Iphone 4 stolen

[pulling wire]

I have had my Iphone stolen, when I go onto www.icloud.com I am told that the phone is offline. I am guessing that the sim card has been tossed (goes to voice mail) and that the phone has been formatted as I had a passcode set up on the phone. I was thinking of leaving a message on the phone via icloud (reminder/calendar). Would the phone receive the message, and if I were to leave a message what would be the appropriate message that would result in the phone being returned to me?

 

[Synaesthesia]

I think the message might display. Did you try find my phone? If it says offline they probably switched it off. The message would display after it is switched on again.

How about: This phone belongs to XYZ, please return it. You can contact me via ...

But I doubt it would work, they clearly want to keep your phone.

 

[pulling wire]

I think the message might display. Did you try find my phone? If it says offline they probably switched it off. The message would display after it is switched on again.

How about: This phone belongs to XYZ, please return it. You can contact me via ...

But I doubt it would work, they clearly want to keep your phone.

Think you are right, the phone might already be in a neighbouring country by now. Loved that phone. Oh well.

 

[Synaesthesia]

Well send a message and look for it on iCloud anyway, then try blacklist it if you can.

 

[D3x!]

lol are you for real dude?

 

[morkhans]

The Find my iPhone service is tied to the app and the account against which it's installed not the phone itself. If the thief wipes the phone then find my iphone service would no longer report on the location of the phone.

It would be nice if Apple had some sort of service where you could mark a device as stolen, which would prevent it from activating and/or being able to access the AppStore.

 

[KleinBoontjie]

Ja, who want to steal a ihone 4 anyway

 

[Synaesthesia]

The Find my iPhone service is tied to the app and the account against which it's installed not the phone itself. If the thief wipes the phone then find my iphone service would no longer report on the location of the phone.

I would be nice if Apple had some sort of service where you could mark a device as stolen, which would prevent it from activating and/or being able to access the AppStore.

Yeah, it would also be cool if Apple implemented a feature whereby you have to enter your passcode to switch off the phone, thus preventing thieves from switching it off, so we can track them.

 

[Synaesthesia]

Ja, who want to steal a ihone 4 anyway

Thanks for your contribution to the discussion.

 

[morkhans]

Yeah, it would also be cool if Apple implemented a feature whereby you have to enter your passcode to switch off the phone, thus preventing thieves from switching it off, so we can track them.

They could still just pop the SIM.

Ultimately you want to make it pointless to steal in the first place. If they knew the phone would be useless due to not being able to activate or use the AppStore then they wouldn't bother.

 

[Synaesthesia]

If you pop the SIM you can still track it, as the tracking is tied to the Apple ID, not the SIM. That is a good idea though.

 

[morkhans]

If you pop the SIM you can still track it, as the tracking is tied to the Apple ID, not the SIM. That is a good idea though.

If they pop the SIM what data connection is the phone going to report back on? If they are clever enough to pop the SIM then I assume they would be clever enough not to connect it to their home wifi till after it was wiped.

 

[D3x!]

Yeah, it would also be cool if Apple implemented a feature whereby you have to enter your passcode to switch off the phone, thus preventing thieves from switching it off, so we can track them.

They could still just pop the SIM.

Ultimately you want to make it pointless to steal in the first place. If they knew the phone would be useless due to not being able to activate or use the AppStore then they wouldn't bother.

If you pop the SIM you can still track it, as the tracking is tied to the Apple ID, not the SIM. That is a good idea though.

he means it will have no network connection.

also they could they not sign out of the apple id and create a new one? or just restore it to new, best is like he says hardcode that the device serial cant be used on the app store etc.

 

[Synaesthesia]

he means it will have no network connection.

Gosh I'm so spoilt by wi-fi I forgot about that *moronic moment*

also they could they not sign out of the apple id and create a new one? or just restore it to new, best is like he says hardcode that the device serial cant be used on the app store etc.

I don't know if that trick would work, if thieves were even sophisticated enough to do that. It might indeed be hardcoded to the serial. But maybe not. Isn't that how blacklisting is supposed to work though? Can't you blacklist a phone based on IMEI? Or can that be bypassed?

 

[GreyBush]

Ja, who want to steal a ihone 4 anyway

Herp Derp.

 

[D3x!]

Gosh I'm so spoilt by wi-fi I forgot about that *moronic moment*


I don't know if that trick would work, if thieves were even sophisticated enough to do that. It might indeed be hardcoded to the serial. But maybe not. Isn't that how blacklisting is supposed to work though? Can't you blacklist a phone based on IMEI? Or can that be bypassed?

blacklistying is done on the network, so if u blacklist it only applies in south africa, take it out of country and you have a working phone, thus why so many phones end up in upper africa.

 

[morkhans]

Gosh I'm so spoilt by wi-fi I forgot about that *moronic moment*

I don't know if that trick would work, if thieves were even sophisticated enough to do that. It might indeed be hardcoded to the serial. But maybe not. Isn't that how blacklisting is supposed to work though? Can't you blacklist a phone based on IMEI? Or can that be bypassed?

Blacklisting by IMEI in the country of origin only although I just discovered something called CEIR which implies if all operators subscribe to it the blacklist should in fact be global.

 

[pulling wire]

The Find my iPhone service is tied to the app and the account against which it's installed not the phone itself. If the thief wipes the phone then find my iphone service would no longer report on the location of the phone.

It would be nice if Apple had some sort of service where you could mark a device as stolen, which would prevent it from activating and/or being able to access the AppStore.

I am sure this is exactly what has happened. Because the phone is continually "offline"

 

[waynegohl]

Is there a way that the camera feature can be activated remotely on a stolen phone so as to take a photo of the thief or surroundings and send it to the cloud but with that phones unique code? If someone steals a camera phone they will at some stage take a picture and if that picture was tagged with the phones unique code then it might be traced even if the phone has been "cleaned" up.

 

[NomNom]

I have had my Iphone stolen, when I go onto www.icloud.com I am told that the phone is offline. I am guessing that the sim card has been tossed (goes to voice mail) and that the phone has been formatted as I had a passcode set up on the phone. I was thinking of leaving a message on the phone via icloud (reminder/calendar). Would the phone receive the message, and if I were to leave a message what would be the appropriate message that would result in the phone being returned to me?

There is no message you can leave that would make the person who stole it return it to you.

Watch gumtree in your area for a iphone 4 and who knows chances are it will be listed there, then you can at least buy it back.