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Does anyone know what a man will do after he steals an iphone 4 ?

H

hvnwnd

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 25, 2006
14
0
Will he take out the sim card, shut it down and then sell it, or he uses it for himself?

The story is that someone stole my iphone4 and I called my provider to block the iphone. I have also set find my iphone, but i cannot locate my iphone 4 now. Of course I file a report to the police but i have have little hope.

I wonder i shouldn't have blocked my iphone 4 through the provider so that i could locate it with 3g. How does "find my iphone" work? Does it use only GPS or GPS+internet?
 
hvnwnd said:
Will he take out the sim card, shut it down and then sell it, or he uses it for himself?

The story is that someone stole my iphone4 and I called my provider to block the iphone. I have also set find my iphone, but i cannot locate my iphone 4 now. Of course I file a report to the police but i have have little hope.

I wonder i shouldn't have blocked my iphone 4 through the provider so that i could locate it with 3g. How does "find my iphone" work? Does it use only GPS or GPS+internet?
Click to expand...

it works via wifi as well
 
The thing I find completely stupid about this Find my iPhone thing.. once you take out the sim card it no longer works... Which really makes this whole "Find my iPhone" thing pointless. Usually the person would know to take out the sim card. Or you could just turn the phone off and good luck finding it. They need to find another way to find a lost device. Perhaps a tracking feature that allows you to track the device with no service/while the device is off.
 
They need to make you be able to remotely disable the lock button. That way it can't be turned off or reset. Could help a little.
 
maflynn said:
Woman actually have been known to steal and break the law too :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

no need to be so pety,

if things are manmade, doesnt mean a woman couldnt have done it,

when man first roamed the earth women didn't sit still for years to come, man can be used as a generic term for human....


if someone stole an iphone (and they had half a brain or more) they would turn it off, remove the SIM, then depending on person either sell it or put their SIM in.

Their obviously will be the odd few people who "found" the phone who would either look on the contacts list (if the phone wasn't locked) and call a number (e.g home) to tell them they found it or hand in th police etc.

Beleive it or not there are people like that, I have found 3 iPhones in the last year or so at my work and called their most dialled number to get it back to them,
 
Most likely turn it off and restore it when they get home back to a clean OS and either use or sell it.
 
HitchHykr said:
Go to Strip Club????


How do you know that it was a man?
Click to expand...

He tried to talk with me and to distract me, and i don't know he or some one else stole my iphone from my pocket. I noticed that after he left...
 
jenzjen said:
Most likely turn it off and restore it when they get home back to a clean OS and either use or sell it.
Click to expand...

A simple restore will disable "find my iphone" ? So using "find my iphone" to find the stolen iphone doesn't work any more as it's so popular that everyone knows its weakness. It just becomes legend ?
 
Basically turn off first (makes tracking via 3g or wifi pointless). Then take out the sim card. Connect it to itunes and restore to original factory settings (makes all screen locks / passwords useless). All done.. The phone is ready to go for him to either sell or use by himself.

Optionally he can jailbreak + unlock and use a sim card with different carrier.

Apple doesn't track or do anything. Carriers usually does not block phones. Even if they did he can simply use with a different carrier or put it on Ebay and sell to someone in a different country.

POLICE WILL NEVER LOOK FOR IT. Why? B/C your phone worth less than $5000 and therefore is considered a "petty crime". So like a theft of a chocolate bar. They don't take contract in to consideration. It's a waste of resource.
So chances are you will NEVER find it EVER again unless the person that takes it changes their mind and return it. LOL.

The thief can also do the following

If a thief has your iPhone and it is not yet locked (he grabs it out of my hands). The thief notices my MM iDisk and Galery Apps and then knows I have MM and can use 'Find my iPhone' So he goes to settings->mail->MobileMe and disables 'Find My iPhone'. As a reusult I cannot use the Remote Lock or wipe functions anymore.
Click to expand...

So basically find my iphone = useless if you iphone is stolen. Unless it's stolen by a retard.
 
hvnwnd said:
Even after a restore ?
Click to expand...

I know you are upset but the best thing to do is to move on and replace your phone.:rolleyes:

The "Find My Phone" software is just a horrible joke on iPhone users.

Thousands of phones are stolen/lost every day and no one will do anything to help. Try to get over being mad and get you another phone. You phone is gone.:(
 
Last edited:
A2DY said:
no need to be so pety,

if things are manmade, doesnt mean a woman couldnt have done it,

when man first roamed the earth women didn't sit still for years to come, man can be used as a generic term for human....


if someone stole an iphone (and they had half a brain or more) they would turn it off, remove the SIM, then depending on person either sell it or put their SIM in.

Their obviously will be the odd few people who "found" the phone who would either look on the contacts list (if the phone wasn't locked) and call a number (e.g home) to tell them they found it or hand in th police etc.

Beleive it or not there are people like that, I have found 3 iPhones in the last year or so at my work and called their most dialled number to get it back to them,
Click to expand...

LOL...nice. Unfortunately, if he/she had half a brain he/she wouldn't have stolen an iPhone in the first place. And I seriously doubt there are more than a dozen people on the planet with more than half a brain and 8 of them are in China, two more are in India and one is in Brazil.
 
That sucks OP, sorry that it happened to you. Don't forget to change any passwords to accounts that you access on your iPhone. Email, facebook, twitter, etc.
 
nukem170 said:
Basically turn off first (makes tracking via 3g or wifi pointless). Then take out the sim card. Connect it to itunes and restore to original factory settings (makes all screen locks / passwords useless). All done.. The phone is ready to go for him to either sell or use by himself.

Optionally he can jailbreak + unlock and use a sim card with different carrier.

Apple doesn't track or do anything. Carriers usually does not block phones. Even if they did he can simply use with a different carrier or put it on Ebay and sell to someone in a different country.

POLICE WILL NEVER LOOK FOR IT. Why? B/C your phone worth less than $5000 and therefore is considered a "petty crime". So like a theft of a chocolate bar. They don't take contract in to consideration. It's a waste of resource.
So chances are you will NEVER find it EVER again unless the person that takes it changes their mind and return it. LOL.

The thief can also do the following



So basically find my iphone = useless if you iphone is stolen. Unless it's stolen by a retard.
Click to expand...

Your explanation is not so encouraging, but thanks all the same.
I'm soooo disappointed :( Since I lost it, I expected to play a "catch the thief" by using "find my phone" like some news reported...

Sounds that to be a thief is not only a good job in computer games...
 
nukem170 said:
Basically turn off first (makes tracking via 3g or wifi pointless). Then take out the sim card. Connect it to itunes and restore to original factory settings (makes all screen locks / passwords useless). All done.. The phone is ready to go for him to either sell or use by himself.

Optionally he can jailbreak + unlock and use a sim card with different carrier.

Apple doesn't track or do anything. Carriers usually does not block phones. Even if they did he can simply use with a different carrier or put it on Ebay and sell to someone in a different country.

POLICE WILL NEVER LOOK FOR IT. Why? B/C your phone worth less than $5000 and therefore is considered a "petty crime". So like a theft of a chocolate bar. They don't take contract in to consideration. It's a waste of resource.
So chances are you will NEVER find it EVER again unless the person that takes it changes their mind and return it. LOL.

The thief can also do the following



So basically find my iphone = useless if you iphone is stolen. Unless it's stolen by a retard.
Click to expand...
which in most cases, the thief is a retard
 
I would say it's sold asap, sorry bout your luck. I hate thieves, I've had my wallet returned to me full of cash before and took it as a sign to return things to their owners if at all possible.


I thought the find my iphone feature was to let me know if I left my phone in the truck or in couch somewhere?:D I always assumed that it was for finding a misplaced iphone, not for security.
 
Stealthipad said:
I know you are upset but the best thing to do is to move on and replace your phone.:rolleyes:

The "Find My Phone" software is just a horrible joke on iPhone users.

Thousands of phones are stolen/lost every day and no one will do anything to help. Try to get over being mad and get you another phone. You phone is gone.:(
Click to expand...

Agreed. Find my iphone's a cool feature rather than a secure one.
 
You could:
A-Have a Verizon iPhone, no SIM card to remove
B-Jailbreak it and hide the "Find My iPhone" icon
C-Hang on to your phone like a fat kid with a popsicle
D-All the above.

Of course, none of this matters if the phone's turned off, but at least on Verizon you can have ESN blacklisted so it's nothing more than a cool iPod Touch.
 
hvnwnd said:
He tried to talk with me and to distract me, and i don't know he or some one else stole my iphone from my pocket. I noticed that after he left...
Click to expand...

If it was in your back pocket, lesson learned. Those who put wallets and expensive phones in their back pocket are just asking to get picked.

If it was in your front pocket, then you need to pay more attention to your surroundings. Or buy an Otterbox case so you can feel your phone every second and takes just a bit more than necessary to take out your pocket. :D

Anyway sorry for your loss, what comes around goes around.
 
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