Thieves return Android phone when they realize it’s not an iPhone::A man in Washington, D.C. last month was the victim of an armed robbery in which the thieves stole “everything…
This isn’t the case anymore. Starting sometime back you can’t just reset android and set it up from scratch. It needs the pin and/or account that was on it prewipe. They are still likely good for parts but it’s pointless to steal newer smart phones.
Both Apple’s and Google’s activation locks are actively being bypassed though. It’s probably not being done by a run-of-the-mill thief, but it can be done, if not for a price.
True. But the average idiot stealing a phone to feed a habit isn’t going to be able to bypass it. Of course those being stolen by order of a larger group can do it. But these locks severely reduced the number of opportunity thefts.
Thieves sell to fences who know how to sell stolen items for maximum profit.
If it were being bypassed the tool would be available online. What tool is used to bypass Apple activation lock on the latest OS?
There was a blog post here recently where a repair technician with his own shop was trying to contact Apple about reportedly stolen iphones being reactivated and resold and it undermining his business. They then found more and in one case it was a rogue Apple employee doing the activations, and in another it was software tools they found and send to Apple, which got ignored for more than half a year.
I can’t seem to find the original article but here’s Louis Rossman explaining the same thing. The argument boils down to the fact that Apple doesn’t care, more iphones means more people with wallets attached to them.
Also, it wouldn’t necessarily be public knowledge on exactly how it’s done, otherwise 1 Apple would try to fix the issue or 2 there’s money to be made in selling the service.
Edit: typo
