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Why do people steal iPhones?

surfnole

Seminole Insider
Mar 29, 2002
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My daughter's iPhone was stolen last night. Why do these things have value? One phone call to Apple and the phone becomes a brick. And it can never be used. Well I guess it could be used as a hand computer connected to Wi-Fi. Well maybe you can ship them overseas and making somehow hook them onto a network there
 
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They also can be used for parts. Thieves break them down then sell the parts to shady repair shops.

The problem too is there is no real penalty for theft especially these days. There are countries in the world with little or no theft because you can lose a hand or get caned. In some states you can steal up to a certain dollar amount with little to no penalty.
 

They also can be used for parts. Thieves break them down then sell the parts to shady repair shops.

The problem too is there is no real penalty for theft especially these days. There are countries in the world with little or no theft because you can lose a hand or get caned. In some states you can steal up to a certain dollar amount with little to no penalty.
The article is interesting but does not say that you can actually get phone service off of a stolen iphone. Perhaps overseas in non-european countries you can. The parts angle is good globally there's probably tons of you break I fix shops that would like cheap parts..

Whoever stole the phone turned it back on because she found the phone via find iphone. However it was many miles away downtown nashville. The police would do nothing of course and it could be dangerous for her to try and get it.
 
The article is interesting but does not say that you can actually get phone service off of a stolen iphone. Perhaps overseas in non-european countries you can. The parts angle is good globally there's probably tons of you break I fix shops that would like cheap parts..

Whoever stole the phone turned it back on because she found the phone via find iphone. However it was many miles away downtown nashville. The police would do nothing of course and it could be dangerous for her to try and get it.
Man I would want to hunt them down soo bad. I really dislike thieves.
 
Update: My daughter's iPhone is now in a large city in China. She can track it! It's at the same address where thousands of stolen iphones have been reported. Would the Chinese police care?

Not sure why the phone wasn't wiped, or maybe this is all some internet deflection.

One would think that at least the authoritarian Chinese government would not want this info, even if false, reported all over the internet.
 
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Update: My daughter's iPhone is now in a large city in China. She can track it! It's at the same address where thousands of stolen iphones have been reported. Would the Chinese police care?

Not sure why the phone wasn't wiped, or maybe this is all some internet deflection.

One would think that at least the authoritarian Chinese government would not want this info, even if false, reported all over the internet.
Did you ever think that the CPC is the one gathering all this data? They are already mining data from tik tok and facebook among others so why not pulling from stolen phones? If they steal 10,000 phones and get 3 with classified or proprietary data its worth it to them. Happens all the time.
 
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My daughter's iPhone was stolen last night. Why do these things have value? One phone call to Apple and the phone becomes a brick. And it can never be used. Well I guess it could be used as a hand computer connected to Wi-Fi. Well maybe you can ship them overseas and making somehow hook them onto a network there
Don’t know her circumstances, obviously, but the thieves may hope she has certain applications “open” that will enable them to quickly access her accounts or other valuable information.

If the effort fails, what have the evil-doers really lost? The thieves are generally thugs with no legitimate futures anyway, and any charges will likely be dropped or downgraded in any event. So give it a whirl, is the mindset.
 
In the quoted Nashville article it says something about the thieves removing the SIM card. Maybe you can't lock it remotely at that point?

My daughter had this happen to her in a bar in Ft. Lauderdale. Fortunately she was able to get it back. She somehow felt it being removed and chased the guy down. One of her group saw her take off and followed. Made me proud she has such friends. That's all I know. :coolstorybro
 
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