[HN Gopher] Things the guys who stole my phone have texted me to...
___________________________________________________________________
Things the guys who stole my phone have texted me to try to get me
to unlock it
Author : neaden
Score : 250 points
Date : 2024-06-04 20:10 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (gothamist.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (gothamist.com)
| infotainment wrote:
| _> I checked Find My and my phone was indeed in China. It looked
| like it was in an office building conveniently located around the
| corner from an Adidas store, about 8,000 miles from me._
|
| You'd think for a police state, China would be just little bit
| better at cracking down on obvious crime that happens within
| their borders. But I guess not.
| gadflyinyoureye wrote:
| Well this isn't against a citizen. Also look at the murders
| going on in China now.
| seadan83 wrote:
| Do you have any supporting citations on the crime/murder rate
| in China?
| whimsicalism wrote:
| do you honestly think the murder rate in China is anywhere
| close to our own?
| ronsor wrote:
| 1. Chinese government is not as competent as it tries to
| appear.
|
| 2. They do not care about foreigners or crimes unless they
| involve Chinese citizens.
| factormeta wrote:
| >2. They do not care about foreigners or crimes unless they
| involve Chinese citizens.
|
| Don't know if they really care that much about Chinese
| citizens. Probably just the ones in the politburo.
| whimsicalism wrote:
| It's worked out remarkably well for Chinese citizens given
| they don't care at all about them, then
| postingawayonhn wrote:
| Their GDP per capita still lags significantly behind
| Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan who all aligned themselves
| with the west.
|
| Millions also died due to their rulers through the 20th
| century.
| whimsicalism wrote:
| India seems like the much more obvious comparison than
| those countries
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| Chinese citizens are treated fairly similarly. There are
| plenty of unlawful activities that go unpoliced/unpunished
| (massage parlors), unless there happens to be a specific
| crackdown going on (otherwise, the police know what is going
| on and are probably getting a cut).
| Xylakant wrote:
| The police state is interested in maintaining the power
| structure in the police state. As long as petty or even
| organized crime does not upset the balance of power, the
| authorities couldn't care less - crime against Americans is no
| danger to them. Just as the Russian government has no interest
| in cracking down on its blackhat population, as long as they
| target non-Russian orgs.
| genter wrote:
| Russian government _is_ the blackhat population.
| TrainedMonkey wrote:
| I have a theory that Russians foster black hat population
| while collecting evidence as a matter of national policy...
| so they could slowly recruit / quickly gang press talent
| from. Kind of like strategic reserve of hackers / zero days
| / etc.
| netsharc wrote:
| Yeah, a bit like corrupt politicians in China (or
| anywhere, really), you can be corrupt, but if some other
| powerful politician doesn't like you, they'll arrest and
| ruin your life for corruption... Even though maybe the
| judge and police are also corrupt.
|
| Or in Egypt, you have to bribe to get a job as a police
| officer, your superior expects a tribute each month
| because his superiors expect one, all the way to the top,
| so you bully the public for bribes/protection money,
| that's why the police were so passionate about
| suppressing anti-government protests during the Arab
| Spring, their livelihood depended on it. Meanwhile the
| Egyptian military had its own economy to supply
| themselves (eg a factory making soap, or bread) and were
| viewed by the public as trustworthy.
|
| All in a fascinating book:
|
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25622863-thieves-of-
| stat...
| zer00eyz wrote:
| I have worked with a bunch of Russian devs over the last
| few decades. They really aren't the same group.
|
| Black hats (criminals), Government, and commercial devs are
| pretty distinct, and dont often over lap on a day to day
| basis. That having been said the government jobs are
| available to either group (sometimes not by "choice") and
| there is a revolving door there.
|
| It's not so far removed from the university, drug
| company/reseearch, FDA revolving doors that we have for
| Drug development in the US.
| ASalazarMX wrote:
| Organized crime and mafias are not the autonomous, powerful
| entities we're led to believe by the popular media. They're
| usually subjugated by the state, and used to bring money and
| do their dirty work.
|
| That's why cartels appear out of control in Mexico, but when
| USA wants an offer, Mexico will promptly deport a high-level
| criminal. It's a show of strength, that the state is still in
| control of the cartels, but won't extinguish them because
| they generate lots of money for their respective political
| coalitions.
|
| Happens everywhere, the biggest bank accounts of organized
| crime could be seized internationally if there was a will,
| but that would hurt politics too... unless they're Russians,
| there were token seizures of money and yachts last year, but
| it stopped quickly.
| barnabask wrote:
| Misconception: police solve crimes.
|
| Truth: police protect their employers.
| mrguyorama wrote:
| Misconception: Police are trained to investigate and solve
| crime
|
| Reality: Police absolutely hate doing the "boring" parts of
| their jobs. Property crime clearance rate is an abysmal ~10%
| and everyone knows a handful of people who reported a theft,
| large or otherwise, and got nothing but a police report.
|
| Meanwhile they had plenty of time to come to our local
| supermarket and harass a 6 year old that tried to pocket a
| candybar. They took him into the security camera room and
| hassled this kid for several hours, zero parents involved.
|
| The American police do not feel required to do their damn
| jobs, unless it involves physical activity or a gun. The
| boring stuff, like submitting hundreds of stored rape kits to
| labs to literally catch rapists, doesn't get done, ever.
| eevilspock wrote:
| _On any given day, in any police department in the nation,
| 15 percent of officers will do the right thing no matter
| what is happening. Fifteen percent of officers will abuse
| their authority at every opportunity. The remaining 70
| percent could go either way depending on whom they are
| working with._
|
| ~ I'm a black ex-cop, and this is the real truth about race
| and policing, http://www.vox.com/2015/5/28/8661977/race-
| police-officer
| estebank wrote:
| > Fifteen percent of officers will abuse their authority
| at every opportunity. The remaining 70 percent could go
| either way depending on whom they are working with.
|
| This is why I find it bizarre that the behavior of bad
| cops is minimized by calling them "a few bad apples",
| when the entire aphorism is "one bad apple spoils the
| bunch".
| readyman wrote:
| Uvalde
| JumpinJack_Cash wrote:
| > > cracking down on obvious crime
|
| As inconvenient as it is for the author and those in their
| similar situation this sort of petty crime is about on the same
| level as bustinng a massage parlor.
|
| And honestly it woul hold the same low priority everywhere not
| just in China
| colordrops wrote:
| China is not a police state, they are a military state. The US
| is a police state. In China the local cops are generally far
| more hands off than an in the US. China is more top-down from
| the national level. In the US, local police are the typical
| mechanism for control.
| seoulmetro wrote:
| How dare you not refer to China by the brainwashed labels its
| competitor superpower forces on it!
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| Cops are hands off. When they need hands on, they call in the
| PAP. They are armed and have the riot control gear.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| Often stances of the governments across the world are: we'll
| ignore it unless it becomes a problem for us. Often, in
| organized crime, money flows back to the government and creates
| job opportunities for people that keeps them happy. There is a
| reason. Why there's so many scam call centers in India. The
| government will turn a blind eye until someone comes in with
| proof that raises a stink or if other international government
| agencies get involved.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| > There is a reason. Why there's so many scam call centers in
| India.
|
| According to a commenter on HN from a few months ago [1], the
| reason is a political division - the scam callcenters are in
| West Bengal, where the ruling political party turns a blind
| eye due to corruption and to provide annoyance towards the
| federal government ruled by the BJP.
|
| [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38968542
| whimsicalism wrote:
| If we angled more towards detente with China, they probably
| would - but why do they have any reason to crack down on crime
| targeting an 'adversary' state?
|
| The US hosts many Chinese criminal financiers and embezzlers
| that we have no intention of extraditing to China.
| kccqzy wrote:
| The police does in fact care about phones belonging to Chinese
| owners stolen in China. They couldn't care less about phones
| belonging to Americans stolen in America.
| chasil wrote:
| I would prefer to see Apple move more manufacturing to India,
| citing these theft centers as one of many reasons.
|
| Whatever country allows it should lose legitimate commerce as
| a consequence. My own included, if we are found to be guilty.
| kccqzy wrote:
| Doesn't solve the problem. The Chinese can still "recycle"
| phones manufactured in India.
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| Same with illicit fentanyl: sell it in China -> Death
| penalty, no mercy. Ship it off to America to be sold cheaply
| to addicts -> no problem.
| seoulmetro wrote:
| Much like the US or Europe? Yeah... money comes first.
| geraneum wrote:
| That "police" in "police state" is a different concept than the
| police you know of.
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| China simply isn't a police state.
|
| More to the point, it is authoritarian, but you also have
| things like prostitution going on in broad day light. The
| central and local governments have a very focused attention
| span, and if what bad thing you are doing is outside of that,
| they probably won't notice.
|
| Just don't sell/buy drugs, or get into fights when drunk.
| Fripplebubby wrote:
| Not from the article, but from the comments below it.
|
| > My phone was stolen while I was going through TSA security at
| JFK and the TSA guy must have been in on it because he wouldn't
| let me get it even though we were able to locate it using my
| husbands phone. When we used the find me app later we saw it was
| somewhere in Queens so definitely wasn't stolen by someone else
| flying that day.
|
| I had never heard of that happening before. Great, another thing
| to be anxious about at the airport. TSA does not pay very well,
| so I can understand the impulse.
| barnabask wrote:
| This is 11 years old but relevant:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLxsLbl16IM
| ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote:
| You understand the impulse to steal because a job doesn't pay
| well? I don't. I would understand the impulse to go back to
| school to develop a marketable skill, but not to use the force
| of the state to steal from people.
|
| Edit: Would you still find this behavior understandable if the
| TSA agent directly stole from passengers as their bags were
| scanned? What if the passenger in question ignored the
| collaborating-TSA-agent and moved to confront the thief; would
| you understand their behavior if they arrested the iPhone
| owner, you know, since they're underpaid. Would you accept the
| same behavior from a local NYPD beat cop? They aren't paid well
| when they first join the force, can they steal from random
| people too?
| Fripplebubby wrote:
| I don't accept or condone theft. That's an extreme position.
| But I do try to understand the way our flawed world works,
| instead of just wishing that people would see things the same
| way I do.
| joe5150 wrote:
| It seems willfully obtuse to read "understand the impulse" as
| "excuse the behavior" in this context.
| mmsc wrote:
| It happens often. Here's a new one with a video
| https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/miami/news/tsa-agents-accused-of...
| renewiltord wrote:
| Oh so _that 's_ why you have to push it through yourself
| these days. That way they don't touch the thing and so can't
| steal anything.
| imglorp wrote:
| So, what's the right procedure here? Is the dichotomy in the post
| true? a) remove from account and help the
| recycle crooks, or b) risk them crack it having your data
|
| Aren't there crack wares at this point in the wild?
| krackers wrote:
| If it's wiped then there's no data for them to get?
| ipython wrote:
| how did the thieves get the phone number of the author, then?
| is it on the lock screen when the phone is wiped, in order to
| facilitate its return?
| muffinman26 wrote:
| Presumably the phone hasn't actually been wiped, or wasn't
| when the crooks first got the phone number.
|
| Smart phones generally let you add an Emergency Contact
| number that anyone can use the phone to call/text without
| entering a password, in order to facilitate an honest
| person returning the phone or someone contacting your
| family if you are found incapacitated.
| ovalite wrote:
| From the comments, the author was contacted via iMessages
| from the iCloud email that shows up when it asks for a
| password.
| happyopossum wrote:
| It doesn't show the full email, it's got the middle of it
| **'d out. OP likely had a message set for lost mode.
| MadnessASAP wrote:
| That would seem to be the case, the device is wiped of any
| user data. Except for the lock, leaving the device as a
| useless brick / spare parts.
| happyopossum wrote:
| > is it on the lock screen when the phone is wiped, in
| order to facilitate its return?
|
| Yes - you can set a message when you put a device in 'lost
| mode' in order to facilitate it's return if it's truly lost
| and found by a decent human being.
| srockets wrote:
| There are, but they aren't cheap. For a recent iPhone, expect
| to pay a seven digits price.
| anyfoo wrote:
| I don't think b) is realistic at all. They're just using scare
| tactics.
|
| https://help.apple.com/pdf/security/en_US/apple-platform-sec...
| ugh123 wrote:
| Is there not a 3rd option for iphones to remotely wipe and
| brick further use?
| kccqzy wrote:
| The article says the author already performed a remote erase.
| There's no data recoverable.
| christkv wrote:
| Send them Tiananmen Square photos or messages about the CCP,
| anything that can trigger the great firewall. Thats what my
| friend did. They stopped messaging immediately.
| bnchrch wrote:
| Honestly. This is a pretty good advertisement for Apple.
|
| I appreciate the effort that they've put into making my device
| less valuable to thiefs.
| ChrisMarshallNY wrote:
| These days, it's not worth it to steal an iPhone. It's a
| useless brick.
|
| That Apple knows where it's at.
| kernal wrote:
| I disagree. There are a lot of uses for an iCloud locked
| iPhone, such as a music player, podcast player, security
| camera, etc.
|
| Edit: I should clarify that the embedded video clearly showed
| that a number of the iPhones she had were still able to be
| used. Perhaps the owner didn't or wasn't able to iCloud lock
| them, but that's what I originally meant.
| ms7m wrote:
| No, if an iPhone is iCloud locked, you're not able to use
| the phone unless you enter the password of the account.
| notatoad wrote:
| >if an iPhone is iCloud locked
|
| but that still leaves the possibility that it isn't
| locked, and therefore it is worth it for theives to steal
| it. Even just the chance that it's not locked would make
| it worth stealing.
| chuckadams wrote:
| None of these work when the device is marked as
| lost/stolen.
| acchow wrote:
| This isn't true. The iPhone is locked down over iCloud. I
| assume remote lockdown also works while the phone is turned
| off or on airplane mode (as Find My Phone does by using the
| passive Apple mesh network)
| makeworld wrote:
| Clearly this isn't true, as her phone got stolen.
| koito17 wrote:
| Yup. I assume there is plenty of value to be found selling
| donor boards and other parts of the iPhone. Not saying it's
| a repair shop's fault if they end up with motherboards of a
| stolen phone, but if I were a thief dealing with an
| activation-locked phone, my first idea would be a
| jailbreak, and if that fails, then disassemble the phone
| and sell the parts.
|
| Presumably thieves already do these things (and more
| sophisticated things) to extract value out of stolen
| iPhones.
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| You really have to be careful with third-party iPhone
| repairs, especially in China. I had my phone repaired
| once, and when I got it back...it kind of worked, but
| they swapped out another part for something that was
| broken to ensure repeat business. That was in the iPhone
| 1 days though.
| whimsicalism wrote:
| i see homeless people in SF disassembling iphones so clearly
| they have routed around this
| acchow wrote:
| It gets stripped down for parts. Many of the individual
| components are valuable
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| The higher value parts are locked down also.
|
| I wonder if that includes the screen or not? Is it possible
| to lock down an iPhone screen these days, or can you use it
| as a replacement for another iphone whose screen is busted?
| knodi123 wrote:
| > It's a useless brick
|
| Unless the owner falls for one of these texts, right? Isn't
| that the entire point of the linked article?
| r0m4n0 wrote:
| It's interesting though... it's still worth something to
| thieves, they still can recycle the screen, buttons, case etc.
| I've had my iPhone stolen in recent years too, people can't
| resist. Don't get me wrong, it does feel good to stick it to
| the perp but doesn't apple itself have the most to gain from
| locking most of the value away? The second hand market is
| completely gated by them. Broken FaceID? You need a new
| phone...
|
| This is a win win for Apple
| sosodev wrote:
| Aren't most of the parts tied to the motherboard?
| prmoustache wrote:
| Not so much if it allows the thief to cet contact info of the
| original owner.
| MyFedora wrote:
| No, they sell the parts if they can't get the phone unlocked.
| Even if the phone would be a worthless brick, a stolen phone is
| a phone that the owner will never get back. Fresh e-waste,
| straight into the landfill I guess. Is this sarcasm?
| golergka wrote:
| Parts are less valuable, which leads to lower level of theft
| overall.
| 123456atx wrote:
| this happened to me once in the mexico city airport ~2010. my
| broken macbook went missing in check baggage then a guy that was
| working at the airport messaged me on facebook 8 months later
| asking for the password. lol!
| KeplerBoy wrote:
| What information do thieves get from an erased iPhone and how did
| they contact the legitimate owner?
|
| Does it say something like "locked and linked to
| sarah96@icloud.com" or can it display custom messages like "owned
| by sarah xyz, please call +43..."?
|
| Could it possibly get you into situations where people can
| successfully threaten to physically harm you because your contact
| information doxxed you?
| pqdbr wrote:
| I assume they just eject the SIM card tray and get your phone
| number from the SIM by simply putting it into another phone.
| SirMaster wrote:
| This person seems to be from the USA and it's an iPhone 14
| Pro. The iPhone 14 Pro sold in the USA does not have a SIM
| card slot. It's eSIM only.
| dmitrygr wrote:
| By default you can set the "lost mode" message. many people put
| their contact info into it, in case someone wants to be
| helpful. This is how these scammers get this info. There is no
| other way to get the icloud contact info from a phone with a
| PIN/password.
| Hizonner wrote:
| What I'm seeing here is that Apple has a really shitty, poorly
| thought out design. To keep the phone useless to somebody who
| steals it, you have to keep it exposing your contact information
| so that people can threaten you.
| kelnos wrote:
| In the case that I lost my phone, though, instead of it being
| stolen, I really might want my contact info displayed on the
| lock screen so someone who finds it can get it back to me.
|
| Yes, I know, in many anti-social places in the world (like most
| US cities), it's much more likely that the phone was stolen, or
| that even in the lost-phone case, the person who finds it will
| be shitty and not try to return it. But in many (most?) other
| places people are generally honest and will try to return
| something that's lost.
|
| Then again, if you know that it was stolen, you should be able
| to keep the thief from getting your contact info.
| INTPenis wrote:
| Well this also applies if someone friendly finds your phone and
| wishes to return it. It's a catch 22 there.
| BeefySwain wrote:
| Return it to an Apple store? Apple knows who to contact.
| yreg wrote:
| Most countries, including mine or the ones I'm likely to
| travel to, don't have Apple Stores.
| mlyle wrote:
| If my phone gets stolen from my pocket in the US, the
| chance of it wandering to the third world and _then a
| Good Samaritan trying to give it back_ seem abysmal.
| spookie wrote:
| But what if you don't live in the US. You actually live
| in a "third world" country?
|
| These are the type of things that make it very hard for
| Apple to penetrate markets outside the US.
| filleduchaos wrote:
| And if there is no Apple Store around? There are entire
| _countries_ without those, and even more that only have a
| few total.
| pqdbr wrote:
| That's not my understanding of the situation at all.
|
| The journalist:
|
| - Marked the phone as lost;
|
| - Wiped all data;
|
| FTA: _As quickly as possible, I did all the things you're
| supposed to do when your phone is lost or stolen --- mark it as
| lost, cut off service, and remotely erase it_
|
| She did not, however, remove (delete) that iPhone from her
| iCloud account, which means that the iPhone can't be factory
| reset by the thieves because "FindMy" is still activated.
|
| FTA: _As long as I didn't remove the phone from my Apple
| account or the Find My app, the phone was essentially bricked
| to anyone without the passcode and my iCloud password_
|
| The iPhone did not, at any time, leak any personal information.
| What probably happened is that she had a SIM card on it, and
| from ejecting the tray and putting the SIM into another phone
| they managed to get her phone number, from which they started
| contacting her with the threats/scams.
|
| I think this wouldn't even be possible with a e-SIM in the
| newer iPhone models.
| TheDudeMan wrote:
| Thanks for this informative post. I was a little confused as
| well.
|
| Right, now we have e-SIMs. So what was the reason for
| physical SIMs in the first place?
| gbuk2013 wrote:
| She actually answered this in one of the comment threads on
| the article: when accessing the phone it will prompt you to
| enter the password for the Apple ID which happened to be her
| email address which happens to be able to receive iMessages.
| https://www.openweb.com/share/2hQferBhnDlJgGo4oE9Nv6wGjAX
| happyopossum wrote:
| She's wrong - the activation prompt ***'s out most of the
| email address. She likely had an emergency contact or 'lost
| mode' message on the device. The latter would still be
| present if remote wiped.
| kderbe wrote:
| iPhone 14's sold in the US do not have a SIM tray. They are
| eSIM only.
| gabolaev wrote:
| How exactly can they get the phone number though? The only
| thing I can think of is if there was an unlocked (no PIN)
| physical SIM-card, and they could just insert it into another
| phone.
|
| And yes, e-SIM solves this problem.
| neaden wrote:
| I think in this instance they got the email associated with
| the iCloud and messaged her on that.
|
| Edit: she replied to a comment on the article: "when trying
| to reset my phone they are prompted to enter my iCloud
| password. My iCloud email is also one of the ways to reach me
| via iMessage. So they used that to contact me"
| bri3d wrote:
| The Lock Screen displays what you ask it to. When you mark a
| phone as Lost or perform a Remote Erase, you can push down your
| contact data if you'd like (ie - if you think a "friendly"
| found the phone and you want it back), or you can elect to type
| nothing, an offensive message, etc. Likewise for the "Medical
| ID" feature (which is also available with the phone locked) -
| you can elect to display lots of details, some details, or no
| details at all.
| uptown wrote:
| From the article comments:
|
| "when trying to reset my phone they are prompted to enter my
| iCloud password. My iCloud email is also one of the ways to
| reach me via iMessage. So they used that to contact me"
| blackhaj7 wrote:
| Is it true that if you remove it from Find My iPhone then they
| are able to unlock it?
|
| I didn't see any warnings of this when I erased my phone after I
| recently lost it (and someone found it but decided to keep it)
| dmitrygr wrote:
| > Is it true that if you remove it from Find My iPhone then
| they are able to unlock it?
|
| Yes, as long as it is in your account, nobody can activate it.
| When you remove it, it can be activated by someone.
| bri3d wrote:
| The Activation Lock remains if you use Remote Erase - all
| documented on Apple's site: https://support.apple.com/en-
| us/108794
|
| Only Remove Device specifically deactivates Activation Lock.
| titanomachy wrote:
| Yeah, when I sold my old iPhone I wiped it and removed it from
| my account so that the new owner could use it. The site I was
| selling on warned me multiple times that it would be unusable
| without that step.
| valleyjo wrote:
| This happened to my sister. She got her phone stolen at a bar in
| Austin. They've tried to phish her multiple times and now it's
| gotten to intimidation texts where they are threatening physical
| and sexual violence to her unless she unlocks the phone. She put
| it in lost mode right away and due to my assurance she knows she
| is safe but honestly it does make you kind of just want to unlock
| and get the nightmare over with.
|
| She has tracked the iPhone via find my through a few us cities
| and finally it's in China.
| writeslowly wrote:
| This seems like a lot of work for one (or two, once it got to
| China) people repeatedly trying to get into the phone. I wonder
| if this is like debt collection agencies where the stolen phones
| get repeatedly fenced at a steadily decreasing value, and each
| new owner has a go at sending out these unlock copypastes until
| it's clear that it's only value is in being scrapped.
| AndroTux wrote:
| Doesn't seem like a lot of work to me. Sending out that message
| takes a few minutes, and I would assume that most people would
| simply cave in and delete it. It's gone anyways, so they don't
| really lose much, and being threatened does things to people.
| uptown wrote:
| Yeah but flying Miami back to the US to murder their whole
| family does seem like a lot of effort.
| writeslowly wrote:
| It stood out to me that after the initial text, they followed
| up two weeks later, and then once per day after that over a
| few days from different numbers. I would have expected to see
| someone send out a few threatening messages on one day and
| then move on to the next stolen phone when it was clear they
| weren't getting anything.
| dmitrygr wrote:
| And _THIS_ is why i support parts pairing. 3 years ago, the LCD
| and battery could be resold making this worth it. This year -
| nope. I dream of a world where even the little screws that hold
| my iPhone together are parts-paired so stealing it costs more in
| effort than the possible $ recovered from it!
| ahmeneeroe-v2 wrote:
| Agreed. Anti-theft is a higher priority for me than
| repairability.
| BizarroLand wrote:
| I value autonomy more. I'm not someone interesting enough to
| observe, but I still want my privacy. I'm not so poor as that
| I have to take whatever I can get, but I still want to own
| what I buy, and have the freedom to do anything with it,
| including crimes if I so choose.
|
| I won't commit crimes, and if I do I will pay the price, but
| I don't want a nanny to prevent me from doing precrimes that
| I would not have done in the first place.
|
| I am not a mindless sheep, I require no societal shepherd.
|
| All of that was said to say, I want the devices I purchase to
| be repairable by anyone that I deem worthy of repairing it,
| including myself.
| mqus wrote:
| fine, pair the parts, but also: let the owners unpair them,
| same as you can lock/unlock your phone. Voila! both
| repairability and anti-theft gained!
|
| Pairing is just anti-repair atm.
|
| if you want to know how: put the part ids (which are used for
| pairing) into the apple id account and verify them when
| switching on the phone.
| mqus wrote:
| just noticed: re-pair-ability is basically all we want (pun
| intended)
| oynqr wrote:
| The part pairing isn't the problem, it's that you can't unpair
| parts. Creating a secure unpair process would not be beyond
| Apple's capabilities.
| yreg wrote:
| Yes, it would be great to have the best of both worlds.
| happyopossum wrote:
| End-to-End Encryption isn't the problem, it's that you can't
| intercept when needed (by the government only of course).
| Creating a secure intercept process would not be beyond
| Apple's capabilities.
| asveikau wrote:
| The world you describe is much worse for the environment.
| Havoc wrote:
| >it was in an office building conveniently located around the
| corner from an Adidas store
|
| lol no.
|
| That location is the Huaqiangbei electronics market - one of the
| largest electronics markets in the world w/ a thriving 2nd hand
| parts ecosystem.
| zer00eyz wrote:
| So as I understand it, all of the "parts" are mostly worthless
| because they wont just work in another iPhone.
|
| How do you maintain this functionality and give the "right to
| repair"? I would assume that it's possible but would add a fair
| bit of cost to devices (not that someone like apple cant bear
| said costs)... But IM just guessing on that front as I have
| zero experience with hardware locking.
| bmicraft wrote:
| Easy, only allow components that aren't currently registered
| to someone elses iCloud account (read: stolen)
| chemmail wrote:
| Most parts will indeed work. It will just show "unkown part"
| in the settings. The main thing that is really paired is the
| front camera for faceID. Also changing the screen without the
| original paired chip makes you lose autobrightness and
| truetone which is need to get to MAX brightness on 14 and up.
| Havoc wrote:
| The high value parts are locked down so yeah the options for
| stripping iphones have become more limited & thus backyard
| iphone recycling operations decreased.
|
| Unsure whether anyone has found a way past the apple
| locks...not to my knowledge.
|
| >cost
|
| I don't think cost even factors into any of this at apple
| margins. What does is that repairability affects things that
| matter to the consumer: Size, weight, thinness, feel, lack of
| exposed screws etc. Compromising on repairability makes all
| those easier
| seanmcdirmid wrote:
| Those e-markets are filled with adjacent buildings where the
| market spills over, so it very well could be near but in a
| building that has an Adidas store.
|
| The glory days of the e-markets are almost over though, the one
| in Zhongguancun is much smaller than it used to be, but you
| still need to know the right building to go into to get your
| old X-box or Wii unlocked.
| localfirst wrote:
| long time ago i had my samsung galaxy stolen
|
| ive not reported as stolen because my carrier said i needed proof
| of the receipt (which i lost years ago)
|
| its such a crappy experience i dont wish it on anyone. Samsung
| has been next to useless in finding it.
|
| having said that this article makes me glad I bought an Apple
|
| just wish they'd kept the hardware touch button on the non-SE
| phones and back button.
|
| this is the first iPhone for me but i keep searching for the
| "alt+tab" and back button. it was ridiculously hard to switch
| between apps (have to physically press the touch button twice
| which makes me lose grip on teh phone).
|
| honestly its so close to being perfect but the iPhone has some
| obvious interface flaws coming from Android
| hahamaster wrote:
| You're just used to Android. It's hard to put buttons on a
| phone that's nearly all screen.
| borbtactics wrote:
| >"hackers" might "contact my family" to, what, send them
| thousands of photos of my dog??
|
| I'm confused. The attacker doesn't have access to the author's
| photos or family contacts, right?
| FrancoisBosun wrote:
| They don't. They're using another phone and texting the
| original owner, threatening them, in order to scare them into
| unlocking the device.
|
| When you boot the "Lost" phone, it asks for the password of the
| owner's iCloud account. There is probably an information leak
| where the original email or phone is presented and the thief
| can track the original owner through that.
| evanjd wrote:
| The original iCloud email address is partially obfuscated
| "eg. e***@icloud.com", so it's unlikely to be useful.
|
| For this, they're most likely reading the phone number from
| the physical SIM card left in the device.
| blackeyeblitzar wrote:
| While sort of funny, it is also crazy and disappointing the
| extent to which these scammers go. It's not fun receiving death
| threats and having that stress over you. I wish we had more the
| law could do in bringing these criminals to justice.
| pingou wrote:
| If that isn't already the case, Apple should warn you when you
| put your phone in lost mode that the robbers may contact you to
| get you to remove it from your iCloud account, and to never do
| it.
|
| Or add a big warning when trying to remove a device previously
| put in lost mode.
| notatoad wrote:
| Is there a good reason why you might want to remove an iPhone
| marked as lost from your iCloud account? It seems like
| something that should just not be possible.
| pkulak wrote:
| Maybe you don't want some random phone in China clogging up
| your map until you die? I could see wanting to get rid of it.
| Be nice if you could hide it or something. Maybe a button to
| brick it out of spite and be done with it forever.
| throw310822 wrote:
| Actually, they should have tried with "ignore all previous
| instructions".
| blamazon wrote:
| > Apple's own "helpful" iMessage feature was sort of fooled: the
| auto-filled contact name said "Maybe: Apple Pay." Maybe!
|
| This seems problematic? In article screenshot shows that it
| pulled in a misleading contact photo as well. I know they also
| have a separate UI color scheme for business messaging that is
| meant to address phishing and trust but perhaps they should not
| auto suggest contacts containing the word Apple.
| Zefiroj wrote:
| Ostensibly huaqiangbei has a few ways of getting around the
| activation lock.
|
| But a more common scenario is the phone gets used for parts. As
| for the icloud account. AFAIK you used to be able to get the full
| account email with GSX. Not sure about now.
| chemmail wrote:
| iCloud removal seems extra hard nowadays. I gave my dad a new
| ipad and took his old one and signed out of his account and put
| mine instead. A few months later i had it sitting dead and turned
| it back on a million icloud login messages popped up with his
| account then mine then his a bunch of times. His account was back
| on! I took it back to him to try and remove it from his phone and
| it took a lot of tries. I think the end combo i had to wipe the
| ipad and then it appeared back on his icloud list and remove it
| again. Something similar happened to another friend who i was
| trying to repair.
| 1024core wrote:
| How did they get her number, to message her?
| bachmeier wrote:
| Seems that stealing a phone with the wrong information on it
| would be a good way to end up at the bottom of a river.
|
| > watching my phone move around Manhattan before it finally
| stopped at Rockefeller Center. I didn't bother confronting the
| thief.
|
| Sure, this person didn't confront them, and most probably
| wouldn't. The one out of a thousand that does might not be
| messing around.
| happyopossum wrote:
| The author claims in a comment that the scammer was able to
| contact her because Apple leaked her email address with the
| activation prompt. That's not likely, as that prompt **'s out
| most of the email address (you get the first letter of the part
| before the @).
|
| She most likely had a 'lost mode' message set for the device.
| catlikesshrimp wrote:
| It wasn't even an Iphone 15. It's an iphone 14 in March. I doubt
| a citizen in a first world country can become a target of an
| international cartel for $1000 at most.
|
| Not /s: Imagine the logistics and the cost of opportunity
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