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Stolen verizon iPhone 5

V

vonWachtstain

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 20, 2011
166
1
My sister's iPhone 5 from Verizon was stolen two days ago. We already reported it to the police but I don't think they will be able to catch the thieves (not that they dont try, police officer called me twice already with updates). My question is this: we reported it stolen to Verizon. But since iPhone 5 is factory unlocked thieves will be able to use it on GSM networks. Is there a way to sim lock this phone? Can Verizon do it? I would like to know before I call them.
Do you guys have any suggestions? I put the imei and MEID on several stolen databases.

iPhone was on iOS6 so no go on activation lock or even find my iphone.

Thanks
 
TWO2SEVEN said:
Find My iPhone was available on 6. Did she just not have it installed?
Click to expand...

Nope. She doesn't really utilize all iOS features. Its just phone and ipod for her. Sadly I do not believe even if she had Find my Iphone would help as thieves would just restore the phone. Correct me if I'm wrong but activation lock only kicks in iOS7
 
Not quite sure about Verizon locking the phone, since the phone is unlocked for international use out of the box. You can call and find out. Even with the IMEI in the stolen database, the phone can be used if it gets sold/moved to a country that doesn't use/follow the database.

True, FMI can be defeated by a restore in iOS 6. However sometimes the thieves aren't that smart to restore, lol.
 
Report it to VZW, and move along. No sense in spending a ton of time and energy on it at this point. It's gone. Just forget about it and get a new phone.
 
sulpfiction said:
Report it to VZW, and move along. No sense in spending a ton of time and energy on it at this point. It's gone. Just forget about it and get a new phone.
Click to expand...

Thieves wont be this lucky. Its not only police involved now because counterfeit cash was involved. I suspect she wont get her phone back but thieves will be caught as they stupidly met in front of store cameras.
 
vonWachtstain said:
Thieves wont be this lucky. Its not only police involved now because counterfeit cash was involved. I suspect she wont get her phone back but thieves will be caught as they stupidly met in front of store cameras.
Click to expand...

If anyone gets involved, it'd be because of counterfeit cash. Police normally won't do anything about a stolen phone even if caught on camera.
 
vonWachtstain said:
Thieves wont be this lucky. Its not only police involved now because counterfeit cash was involved. I suspect she wont get her phone back but thieves will be caught as they stupidly met in front of store cameras.
Click to expand...

Sounds like there is more to the story. Was she meeting some one to buy it?
 
TWO2SEVEN said:
Sounds like there is more to the story. Was she meeting some one to buy it?
Click to expand...

Yes. She realized something was wrong when ATM wouldn't accept the money. All notes had the same serial number. It could have happened to anyone because the money looked so real. So be careful out there and invest in money checking pen.
 
Wow, you really provided those thieves with a valuable device! Good thing your sister didn't bother updating it or setting it up correctly. Who has time for that, anyway?

Now they can sell it for top dollar, and the new buyer can update it to iOS 7 and permanently lock it to their account.
 
CEmajr said:
Sorry to say but on iOS 6 a Verizon iPhone 5 can easily be taken to Tmobile or AT&T and used with no issues.
Click to expand...

I know. I will call Verizon after work to see if they have ability to lock phones or remove it from Apple white list or whatever its called. Its basically BS because she kept her phone pristine. She included all new accessories from her 5S on my recommendation because I figured phone will sell for more and she will be able to recover most of the money she spent. We live in small and nice quiet town so you wouldn't expect this sort of thing to happen.

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Xenomorph said:
Wow, you really provided those thieves with a valuable device! Good thing your sister didn't bother updating it or setting it up correctly. Who has time for that, anyway?

Now they can sell it for top dollar, and the new buyer can update it to iOS 7 and permanently lock it to their account.
Click to expand...

Please explain how would it help her anyway? She was selling it so she would have to log out so new buyer could restore it and use it. Activation lock only works when phone is stolen or lost. In this case phone was "sold."
 
vonWachtstain said:
I know. I will call Verizon after work to see if they have ability to lock phones or remove it from Apple white list or whatever its called. Its basically BS because she kept her phone pristine. She included all new accessories from her 5S on my recommendation because I figured phone will sell for more and she will be able to recover most of the money she spent. We live in small and nice quiet town so you wouldn't expect this sort of thing to happen.

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Please explain how would it help her anyway? She was selling it so she would have to log out so new buyer could restore it and use it. Activation lock only works when phone is stolen
or lost. In this case phone was "sold."
Click to expand...


Um....what is going on? You said at the beginning of the post the the phone was stolen. But then you started to talk about counterfeit money? Did you simply equate a stole phone as a phone bought with counterfeit money?

Or did I miss something?
 
vonWachtstain said:
Please explain how would it help her anyway? She was selling it so she would have to log out so new buyer could restore it and use it. Activation lock only works when phone is stolen or lost. In this case phone was "sold."
Click to expand...

True, so it's just another Craigslist horror story if you don't take the appropriate precautions (which is more important than keeping the iPhone pristine and including all new accessories).

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aajeevlin said:
Um....what is going on? You said at the beginning of the post the the phone was stolen. But then you started to talk about counterfeit money? Did you simply equate a stole phone as a phone bought with counterfeit money?

Or did I miss something?
Click to expand...

So it becomes "stolen" when the seller got counterfeit money.
 
aajeevlin said:
...Did you simply equate a stole phone as a phone bought with counterfeit money?...
Click to expand...

This. Based on what has been written, OP's sister got scammed with counterfeit money. In which case it doesn't matter if you have FMI or activation lock because you would need to undo those before you can sell the phone.
 
Why wouldn't you include the fact that the phone was being sold, and ultimately bought with counterfit cash? It makes a difference when you're looking for advice on how to handle it.
 
sulpfiction said:
Why wouldn't you include the fact that the phone was being sold, and ultimately bought with counterfit cash? It makes a difference when you're looking for advice on how to handle it.
Click to expand...

Not really. The phone became stolen as a result if the scam. However when you report the phone stolen to verizon, you don't have to tell them you were paid on counterfeit cash. FMI, activation lock, IOS 6 have nothing to do with counterfeit cash.

However it does matter to the police.
 
Stolen verizon iPhone 5

Seems OP sister is not even remotely tech savvy. She should be selling something on Craigslist without help. The scammers saw her as easy prey.
 
I7guy said:
Not really. The phone became stolen as a result if the scam. However when you report the phone stolen to verizon, you don't have to tell them you were paid on counterfeit cash. FMI, activation lock, IOS 6 have nothing to do with counterfeit cash.

However it does matter to the police.
Click to expand...

When you're selling a phone, all of that stuff is disabled prior to the sale. If your phone is flat out stolen, FMI, passcode, etc would presumably be active.
 
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