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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

#301

Post by qbxk »

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……

well duh, the most valuable company in the world isn't going do something that isn't profitable for them, but in this case their interests align with their customers in a powerful way.

what would be really great is if we could engineer systems to develop alignments between relationships like that all the time, but hey, we live in an imperfect world

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

#302

Post by guffins »

nielsbot wrote: post #168

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...

Gothamist (New York Public Radio) engineer here. Sorry about that! Are you still receiving a 500 error?

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

#303

Post by mkbkn »

altairprime wrote: post #194
mullen wrote: post #171

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.

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?

Or the phrase "Tibet must be a free country"

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

#304

Post by Zagorath »

joecool1029 wrote: post #239
thinkling wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 b…

> 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 questionabl…

The thing is, it's not petty crime in the situation they described. If they're stealing from (or knowingly buying the stolen property of) a large number of people, that's now a significant illegal operation.

Yes it might not be trivial to prosecute, but we're not actually talking about petty theft done by random individuals where the effort isn't worth it. We're talking about major rings of thieves stealing millions of dollars worth of devices per year.

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

#305

Post by kazinator »

throwaway7ahgb wrote: post #264
kazinator wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That specific phrase should specifically auto-alert the censors to a known forbidden topic Heck, even get you flagged here, for that matter.

Here is in HN or here is in the "US"? Not sure what you're suggesting.

I would never write an unqualified "here" in a forum, which assumes that everyone will understand that I'm referring to the country where I'm sitting, which may be different from theirs.

You're effectively asking me whether I'm a complete idiot, or whether I mean here in HackerNews.

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

#306

Post by barfingclouds »

mullen wrote: post #171

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.

Or try this:

动态网自由门 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Free Tibet 六四天安門事件 The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 天安門大屠殺 The Tiananmen Square Massacre 反右派鬥爭 The Anti-Rightist Struggle 大躍進政策 The Great Leap Forward 文化大革命 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 人權 Human Rights 民運 Democratization 自由 Freedom 獨立 Independence 多黨制 Multi-party system 台灣 臺灣 Taiwan Formosa 中華民國 Republic of China 西藏 土伯特 唐古特 Tibet 達賴喇嘛 Dalai Lama 法輪功 Falun Dafa 新疆維吾爾自治區 The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 諾貝爾和平獎 Nobel Peace Prize 劉暁波 Liu Xiaobo 民主 言論 思想

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

#307

Post by barfingclouds »

valleyjo wrote: post #27

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…

Please have her respond to any intimidation with the following message. It’ll hurt them bad in china and freak them out for sure.

动态网自由门 天安門 天安门 法輪功 李洪志 Free Tibet 六四天安門事件 The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 天安門大屠殺 The Tiananmen Square Massacre 反右派鬥爭 The Anti-Rightist Struggle 大躍進政策 The Great Leap Forward 文化大革命 The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 人權 Human Rights 民運 Democratization 自由 Freedom 獨立 Independence 多黨制 Multi-party system 台灣 臺灣 Taiwan Formosa 中華民國 Republic of China 西藏 土伯特 唐古特 Tibet 達賴喇嘛 Dalai Lama 法輪功 Falun Dafa 新疆維吾爾自治區 The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region 諾貝爾和平獎 Nobel Peace Prize 劉暁波 Liu Xiaobo 民主 言論 思想

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

#308

Post by [deleted] »

squigz wrote: post #290
altairprime wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> It's probably best not to declare war upon China in writing Why not? Is the Chinese government going to send some people to Canada to disappear me?

[deleted]

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

#309

Post by altairprime »

squigz wrote: post #290
altairprime wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> It's probably best not to declare war upon China in writing Why not? Is the Chinese government going to send some people to Canada to disappear me?

They’re a nation-state with an international spy program, so that’s obviously a valid possibility, same as it is for lots of other non-China countries. I don’t have any specific data regarding your presented scenario with Canada and China, though. I do regardless stand by my general advice, but since it now has to be said, I am not your lawyer and this is not legal advice.

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

#310

Post by projectazorian »

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.

Where I live thieves now demand your passcode and iCloud password at gunpoint, along with the phone.
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