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My Stolen iPhone Horror Story
- Thread starter daverso
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I think everyone on this forum needs to take this to heart. That goes for all threads, too.
Sorry to hear about the bad luck. Everyone says you should change all your important passwords on a regular basis. However, I wonder how many people actually do that? I'm terrible about it; I've had some of my passwords for over two years.
I guess what I'm saying is not to beat yourself up about it so much. Sh*t happens to good people all the time. That doesn't make your situation any better, but wallowing in the terrible situation will only make it worse.
Ouch, lesson learned, huh? Don't trust strangers with your information. Bad things happen.
Everyone loses a cell phone, usually only ONCE. Happened to me 4 years ago (and the first time in 15 years). No one ever expects to lose a phone, but....well stuff happens.
Sorry it turned out this way.
FWIW, this is the exact reason we just purchased the MobileMe family service, and the ONLY reason. 3 iPhones on the AT&T account, 2 personal, 1 business.
If there existed an easier or less expensive way for remote wipe, obviously we would've done that.
With convergence devices such as the iPhone, it's a necessity to have the capability to wipe it ASAP, especially with all the info that it can contain.
Sorry it turned out this way.
FWIW, this is the exact reason we just purchased the MobileMe family service, and the ONLY reason. 3 iPhones on the AT&T account, 2 personal, 1 business.
If there existed an easier or less expensive way for remote wipe, obviously we would've done that.
With convergence devices such as the iPhone, it's a necessity to have the capability to wipe it ASAP, especially with all the info that it can contain.
A few things.....
1. To the OP - sorry this happened. I can imagine it is frustrating, but the info provided may save someone else the same pain. Thanks for that.
2. To those mentioning the SIM card - OK - don't forget that this is also a wi-fi device. Maybe you can stop the phone access, but you can't stop the access to all the apps via wi-fi.
3. Based on this, I am officially nervous. Am going to look into mobile.me just for the ability to do remote wipe.
4. Beyond Facebook, think of all of the other damage that is possible with this. I'll name a number of apps that may be open to misuse, but I sure that there are more. Maybe some of these require a password for each use, but some may not.....
* Twitter
* Movie apps that let you buy tickets (e.g. Fandango)
* Stock apps (e.g. eTrade)
* Email accounts
* Web sites galore. Remember that OS 3.0 allows Safari to store username/password for web sites. This could be a long list for some.
* IM apps (e.g. AIM, etc...)
* ebay
* Amazon.com
* Youtube account subscription
* Barnes and Noble
* any more???????????????????
1. To the OP - sorry this happened. I can imagine it is frustrating, but the info provided may save someone else the same pain. Thanks for that.
2. To those mentioning the SIM card - OK - don't forget that this is also a wi-fi device. Maybe you can stop the phone access, but you can't stop the access to all the apps via wi-fi.
3. Based on this, I am officially nervous. Am going to look into mobile.me just for the ability to do remote wipe.
4. Beyond Facebook, think of all of the other damage that is possible with this. I'll name a number of apps that may be open to misuse, but I sure that there are more. Maybe some of these require a password for each use, but some may not.....
* Movie apps that let you buy tickets (e.g. Fandango)
* Stock apps (e.g. eTrade)
* Email accounts
* Web sites galore. Remember that OS 3.0 allows Safari to store username/password for web sites. This could be a long list for some.
* IM apps (e.g. AIM, etc...)
* ebay
* Amazon.com
* Youtube account subscription
* Barnes and Noble
* any more???????????????????
It's not necessarily a matter of changing passwords on a regular basis. It's a matter of not quickly changing passwords when the iPhone was stolen. It's unfortunate this all happened, but not changing passwords, well, that's just crazy insane.
These days, an iPhone is often a gateway to a large chunk of one's life, and it's crazy to not take precautions.
I don't know about others, but I've got a pile of apps that auto-login to various places. If my iPhone was stolen, one of the first things that I'd do is change all of the passwords. Also, as a precaution, the passcode is enabled, and I've got the iPhone set to wipe after 10 failed attempts (yes, this does open me up to a DoS gank, but I keep track of where my iPhone is, and I have good friends). Also, any other "sensitive" information on the iPhone is encrypted, using one of the fine encrypting apps in the app store.
What a tosser.
Has the phone been reported stolen and the IMEI been blocked? I don't know if it would completely disable the device but this is really bad for you.
Does everyone on Facebook know what has happened?
Has the phone been reported stolen and the IMEI been blocked? I don't know if it would completely disable the device but this is really bad for you.
Does everyone on Facebook know what has happened?
Not to sound cruel or obviously stating something. But I can't help notice the fact that you didn't change passwords to everything your iPhone was connected.
First thing you do when you loose something like an iPhone is damage control. Damage control is before anything does happen, not after. You should called up your bosses, bank institution. Tell them you lost your phone with confidential information and that anything that looks suspicious should be noted it may not be you and it can be someone else.
I mean, if they did that to you on Facebook, imagine what they can do to you financially thru your institution.
It's blatantly asking to be raped like this if you don't change your passwords. It's harsh to say something like this, but you had this coming.
In any case, you can talk to all your bosses face to face and explain in detail the whole situation. I'm sure you won't get fired, but you will learn from this.
What a nice summary of everything that's been said throughout all one and a half pages of the thread.
Yes, I started writing the whole thing, but the time I hit submit, 30 new comments had appeared, thank you for that.
Well so far damage control has been a success, but not quite done. Spoke to my boss, he understands. With several more I'm waiting to hear back from. It's just a shame that this is the world we live in, one where people steal iPhones and flaunt their sacks for the whole world to see. Oh well, it's in the process of working itself out now, at the unfortunate expense of my own reputation. But that's life, Some days you wake up to the smell of eggs and bacon, and other days you wake up with your facebook profile picture set to a photo of some other dudes ballsack taken on your stolen iPhone, and that's just the way it goes... Lesson learned
Unless I missed something - and I'm not trying to antagonize - but forensically speaking - how do you know the picture is of the thief. Furthermore - how do you know it's not a female who stole your iPhone. Couldn't anyone replace your picture with ANYTHING they wanted? Couldn't a female make such comments.
Anyone you know have a reason to make your life miserable?
It's really just an educated guess. Someone thinks they saw someone take the phone, and that someone said it was a guy. But, there's really no way to be sure. All I know is the photo was taken by an iPhone, posted by an iPhone. I've never logged into my account on anyone elses phone, so i'm
pretty sure it was coming from my old phone...
As for the twisted friends, I'm pretty sure it's not them. I sure hope not
I mean I guess I wouldn't be surprised if they just changed my profile around, but this was done by a person with nothing to lose and was probably just drunk (guessing because it happened at 4 am...)It's really just an educated guess. Someone thinks they saw someone take the phone, and that someone said it was a guy. But, there's really no way to be sure. All I know is the photo was taken by an iPhone, posted by an iPhone. I've never logged into my account on anyone elses phone, so i'm
pretty sure it was coming from my old phone...
As for the twisted friends, I'm pretty sure it's not them. I sure hope not
Never said it was a prank by a friend. I'm talking about someone who knows you and doesn't like you. Or an ex-girlfriend. Or just anyone that would like to see your rep get damaged.
There are a lot of messed up people in the world who would do this for no other reason that to be a jackhole - but that takes a REAL jackhole to go after you like that. That's why I posed the question if there is someone who would enjoy it than some random stranger just out for some kicks.
I am sorry, but I can't stop laughing. I love how you mention the dude's ballsack in most of your posts. I'm glad you got almost everything under control. Luckily your boss understands. We learn from our mistakes and that's that.
If you jailbreak your phone, there's a cydia app that lets your protect your personal apps with another password.
Good luck with everything.
He doesn't know who did it. He just knows the thief was a he because the thief posted a picture of his ballsack on facebook!
Another way to possibly prevent this story from happening is to set up a Passcode Lock PIN, and then enable the Wipe feature. You don't necessarily have to have the MobileMe account to do a wipe on the iPhone.
Yeah, I know it's a PITA to enter the code, but you can choose the frequency of inactivity before the iPhone requires it.
Just sync the iPhone often to have a good backup, and then it's just a matter of going to get a new iPhone, and the time required to restore it to get back to normal if it ever gets lost/stolen.
Little if no time required for repairing your credibility.
Everyone should really think of the iPhone as being a handheld computer from a security standpoint, that just happens to have a phone capability. I know the <25 crowd probably didn't make it past the first sentence or two.....
Yeah, I know it's a PITA to enter the code, but you can choose the frequency of inactivity before the iPhone requires it.
Just sync the iPhone often to have a good backup, and then it's just a matter of going to get a new iPhone, and the time required to restore it to get back to normal if it ever gets lost/stolen.
Little if no time required for repairing your credibility.
Everyone should really think of the iPhone as being a handheld computer from a security standpoint, that just happens to have a phone capability. I know the <25 crowd probably didn't make it past the first sentence or two.....
This sucks. To the OP, I was going to say the same as "why didn't you change your passcode..." But we are all human and when something of value gets stolen we get mad and don't think straight.
After reading this, the MobileMe looks better and better with the remote wipe and the tracking.
After reading this, the MobileMe looks better and better with the remote wipe and the tracking.