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iPhone 5s iOS 7 stolen

M

macgrl

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 17, 2008
1,192
5
Hello all,

My iphone 5s was stolen yesterday. I have cancelled the sim with carrier and they have blacklisted the IMEI.

I have a password to access it / fingerprint.

I called the phone after it was stolen but the sim had been removed pretty quickly and it shows on FMI as offline - I have requested an eraze via FMI but as I doubt it will go online again I can't see it working.

My only concern and my reason for posting is to ask - what use is the phone to anyone? Can they actually use it?

Secondly, is there anyway they can access the phone / get access to my data -email accounts etc on the phone?

Many thanks
macgrl
 
Remote wipe will kill all the data if it is ever connected to a network.

The rest is a touch wooly without further information. If you had a passcode lock, then any thief would need to get past that to look at your information. For a thief I doubt that would be of much value. And it would only be data already on the phone (no new emails or ability to send, as that would require network access).

Beyond that, a reset would require your iCloud details, so that's almost impossible.

Only real use is for parts.
 
The sad thing is there still is a market for iCloud locked, blacklisted iPhones. You will see a lot listed on eBay and Craigslist. As long as they can get some money there will still be a market for stolen cell phones.

I can't understand why anyone would purchase an iCloud locked and/or blacklisted iPhone, or why any of the sales sites allow them to be listed. They have to know that they are just causing more cell phones to be stolen in the long run.
 
EDH667 said:
I can't understand why anyone would purchase an iCloud locked and/or blacklisted iPhone, or why any of the sales sites allow them to be listed. They have to know that they are just causing more cell phones to be stolen in the long run.
Click to expand...

For parts I guess, they do run really low, even $50 but those fly off the shelves.

Or just a cool paperweight :)
 
Its useless now to anyone.
Just make sure to never release it or remove it from your icloud account.
If you do then the activation lock will be gone.
Just leave it there for years. Its an expensive paperweight now or they can just use it for spare parts like screen and battery etc...
 
As has been mentioned its useless
Problem is that people stealing these iPhones don't know about the activation lock in most cases
Because they don't own an IPhone or read newspapers
At some point somebody will attempt to bring it online and you'll have the opportunity to wipe it clean
 
ZombiePete said:
Also just straight ignorance; people thinking they're getting a great deal on a phone not really understanding that they'll never be able to use it.
Click to expand...

LOL this reminds me of that story that made the news when a guy bought a Xbox One on eBay and when he opened the package there was only a photo of an Xbox One :) there was the word "Photo" in the title just as there is "iCloud locked" here and people just ignore it probably.
 
Thank you very much for the replies guys. I feel a bit better and insurance will cover it and it's only a phone :) (still annoyed though lol)
 
The best thing to do is change all your passwords for all social media, emails, etc etc. This way if they ever were able to get in (highly doubtable), all these applications would be asking for the new passwords and wouldn't show your data anyway. I think you are safe though as a locked iPhone is pretty much useless these days unless it is to be used for spares. :)
 
macgrl said:
My iphone 5s was stolen yesterday. I have cancelled the sim with carrier and they have blacklisted the IMEI.

I called the phone after it was stolen but the sim had been removed pretty quickly and it shows on FMI as offline - I have requested an eraze via FMI but as I doubt it will go online again I can't see it working.
Click to expand...

One quick point...once your carrier 'cancelled' the SIM, you lost your ability to remote wipe because it requires network connectivity to instruct the phone to wipe. In the future, go to Find My iPhone and wipe the device before you call your carrier.
 
chabig said:
One quick point...once your carrier 'cancelled' the SIM, you lost your ability to remote wipe because it requires network connectivity to instruct the phone to wipe. In the future, go to Find My iPhone and wipe the device before you call your carrier.
Click to expand...

Yo, did you read this? (part in bold)
macgrl said:
Hello all,

My iphone 5s was stolen yesterday. I have cancelled the sim with carrier and they have blacklisted the IMEI.

I have a password to access it / fingerprint.

I called the phone after it was stolen but the sim had been removed pretty quickly and it shows on FMI as offline - I have requested an eraze via FMI but as I doubt it will go online again I can't see it working.

My only concern and my reason for posting is to ask - what use is the phone to anyone? Can they actually use it?

Secondly, is there anyway they can access the phone / get access to my data -email accounts etc on the phone?

Many thanks
macgrl
Click to expand...

Basically the iPhone is good for parts so long as it is on your cloud account. May as well take the guy's advice above and start changing passwords. That is what I would do anyway.
 
GoCubsGo said:
Yo, did you read this? (part in bold)
Click to expand...

Yes. Exactly. She called the phone after the SIM was deactivated, according to my interpretation of "...but the SIM had been removed pretty quickly". She also noticed that Find My iPhone was offline. That was the point of my post. Do those things before you call your carrier.
 
I7guy said:
how did it happen?
Click to expand...


It was stolen from my hand as i was walking home :-(


Thanks for all the advice guys..much appreciated..hopefully I will never need to use the advice :)

----------
chabig said:
One quick point...once your carrier 'cancelled' the SIM, you lost your ability to remote wipe because it requires network connectivity to instruct the phone to wipe. In the future, go to Find My iPhone and wipe the device before you call your carrier.
Click to expand...

That's a very good point..in my panic and worry about notifying the carrier as soon as possible. I
 
macgrl said:
It was stolen from my hand as i was walking home :-(


Thanks for all the advice guys..much appreciated..hopefully I will never need to use the advice :)

----------



That's a very good point..in my panic and worry about notifying the carrier as soon as possible. I
Click to expand...

Out of curiosity, did you have control center or notifications enabled on the lock screen?

If the sim was removed immediately, it could be an indeterminate amount of time before the phone comes online, i would think it's better to call the carrier.
 
I7guy said:
Out of curiosity, did you have control center or notifications enabled on the lock screen?

If the sim was removed immediately, it could be an indeterminate amount of time before the phone comes online, i would think it's better to call the carrier.
Click to expand...

I don't know about whether control center etc was enable..what would that mean?

That's why I just called the carrier...if I don't tell them within a certain time frame I could get billed for any use on the sim.
 
EX Wife steals my SIM

My ex wife ran off with my SIM card.
She has contacted some people in my contacts. Uggh!

What else can she see? Can she see SMSs?
Are SMSs stored on the SIM?
 
The iPhone is still worth money as parts. 3rd party repair services have had to use non-Apple screens and other parts for repairs ion the past. Now you can get the real thing if you are lucky.

Sorry about your loss. Grieve for a while and then move on as staying upset will not help anything.

Look at what happened to get your phone stolen and take steps to make sure it does not happen again!
 
Jiz said:
My ex wife ran off with my SIM card.
She has contacted some people in my contacts. Uggh!

What else can she see? Can she see SMSs?
Are SMSs stored on the SIM?
Click to expand...

Contacts aren't stored on the SIM card. She must have gotten those from somewhere else. iPhone doesn't store personal information on the SIM (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4994?viewlocale=en_US). iPhone SIM cards only determine the carrier, the phone number, and certain carrier features.
 
chabig said:
Contacts aren't stored on the SIM card. She must have gotten those from somewhere else. iPhone doesn't store personal information on the SIM (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4994?viewlocale=en_US). iPhone SIM cards only determine the carrier, the phone number, and certain carrier features.
Click to expand...

There is conflicting info on that page ;

Importing contacts stored on a SIM card
While iPhone does not use the SIM to store contact names and phone numbers, you can still copy your contacts from a SIM card to your iPhone. You can use your old phone's SIM card (if your old phone is not an iPhone) to transfer the primary phone number for each of your contacts from the SIM card."
 
You didn't say she took an iPhone SIM card. I assumed. Yes, other phones may store contact data on the SIM. I recommend you look for information specifically applicable to your device.
 
Jiz said:
There is conflicting info on that page ;

Importing contacts stored on a SIM card
While iPhone does not use the SIM to store contact names and phone numbers, you can still copy your contacts from a SIM card to your iPhone. You can use your old phone's SIM card (if your old phone is not an iPhone) to transfer the primary phone number for each of your contacts from the SIM card."
Click to expand...

Read the info on that page again.
The iphone does not store contacts or any info like that on the phone.
If you have a sim from another phone that did store contacts saved on the sim card then you can put that sim inside the iphone and import those contacts into the iphone.
 
to reassure the OP... your data is most likely not going to be accessed. whoever stole it is probably interested in just making a quick sale and being done with it. they have probably already restored it. if you are worried though, or had some really important stuff on there, i think find my iPhone will allow you to send an action to wipe the device and it will go into affect once it comes back online. sorry for the loss.
 
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