those into a few hundred dollars. Every reply is a small "high" that they're still in the game. Every message that goes off into the Ether, ignored, is "additional confirmation that this phone is a permanent brick" and you don't even get the satisfaction of feeling like maybe you intimidated someone a little. [0] And to a lesser extent, even if you can't. I've blocked scammmers and seen the progression of repeated "Hello?"s ... somewhere in there it's connected that whatever they're trying to send me is not meeting my eyeballs. Had a funny one that was like 30 messages in a row, followed by "whatever" and "ass hole" ... I remember thinking it was odd that it was always lower case and that they put a space between ass and hole. Not necessarily like a person with a lack of English language skills, but like a tween just learning how to wield profanity.

docdeek 2y ago
>> The author didn't explain "how the scammer was texting her". In a comment on the article replying to someone pointing this out the author explained that she was receiving iMessages and not simple texts. The scammers identified an email address linked to her icloud account when trying to reset the phone and set her iMessages to that email address.

humanlity 2y ago

if something involves China, the topic will turn to politics or something else, but the real question is: how to stop the stealer and why this can safely ship to China

sershe 2y ago

Makes me wish we could do proper punishment adjustment, taking into account the percentage of criminals punished, using this app. Let's say punishment X would deter phone theft. Now take the phones stolen, and how many are recovered with criminals punished, 1 in N. To actually deter theft, the punishment needs to be X*N; I'm pretty sure for realistic X (e.g. 6 months in jail?) and N (huge), the proper punishment is death. Every now and then, track one random phone thief down using these apps, and execute them with some fanfare (I use the term "them" loosely; more like, "it"). Deter phone theft, and also make the world a better place.

idle_zealot 2y ago
The fact that people like you exist is far more damaging for the world than phone thieves.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- sershe 2y ago
  I can only respond with an echo: "The fact that people like you exist is far more damaging for the world than phone thieves." Unreserved compassion is by far the most harmful atavisms of human evolution. More evil, even, than tribalism and tall-poppy syndrome. The combination with the latter, in a sense of being reluctant to punch down, produces the likes of you - active fellow-travelers to psychopaths. The logical result is either societal collapse or someone like Duterte or Bukele restoring order. I think it's much better to have the right amount of retributive justice to being with.
mock-possum 2y ago
Just because cruel and unusual punishment would be an efficient-in-some-regards way to approach punishment doesn’t mean it’s a humane approach. Humane is top priority. Punishments should be commensurate to the crime committed - with under-punishment always preferable to over-punishment.
- 2y ago

Zuiii 2y ago

Ironically, Apple's monopolistic and predatory restrictions on spare parts will still allow this scumbag to make a profit, even after he has failed to access her phone. Had Apple allowed people to access parts, her phone would be absolutely worthless. Apple's abuse of our laws is what's making iphone thefts still profitable. Ironic.

Aardwolf 2y ago

Stupid question but how are they able to message the original owner? What contact info does a wiped (or is it just locked?) phone give? Is it via the phone number on a physical SIM card? At least my phone (android) shows no contact info when locked as far as I can tell, and an eSIM would prevent knowing the phone number right?

t_mann 2y ago

Fortunately, I've never had my phone stolen so far and I lack the OP's knowledge about how this typically plays out. But I don't find these messages as amusing as she does, and I might actually have gotten fooled by the first message eg. Can someone explain what is happening here? How can the thieves even contact her? What do we need to assume they know about her (eg name)?

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK 2y ago

Does it work with Android phones too? I got robbed of my Samsung in Brazil, tried to remotely lock and erase it, and removed it from Find My Device. Was that a mistake? I also submitted IMEI to some stolen phones database, got a police report and received insurance compensation. What's the correct course of actions?

qingcharles 2y ago

I was given a huge box of locked iPhones from someone who ran a bar and had stored all the ones that had been accidentally left behind and never collected. Out of about 20+ phones the only one I could get working was an iPhone 7.

roydivision 2y ago

Dumb, pre morning coffee question - How does the thief know your number to text you if they can't unlock the phone?

inferiorhuman 2y ago
If you set your phone to lost mode it'll offer to let whoever has the phone contact the owner. This is done without unlocking the phone and AFAIK is done without revealing your contact info. But… it's easy (and reasonable) to think that whoever has your phone also has your contact info which makes these sorts of scams that much scarier.
- roydivision 2y ago
  Great, thanks.

paulcapewell 2y ago

> fence Had never come across this term before. Huh.

BrandoElFollito 2y ago

I do not have an iPhone and I do not understand one thing: how could they text her if the phone was locked? How did they know the number to text?

consf 2y ago

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jackstwt 2y ago

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babra4151 2y ago

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Malcomwills 2y ago

[flagged]