How Stolen iPhones Travel From Western Streets to Chinese Markets

[N0ughtsAndCr0sses]

Of the devices that I’ve lost only one has ever showed up. I lost an iPhone 3G at hunters point my fault for leaving it on a desk and getting stuck in an elevator. This was before device lock but I still saw it walking down market in sf until it went poof. An Apple Watch stolen and it never appeared and finally this is the kicker my iPad Pro. I left it on an Alaska airlines flight. Contacted the airlines and no one has seen it. On find my it was in terminal c at the corner and it would show there. Alaska didn’t find it and eventually the battery and my patience ran out about three months after loosing it I get a notification that it’s in Ukraine. Hopefully doing good work. Still locked but that’s the last I ever saw of it. View attachment 2512546

It could belong to a Russian,🇷🇺
You never know 🤣🤣🤣

 

[awshucks]

not sure whether to remove it or not as its probably been stripped by now.....

No, don't give the thieves the upperhand if there's a chance it's still one piece!

 

[lindros2]

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.

The police in China?

 

[JPack]

The police in China?

The onus is 100% on the phone exporters in the US and UK.

How the heck is a recycler in China going to know whether a device was stolen in America? It could have been traded-in, donated, stolen, thrown away, etc.

The US has laws against export of stolen property. If the DoJ doesn't enforce it, why should another country enforce American law?

 

[lindros2]

The onus is 100% on the phone exporters in the US and UK.

How the heck is a recycler in China going to know whether a device was stolen in America? It could have been traded-in, donated, stolen, thrown away, etc.

The US has laws against export of stolen property. If the DoJ doesn't enforce it, why should another country enforce American law?

phone... exporters?
Like, these are simple routes out through normal channels?

This thread is really funny since it's not the way things work. I don't just order Fentanyl and have it shipped through a Chinese exporter, goes through customs, and then arrives at my door via FedEx World Select.

Plus... bribes.
My former car ended up in Ukraine, not because it was "exported". It was stolen, people at Port of LA were bribed, and it arrived in Ukraine some way.

 

[JPack]

phone... exporters?
Like, these are simple routes out through normal channels?

This thread is really funny since it's not the way things work. I don't just order Fentanyl and have it shipped through a Chinese exporter, goes through customs, and then arrives at my door via FedEx World Select.

Plus... bribes.
My former car ended up in Ukraine, not because it was "exported". It was stolen, people at Port of LA were bribed, and it arrived in Ukraine some way.

These phones are probably exported legally as parts or scrap. Customs probably doesn't know these are stolen. Only local police would know assuming owners even bother reporting it.

Similar to the way China exports completely legal chemicals or steel but Mexicans and Americans add value to it by building labs, mixing it, and reforming it as drugs and knives.

 

[Boeingfan]

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.

Why would you ask if I want to challenge you, I was asking who paid them because I want to understand the loop, not argue the point. Thank you for the extra information, it makes sense.

 

[Powerbooky]

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.

Indeed... roughly 20 years ago I lived in a farmers town and they already had problems with the usual suspects stealing or killing the animals. Even though it was crystal clear who these criminals were, one of the local police officers told me that they were restrained by all kinds of laws and bureaucracy. So he said to the farmers to do what you said:

"You do know these thugs. If you happen to find them by coincidence, by all means you guys beat the s*** out of them and thrown them in the ditch. Yes, it's uncivilised, but that's the only thing they actually understand from their own culture. Afterwards you call me privately and we just book them for reckless driving their car in that ditch or something. No questions asked."

 

[Powerbooky]

How do they cajole or threaten someone remotely? What do they say?

Haven't you had any email, text messages with these kinds of threats? Just the other day I got some threat that my internet will be disconnected if I don't pay in time. The funniest parts of these messages is that they often refer to ISP's and services I never have.
At work we have an iPhone with WhatsApp on it and ever since that was installed every few weeks an automated call comes in with a spoofed number. Note: WhatsApp audio/video calls are disabled on this phone. When picked up there's this voice saying that there's a huge problem with an Apple iPay payment or credit card and demand immediate action by downloading an app, open some website or call some number.
People that have no technical insight can easily be persuaded to do those stupid things.

The worst part of spoofed numbers... they can end up on a public block list and cause a huge problem for the person that actually owns that phone number.: identity fraud.

 

[lindros2]

We’ll never stop this