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Arrest Warrants Issued for 17 People in $1M California Apple Store Theft Ring
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They do. It's location based. Once they leave the store they are only good for parts.
Yea, they are all escaping and will come to him. The problem many want to take the nuttery with them.
I escaped there over 20 years ago and the rest of my relatives that were there left since then. Never will I even visit there and I left the nuttery behind.
They do. Those demo units has special apps installed on them, such as "Price" (display model/price info), "Touch ID" etc. for demo purpose, those you won't see on the retail version. Those apps, e.g. "Price", can only be installed and activate within certain geolocation and with accounts authorized by Apple (some sort of corporate login, called "SAM" or something) to fetch data directly from Apple's servers. It will track the device's location via GPS or Wi-Fi. Those devices were also signed-in with Apple's demo Apple ID, which means you can't wipe/restore the device w/o deactivate Find My Device first. They can of course remotely wipe the device, but I doubt they would. You simply can't resell/use them (or at least without being tracked down). Literary they are bricks.
I hope those silly people robbed Mac products only. iOS devices have a hardware encryption profile which Apple verifies when signing iOS, since they are Apple Store demos, Apple damn well knows the serials. The minute they try to let Apple sign or restore iOS, they are exposed. Poor guys don't be silly, it's all for nothing.
They allegedly kept doing it, so one would think they monetized their efforts.
I want to know how they did it, for the sake of Engineering and research. I have a hunch that FBI would work with the International Criminal Police Organization. If it becomes a global effort, maybe they would not be able to do it in other nations.
Yes the IMEI is blacklisted for each item so they won’t work with any carrier. Essentially they are sold for parts only or sold to the unknowing.
I have successfully DFU'd and restored a Target store's floor device. It depends if the Apple store's devices are iCloud locked. Target's aren't, or at least this device wasn't.
In any case, the screens and cases are valuable by themselves. But yeah, they're not the sharpest bunch of knives in the box that's for sure.
Were a bunch of Police in front of the (SoCal) Pasadena Apple Store on Monday too when I dropped by. Interviewing employees and public in the iPhone line. I’m guessing someone either grabbed some iPhones inside and ran or snatched them off someone as they headed out of the store. Guessing.
How about a revolving door? And a switch or switches behind a counter that stop the door from turning. Maybe even automate it so that the door freezes when devices are removed from their display stands.
[...]organized theft rings like the one apprehended this week "cost California business owners millions" and ultimately lead to consumers paying the cost.[...]
I think I can conclude that this is the reason why there's a significant price increases for iPhones lately.
Seems rather convoluted, why not just start with somebody in the street?
Any links to this actually being a thing?
As a customer you expect to pay for the cost of doing business, this is exactly how everything else in the world works.