Tracking lost/stolen iPhone

[iMikeT]

So I'm trying to help a friend of mine who's iPhone is believed to be stolen.

I called Apple and asked if there is any way they can track/flag down the iPhone if someone ever tries to activate it. Of course, they said no and what should have been done was to install Find my iPhone app and sync it with iCloud. Then the AppleCare guy I spoke to of course tells me that what could have been done is wipe the iPhone for security but didn't say anything about actually retrieving the iPhone.

In the end, I was told to look at other options in order to try to get my friend's iPhone back.

So my next move is to try with the carrier to see if they can possibly flag this particular iPhone if someone ever tries to activate it. Is this something they can do?

Thanks.

[YungMoola94]

All these posts are so stupid. How does one STEAL your phone? Like honestly... Just because you forgot your phone somewhere and someone took it that doesn't mean they STOLE it. It means you were stupid enough to lose your phone.

[Pewdiepie]

It dosen't mean he stole the phone look for it, you know under the couch in the car seat. Happy hunting

[Jordan921]

If they didn't have find my iPhone on the phone then your friend is out of luck.

If your friend knows what the imei number is they can report it lost or stolen and the phone will be flagged and not be able to be activated.

[Marrakas]

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

All these posts are so stupid. How does one STEAL your phone? Like honestly... Just because you forgot your phone somewhere and someone took it that doesn't mean they STOLE it. It means you were stupid enough to lose your phone.

If you find a phone somewhere and you take it even if it doesn't belong to you, you have stolen it. The non-retard way to go would be turn it in to the police, or if it was in a shop or store, hand it over to the clerk in case the owner comes looking for it.

In your logic, if someone takes your car cause you left it in the parking lot, it's not stealing.

[iMikeT]

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

All these posts are so stupid. How does one STEAL your phone? Like honestly... Just because you forgot your phone somewhere and someone took it that doesn't mean they STOLE it. It means you were stupid enough to lose your phone.

Originally Posted by Pewdiepie

It dosen't mean he stole the phone look for it, you know under the couch in the car seat. Happy hunting

These two idiotic posts are exactly the reason why I wish MacRumors kept the down vote button.

Originally Posted by Marrakas

If you find a phone somewhere and you take it even if it doesn't belong to you, you have stolen it. The non-retard way to go would be turn it in to the police, or if it was in a shop or store, hand it over to the clerk in case the owner comes looking for it.

In your logic, if someone takes your car cause you left it in the parking lot, it's not stealing.

Thank you for understanding.

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Originally Posted by Jordan921

If they didn't have find my iPhone on the phone then your friend is out of luck.

If your friend knows what the imei number is they can report it lost or stolen and the phone will be flagged and not be able to be activated.

Thanks. I'm sure we can get the serial and imei numbers. And that's all I was really hoping for, that is, Apple would help out with notifying her if someone else were to try to activate her stolen iPhone.

[Daveoc64]

The fundamental problem here is that it's incredibly difficult to recover ANY type of stolen property. If it wasn't, people wouldn't bother to steal things!

Find My iPhone and similar tools are really only good for two things:

1) Finding a device if you know that it's not REALLY lost/stolen (but somewhere like the back of your couch).

2) Erasing the device if it's stolen.

Apple could make it so that a blocked iPhone cannot be re-activated, but they don't.

The carriers in the US have started to build a combined database where lost/stolen devices are blacklisted across ALL networks, but that's not in full motion yet.

[YungMoola94]

Originally Posted by Marrakas

If you find a phone somewhere and you take it even if it doesn't belong to you, you have stolen it. The non-retard way to go would be turn it in to the police, or if it was in a shop or store, hand it over to the clerk in case the owner comes looking for it.

In your logic, if someone takes your car cause you left it in the parking lot, it's not stealing.

When you compared a cell phone to a car you lost all argument credibility. You sir are an idiot

[iMikeT]

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

When you compared a cell phone to a car you lost all argument credibility. You sir are an idiot

Name calling doesn't help your logical missteps.

[RealSkyDiver]

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

When you compared a cell phone to a car you lost all argument credibility. You sir are an idiot

First of all, Marrakas was completely right. Second, how old are you? 13? His simple logic probably went over your head...

[Troneas]

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

When you compared a cell phone to a car you lost all argument credibility. You sir are an idiot

for the sake of argument - why?


aren't they both someone's property? stealing is not stealing depending on the value of the item? or its portability? or size?


just curious how you reason here.

[lelisa13p]

Originally Posted by iMikeT

Thanks. I'm sure we can get the serial and imei numbers. And that's all I was really hoping for, that is, Apple would help out with notifying her if someone else were to try to activate her stolen iPhone.

Those numbers are printed on the label on the back of the box that the iPhone came in.

[BrokeTechLover]

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

All these posts are so stupid. How does one STEAL your phone? Like honestly... Just because you forgot your phone somewhere and someone took it that doesn't mean they STOLE it. It means you were stupid enough to lose your phone.

If you actually READ THE TITLE,you'd see the OP put LOST/stolen iphone. That aside then what exactly are you saying? That something someone else has that wasnt given to them isn't stolen?

[YungMoola94]

Originally Posted by Troneas

for the sake of argument - why?


aren't they both someone's property? stealing is not stealing depending on the value of the item? or its portability? or size?


just curious how you reason here.

You are HAVE to park your car outside you can't take you car inside your room or inside a restaurant It's not like you are leaving your phone behind because that's what you are supposed to do. You made a mistake and now you have to face the consequences.

[firedept]

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

You are HAVE to park your car outside you can't take you car inside your room or inside a restaurant It's not like you are leaving your phone behind because that's what you are supposed to do. You made a mistake and now you have to face the consequences.

You have lost all credibility in this argument, so time to let the rest of us enjoy the boards and allow the OP's questions to be answered.

[lke]

Apple knows exactly where your lost phone is located, they know this because every time you use itunes or any other service of your iphone it send the imei and serial number to their servers.

I think that when you buy a new iphone you should be able to register your iphone in itunes so that if some day it is lost you could contact Apple and they tell you exactly where is located your lost iPhone.

An iphone constantly sends all type of information to Apple servers they know the location, the ip, and more information about every iphone out there.


Sooner or later everybody needs to connect his iphone to itunes, download updates, download new apps, music, use iCloud, etc, etc, this is where Apple could help owners of an iphone to locate it.

Also the find my iPhone was built so that any one could disable that services, if your iphone is stolen they could wipe everything and then you could not find your iPhone, why Apple let people do this, it could be better that you could only delete the information from an iphone if you enter your password.

The first thing that thiefs do when they stole an iphone is to turn it off. It could be great that you could only shutdown your iphone if you enter your password to avoid this issue.

The last time my iphone 4 was stolen I could not see the last location because they wipe everything, and when some one do this the last location of your device is deleted.

It could be nice that you see the last locations of your device also.

[iMikeT]

Originally Posted by lke

Apple knows exactly where your lost phone is located, they know this because every time you use itunes or any other service of your iphone it send the imei and serial number to their servers.

I think that when you buy a new iphone you should be able to register your iphone in itunes so that if some day it is lost you could contact Apple and they tell you exactly where is located your lost iPhone.

An iphone constantly sends all type of information to Apple servers they know the location, the ip, and more information about every iphone out there.

Sooner or later everybody needs to connect his iphone to itunes, download updates, download new apps, music, use iCloud, etc, etc, this is where Apple could help owners of an iphone to locate it.

That's exactly it, Apple can easily find the location of a lost or stolen device when ever it is used by anyone other than the rightful owner. The question is, will Apple in any way aid in recovering that device? Simply put, no they will not.

Originally Posted by lke

Also the find my iPhone was built so that any one could disable that services, if your iphone is stolen they could wipe everything and then you could not find your iPhone, why Apple let people do this, it could be better that you could only delete the information from an iphone if you enter your password.

This is exactly what Apple said that could be done if a device has the Find my iPhone app or iCloud syncing enabled. But seriously, why just simply wipe a device if an owner's intention is to recover their property?

Don't get me wrong, I can understand wiping the device in the long-term so no one can access the information on it. But if someone wants their stolen property back and it is as easily trackable as Apple products are, Apple should do what they can to help the owner in these cases.

[SAD*FACED*CLOWN]

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

All these posts are so stupid. How does one STEAL your phone? Like honestly... Just because you forgot your phone somewhere and someone took it that doesn't mean they STOLE it. It means you were stupid enough to lose your phone.

so picking up a phone that belongs to someone else and keeping it is not considered stealing?

----------

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

When you compared a cell phone to a car you lost all argument credibility. You sir are an idiot

how does he lose credibility? both are forms of private property just at different values...you sir should not have dropped out of beauty school

[C DM]

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

All these posts are so stupid. How does one STEAL your phone? Like honestly... Just because you forgot your phone somewhere and someone took it that doesn't mean they STOLE it. It means you were stupid enough to lose your phone.

Honestly, who cares about this whole side of the discussion?! It's not what the original question and the thread is about. Time to let go of this off-topic and irrelevant (and unfortunately ultimately mostly flaming/trolling) discussion and stick to something useful.

[adnbek]

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

All these posts are so stupid. How does one STEAL your phone? Like honestly... Just because you forgot your phone somewhere and someone took it that doesn't mean they STOLE it. It means you were stupid enough to lose your phone.

You take someone else's property = stealing

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

When you compared a cell phone to a car you lost all argument credibility. You sir are an idiot

It's the same thing. Taking someone else's property = stealing

Originally Posted by YungMoola94

You are HAVE to park your car outside you can't take you car inside your room or inside a restaurant It's not like you are leaving your phone behind because that's what you are supposed to do. You made a mistake and now you have to face the consequences.

Why don't you go back to trolling Youtube comments with the rest of your ilk?

*sigh* Kids should be banned from the internet.

[AFDoc]

Originally Posted by iMikeT

Name calling doesn't help your logical missteps.

You were the first to call names..... Your friend is dumb for not having find my phone.

For all of you comparing someone picking up a phone they found sitting on a park bench to actually breaking into a car and taking it are silly. Yes they are both stealing (if the phone is picked up for the purpose of keeping it) but come on, not even in the same park.

OP you also want apple and others to jump through hoops to help your friend (or anyone that has lost/stolen iPhone) but how/why is that their job? How is it their job to blacklist a device? How do they know it's stolen? What's to keep you from selling your phone then calling and saying it was stolen?

I say hold on to your expensive items and don't "lose" them. Practice by prevention.... tell your buddy to give it a shot.

[ThisIsNotMe]

Originally Posted by Daveoc64

The fundamental problem here is that it's incredibly difficult to recover ANY type of stolen property. If it wasn't, people wouldn't bother to steal things!

Find My iPhone and similar tools are really only good for two things:

1) Finding a device if you know that it's not REALLY lost/stolen (but somewhere like the back of your couch).

2) Erasing the device if it's stolen.

Apple could make it so that a blocked iPhone cannot be re-activated, but they don't.

The carriers in the US have started to build a combined database where lost/stolen devices are blacklisted across ALL networks, but that's not in full motion yet.

Huh, my mother recovered her iPhone4S with the help of Find My Phone and the police department of a major metropolitan city.

[iShorty]

If it's stolen, your only option is to;

1) Find IMEI on Box, contact your carrier to get it blocked.
2) File a complaint with the police.
3) Hope that you have insurance.

Two of my friends in the last 6 months have had their phone taken from their pocket, one on a street and another at a bar. Both unaware until 5-10 minutes later when they've gone to grab their iPhone's. Luckily both had insurance.

Even if you had the Find my iPhone app, there's not much you could of done. They would of most likely turned the phone off, by the time they've turned it on, I would hope anybody with common sense would just get it IMEI blocked so it becomes a brick to them.