6 ms·
> Is "snatching a phone and running off" a common enough problem in some regions that this is worth having? Yes absolutely https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/phone
by hbn 2mo ago
> Is "snatching a phone and running off" a common enough problem in some regions that this is worth having?
Yes absolutely
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/phone-london-snatch-9.7204104 https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/phone-london-snatch-9.7204104
- throwaway27448 2mo agoWhy bother stealing iPhones? Is it just for the scrap/recycle->repair value?
- hparadiz 2mo agoThey send them to countries where they aren't locked or break it down for parts.
- throwaway27448 2mo ago> They send them to countries where they aren't locked iphones will remain locked regardless of what country they're in. I presume you're talking about states who are seemingly unwilling to pursue/prosecute claims of theft?
- kotaKat 2mo agothere's still a fairly lucrative parts stripping market and there are extreme efforts that are used to "unlock" locked devices - it has been known in the Chinese marketplace that you could get paired chips to do SMD rework with a "clean" set of identifiers. they'll swap the SOC, the flash, and the wireless all for a few bucks. older iOS devices as well are also vulnerable to having their syscfg rewritten via exploits, so you can "clean" a locked device that way as well with a good set of serials. Apple Watches are a hot one for this.
- hparadiz 2mo agoOn top of that a sizable percentage of theft victims don't even bother to report it stolen.
- throwaway27448 2mo agoYou can't activate the hardware with a different ID regardless. It requires the owner to relinquish ownership. I'm sure this is different with different components of course depending on how granularly apple tracks their hardware—but the whole package certainly can't be activated.
- djtango 2mo agoMy high level understanding is there are countries where things like IMEI barring aren't enforced and the actual unlocking of the phone is possible. Via jailbreaking or flashing I presume
- cocoto 2mo agoNot possible on modern iPhones.
- perpetuallunch 2mo agoPegasus installed via zero click 0 day exploit. Completely owned.
- Nextgrid 2mo agoNobody is wasting nation-state exploits to launder stolen phones.
- bigyabai 2mo agoYou can send them to Chinese chop-shops and still turn a decent buck.
- mapmeld 2mo agoThere's also a scam where they contact the owner from abroad, offering to return it, claiming they're an innocent trying to activate a used phone they spent their last dollar on, or threatening the original user into unlocking it. They will say that they're hackers, connected to criminals in your home city, using your name and recent photos to say that they're going to expose your text messages. Anything to get an unlock.
- Waterluvian 2mo agoThanks! Given this was CBC, my jaw hit the floor when I saw London. I live 20 mins from London, Ontario and 70k thefts in a year would be _insane_. Then I realized it was about London, U.K. and my jaw only hit the table. 70k is still insane, though.
- skobes 2mo agoEven the CBC thinks of London, England before London, Ontario.
- Waterluvian 2mo agoPoor London. (Ontario.) (Canada.)
- oniony 2mo agoThey should have called it New London.
- mauvehaus 2mo agoThat's in Connecticut and it's older than London, Ontario: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London,_Connecticut https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_London,_Connecticut
- FromHoiPolloi 2mo agoor 'Fake London'
- clort 2mo agoIs it really insane? That is less than 200 per day, in a city of 15 million people.. a single gang of 20 thieves could likely manage that! The real question is, how does this compare to other cities of this size and demographics?
- iamnothere 2mo ago