Submitted 11 months ago by L4s@lemmy.world [bot] to technology@lemmy.world
https://9to5mac.com/2023/12/04/stolen-android-phone-returned-iphone/
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…
Site is 9to5mac. Did people seriously expected objective reporting? Yes, we stole a device with less inflated retail price. Oh gosh whatever should we do… I know lets go back and incriminate ourselves even more.
A new good reason to avoid iphone /s
Once my Sailfish OS phone has been stolen, sadly they didn’t bring it back but I’ve always wondered how it looked like when they tried to sell it.
Ouch! Did you manage to purchase a replacement? The last time I checked out Sailfish it supported older xperias that can be a bit difficult to get a hold of…
I took it as a sign from god to go back to Android …
Probably gutted for parts.
Very likely they just gutted it or threw it away.
Apple advertisement department in stealthy mode
So the way these thieves work most of the time, they don’t know what to do with stolen items or how to liquidate them, so they’ll sell everything that they have to a bit more sophisticated criminal who knows how to liquidate stolen items and knows buyers of everything. Ideally when they steal a phone they don’t care what phone it is, they’ll sell it to their middleman, middleman will pay probably pennies on the dollar since it’s not an iPhone and street level thief wouldn know it’s value, middleman will probably sell it to someone that will gut it and take components out.
When I read the headline I honestly thought this was going to be an article from the onion.
When they take my phone:
"Bro what the- GraphWHAT?! The fuck is this shit?!*
All the more reason to not buy apple then!
My phone isn’t a rolex.
I’m just surprised they took the time to check before getting the hell out of there. Perhaps not the sharpest knives in the drawer, these thieves.
Possibly they have the knowledge/understanding to disable and erase iPhone but not an Android and don’t want to be tracked.
Or their middleman they sell to only takes iPhones
Beggars can’t be choosers, but thieves can be
Well I’m very happy with my degoogled OnePlus 5. And I’m glad this person got their phone back so easily
soulfirethewolf@lemdro.id 11 months ago
That’s actually interesting since an android is probably a lot easier to sell off than an iPhone given activation lock
lemann@lemmy.one 11 months ago
If you plan on running Google services, it won’t let you reset because of FRP…
In the unlikely event that the thief managed to bypass FRP, it will be reinstated by GMS as soon as there’s a network connection, assuming the IMEI or Android device ID haven’t been spoofed (either of these on a Samsung would trip the Knox hardware fuse and disable a lot of features, making the device worthless to anyone who isn’t a power user)
On my older Fairphone though I think there’s some documentation on how to bypass FRP, but you need to get authorization from Google for your specific device on your specific account otherwise GMS will not work
antizero99@lemmynsfw.com 11 months ago
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.
kernelle@0d.gs 11 months ago
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.