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Tracking iPhone with serial number

M

misfiringsystem

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 13, 2010
9
0
I went to the Apple store and they didn't give me a clear answer, so I just wondering if there's anyone with experience with this.

Can someone ask Apple to flag his/her iPhone's serial number in the event it is stolen, so if anyone tries to use it, or bring it in for warranty at Apple store, Apple would catch it?

On the other hand, what's stopping a seller from doing the same thing, sell the iPhone, and call Apple and tell them his/her iPhone's been stolen (effectively screwing the buyer over)?

*I'm looking in buying a used iPhone
 
P

PaHtSaN

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2010
187
0
misfiringsystem said:
I went to the Apple store and they didn't give me a clear answer, so I just wondering if there's anyone with experience with this.

Can someone ask Apple to flag his/her iPhone's serial number in the event it is stolen, so if anyone tries to use it, or bring it in for warranty at Apple store, Apple would catch it?

On the other hand, what's stopping a seller from doing the same thing, sell the iPhone, and call Apple and tell them his/her iPhone's been stolen (effectively screwing the buyer over)?

*I'm looking in buying a used iPhone
Click to expand...

And why would a seller do that?
 
M

misfiringsystem

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 13, 2010
9
0
Matthew Yohe: I don't know what is Apple supposed to do, I'm wondering if Apple does that (like say, flags the serial number, and if they see it, they will notify the owner)

PaHtSaN: Get money from the buyer and get his/her iPhone back at the same time.
 
C

crawsfire

macrumors member
Oct 1, 2010
87
0
Apple doesn't care but you can report your imei to your carrier as lost/stolen and they will blacklist it. In a perfect world that would require a police report, it's not a perfect world.
There isn't anything that would stop a thief (other than the phones capabilities) from just using a different carrier with the phone.
I have heard that if you get the imei blacklisted on one carrier it will, in time, migrate to all the other carriers. This seems highly unlikely to me.
 
P

PaHtSaN

macrumors regular
Oct 2, 2010
187
0
misfiringsystem said:
Matthew Yohe: I don't know what is Apple supposed to do, I'm wondering if Apple does that (like say, flags the serial number, and if they see it, they will notify the owner)

PaHtSaN: Get money from the buyer and get his/her iPhone back at the same time.
Click to expand...

The maximum they could do is shut down the phone so its useless (if that, not sure), they aren't going to send a search and rescue team for your iPhone.
 
Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
Neither will happen.
Apple does not do that and they dont care if your phone got lost or stolen. Thats your problem, they're not the police to "catch it".


misfiringsystem said:
I went to the Apple store and they didn't give me a clear answer, so I just wondering if there's anyone with experience with this.

Can someone ask Apple to flag his/her iPhone's serial number in the event it is stolen, so if anyone tries to use it, or bring it in for warranty at Apple store, Apple would catch it?

On the other hand, what's stopping a seller from doing the same thing, sell the iPhone, and call Apple and tell them his/her iPhone's been stolen (effectively screwing the buyer over)?

*I'm looking in buying a used iPhone
Click to expand...
 
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