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

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

#101

Post by pkulak »

notatoad wrote: post #100
pingou wrote: post #79

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.

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.

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.

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

#102

Post by knodi123 »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #62
bnchrch wrote: post #10

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.

These days, it's not worth it to steal an iPhone. It's a useless brick. That Apple knows where it's at.

> It's a useless brick

Unless the owner falls for one of these texts, right? Isn't that the entire point of the linked article?

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

#103

Post by kccqzy »

infotainment wrote: post #2

> 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.

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.

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

#104

Post by postingawayonhn »

whimsicalism wrote: post #85
factormeta wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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.

It's worked out remarkably well for Chinese citizens given they don't care at all about them, then

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.

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

#105

Post by zer00eyz »

Havoc wrote: post #50

>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.

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.

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

#106

Post by kccqzy »

imglorp wrote: post #7

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?

The article says the author already performed a remote erase. There's no data recoverable.

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

#107

Post by MadnessASAP »

ipython wrote: post #12
krackers wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's wiped then there's no data for them to get?

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?

That would seem to be the case, the device is wiped of any user data. Except for the lock, leaving the device as a useless brick / spare parts.

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

#108

Post by mqus »

ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #39
dmitrygr wrote: post #31

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!

Agreed. Anti-theft is a higher priority for me than repairability.

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.

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

#109

Post by sosodev »

r0m4n0 wrote: post #96
bnchrch wrote: post #10

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.

It’s interesting though… it’s still worth something to thieves, they still can recycle the screen, buttons, case etc. I’ve had my iPhone stolen in recent years too, people can’t resist. Don’t get me wrong, it does feel good to stick it to the perp but doesn’t apple itself have the most to gain from locking most of the value away? The second hand market is completely gated by them. Broken FaceID? You need a new phone……

Aren’t most of the parts tied to the motherboard?

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

#110

Post by mqus »

mqus wrote: post #108
ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Anti-theft is a higher priority for me than repairability.

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.

just noticed: re-pair-ability is basically all we want (pun intended)
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