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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

#111

Post by notatoad »

ms7m wrote: post #78
kernal wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No, if an iPhone is iCloud locked, you're not able to use the phone unless you enter the password of the account.

>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.

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

#112

Post by zer00eyz »

genter wrote: post #13
Xylakant wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Russian government is the blackhat population.

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.

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

#113

Post by evanjd »

FrancoisBosun wrote: post #76
borbtactics wrote: post #54

>“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?

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.

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.

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

#114

Post by Zefiroj »

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.

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

#115

Post by chemmail »

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.

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

#116

Post by whimsicalism »

postingawayonhn wrote: post #104
whimsicalism wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

India seems like the much more obvious comparison than those countries

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

#117

Post by asveikau »

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!

The world you describe is much worse for the environment.

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

#119

Post by [deleted] »

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……

[deleted]

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

#120

Post by bmicraft »

zer00eyz wrote: post #105
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.

Easy, only allow components that aren't currently registered to someone elses iCloud account (read: stolen)
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