...so how do they travel? How do they all get through customs? Do they go through an airport from London? The article doesn't actually give us any new information. Yes, iPhones have been snatched out of people's hands. The parts get reused and the locked parts reprogrammed. None of this is new information. So how do stolen iPhones travel?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
How Stolen iPhones Travel From Western Streets to Chinese Markets
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Stop asking the tough questions. That would require risky, unpleasant, and undercover reporting about the criminals and corrupt police enabling these thefts in London, New York, and elsewhere. Then you gotta work with customs officials, grease their hands, and find out how phones with Li-ion batteries are passing airport security “undetected.”
Better to report from a nicely air conditioned building tower located in the tech/electronics capital of the world. Drive around in an EV and order fast food delivery by drone while at the park or office tower.
With how useless the response is, I’m surprised people aren’t forming neighborhood SWAT teams. If it were my phone, I’d be live-streaming the door breach myself.
Get a small team together. If the police aren’t doing anything, the problem will only get worse — at that point, they’re essentially enabling the crime.
Kings Cross police told one of my friends not to go to the address where the phone was traced, as it was too dangerous. And I must say, it was in a dodgy part of the city.
As of a few months ago parliament was intending to pass a law that would allow police to “go and knock on the thieves’ door” as you say. I am not sure if the law was passed. Here is info. about it: https://bbc.com/news/articles/cr5269qn5jvo
The police doesn't seem to be resource limited if someone writes something "wrong" in a Facebook group.
I remember having my iPhone 5 for all of 5 hours, it got snatched from a gypsy at a pub in London. Worst thing is at the time, if I had insurance, it would not have kicked in for a few days anyway. I couldn't lock my phone remotely as it wasn't a feature at the time, and EE couldn't disable the IMEI.
Yes it is true. But as with any solution. There isn’t a 100% way to solve a problem. It is about improving. Yes it is a cat and mouse. Clearly one side is winning.
I've seen posts on Reddit that they ask them to remote wipe the phone so to remote the lock. They also threaten to download all the pictures and personal details etc if they don't wipe, which isn't true.
China today is, by far, the world's number 1 country for illegal and criminal activities, often tolerated, protected, or even encouraged by its government when they affect foreign countries (especially those from the West). Call it retribution for two centuries of humiliations.
Last edited:
Unless is a Facebook crime...
Then they send 3 or 4 police officers to your house and get you arrested in the spot.
Ever heard of insurance?
you buy phone. You pay for it.
It's stolen. (which, incidentally, is now covered by AppleCare+ including theft and loss, because you don't have a choice but to pay yearly...)
You buy a new one.
Apple now sold TWO phones, not one.
Want to challenge me on this? I've worked with local law enforcement (useless high school dropout morons), state police (one step up) and the FBI (terrible) on subscription fraud - it's over $8 billion a year and growing.
And T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and others don't care. Just insurance claims, me no worry.
Apple should give access in users hand. Users should be able to decide what they want with their device. If they don't want that any part of their device is used in any other device, then let it be, instead of a warning that a part is not genuine.
If they want it freely open then let it be so that no environmentalist complains of locked and unusable part.
Implementation should be like a toggle like go to settings -> general -> hardware lock (on/off)
If it's "on" then if anyone uses any part of your device it will not work. (Not a warning but not work at all).
If it's "off" then anyone can use anything even the motherboard. It's fully open. Means even if the device is locked then just format and it is like a new phone.
The default state should be "on".
Also some form of region lock from Apples part will do good. Something which is added at the manufacturing stage. Just like sideloading of apps is allowed in EU but not in the rest of the world. Again access should be in users hand.
If they want it freely open then let it be so that no environmentalist complains of locked and unusable part.
Implementation should be like a toggle like go to settings -> general -> hardware lock (on/off)
If it's "on" then if anyone uses any part of your device it will not work. (Not a warning but not work at all).
If it's "off" then anyone can use anything even the motherboard. It's fully open. Means even if the device is locked then just format and it is like a new phone.
The default state should be "on".
Also some form of region lock from Apples part will do good. Something which is added at the manufacturing stage. Just like sideloading of apps is allowed in EU but not in the rest of the world. Again access should be in users hand.
The problem with stolen iphones is that once the iphone is disassembled it is impossible for police authorities to know if what they are seeing in front of them is stolen iphones or iphones legitimately bought and then disassembled. Even if there was a simple method of being able to power on just the iphone motherboards, all it will do is display a screen telling the viewer to enter in their apple id. There is nothing that indicates that iphone motherboard came from a stolen iphone. What Apple needs to do is make an update to it's iOS so that if a user reports their iphone stolen, the user via there apple id account or Apple customer services could enable a 'stolen' flag inside the iOS so that the next time the iphone is switched on it shows on the screen that iphone or at least it's motherboard has come from a stolen iphone.
All the police had suspicions that a company was handling stolen iphones, all they would have to do is take all the iphone motherboards aways as evidence and power each one up to see if the 'stolen' message appears, if it does then they know the company/individuals are handling stolen items, but until Apple implements such a system stolen iphones will continue to go on and on and on.
All the police had suspicions that a company was handling stolen iphones, all they would have to do is take all the iphone motherboards aways as evidence and power each one up to see if the 'stolen' message appears, if it does then they know the company/individuals are handling stolen items, but until Apple implements such a system stolen iphones will continue to go on and on and on.