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My wife had her phone stolen recently, in Highbury and Islington tube station. Nothing to be done, by the time she noticed it gone, it was too late. However sin

My wife had her phone stolen recently, in Highbury and Islington tube station. Nothing to be done, by the time she noticed it gone, it was too late. However since then, she's been getting messages from the perps that appears like a message from Apple, with a link that takes you to a surprisingly convincing site, that then asks you to enter your pin. It's clear that not everyone falls for this sort of ploy, but enough do to make it worth the thief's time to steal it, and sell it for parts otherwise. There are a lot of moving parts to this sort of crime- Apple don't make it easy for you to profit from a locked iPhone, and Android probably don't either. Someone able to write and maintain a convincing-looking website and forward recorded data, someone to take the phone, someone to manage the operation etc etc. Finding out who is stealing the phones would be very helpful in stopping this sort of thing from happening, by cracking the organisations involved. I get the privacy arguments, but if this does actually help stop thieves, on balance I'm in favour.

fakedang 3y ago
>I get the privacy arguments, but if this does actually help stop thieves, on balance I'm in favour. News check, it doesn't. London Met has faced severe cuts over the past decade, it's focusing the core team on major crimes, while hiring a volunteer force for the petty stuff like these. The volunteer force can't be arsed to fight a fly, much less catch a gang of pickpockets.
- blipvert 3y ago
  News check, the Met doesn’t police the underground - that’s the job of the British Transport Police, a completely different force.
- multjoy 3y ago
  >while hiring a volunteer force Nonsense. If you’re talking about specials then they have been kicking about since the late 1800s.
  - fakedang 3y ago
    The proportion of duties allocated to the volunteer force has increased much more than what it used to be back then. I don't mind having the volunteers for duties such as traffic assistance and the like. But right now, it looks like a return to the Bow Street runners era is inevitable.
jrm4 3y ago
If the people were collectively serious about stolen cell phones, the only solution that remotely makes sense is to lean on APPLE et al. The things are nearly perfect tracking devices. It's absurd to not understand that Apple et al could easily (from a technical sense) eliminate cell phone theft.
- nebula8804 3y ago
  Well they are trying arent they? 1. Locking phone with "find my" enabled so they can't be reset without enterring your passcode/password. 2. Pairing components to the phone so the phones physically cant be stripped down and components resold. 3. Recently adding a feature to allow you to require touchid/faceid to wipe the phone to prevent a situation where the phone and pin code/password is stolen. What else should they do?
  - andylynch 3y ago
    Not much, especially since much of this makes repair etc more difficult. Although maybe they could force iPhone in lost mode to loudly and constantly announce they miss their human, like a lost dog?
    - nebula8804 3y ago
      >It's absurd to not understand that Apple et al could easily (from a technical sense) eliminate cell phone theft. I think the option to make the lost iphone make noise is there in the "find my" menu. So if you have another Apple device like a mac, watch, ipad etc. you can locate it using the airtag network (ie. not requiring cell service), have it make noise, or remote wipe it.
  - jrm4 3y ago
    Start with... Once a phone is reported lost or stolen, have it record everything and post that somewhere. To the cops would be nice, but also might be overwhelm them. No problem, make a subreddit or something and post everything there, etc. Now I may be missing something from the above, but whatever I havent thought of, I'm certain Apple could. I'm certain Apple could come up with a protocol that would make a stolen iPhone 100% useless, to the point that it would be a near perfect deterrent and thefts would go to basically zero. But I'm also certain that Apple will not do that because $$$$$.
pixxel 3y ago
> I get the privacy arguments, but if this does actually help stop thieves, on balance I'm in favour Or adjust how one carries their phone/belongings in super busy high theft areas. I bet your wife is now going to act accordingly. Better this than offloading awareness to more intrusive government surveillance.

fakedang 3y ago

>I get the privacy arguments, but if this does actually help stop thieves, on balance I'm in favour. News check, it doesn't. London Met has faced severe cuts over the past decade, it's focusing the core team on major crimes, while hiring a volunteer force for the petty stuff like these. The volunteer force can't be arsed to fight a fly, much less catch a gang of pickpockets.

blipvert 3y ago
News check, the Met doesn’t police the underground - that’s the job of the British Transport Police, a completely different force.
multjoy 3y ago
>while hiring a volunteer force Nonsense. If you’re talking about specials then they have been kicking about since the late 1800s.
- fakedang 3y ago
  The proportion of duties allocated to the volunteer force has increased much more than what it used to be back then. I don't mind having the volunteers for duties such as traffic assistance and the like. But right now, it looks like a return to the Bow Street runners era is inevitable.

jrm4 3y ago

If the people were collectively serious about stolen cell phones, the only solution that remotely makes sense is to lean on APPLE et al. The things are nearly perfect tracking devices. It's absurd to not understand that Apple et al could easily (from a technical sense) eliminate cell phone theft.

nebula8804 3y ago
Well they are trying arent they? 1. Locking phone with "find my" enabled so they can't be reset without enterring your passcode/password. 2. Pairing components to the phone so the phones physically cant be stripped down and components resold. 3. Recently adding a feature to allow you to require touchid/faceid to wipe the phone to prevent a situation where the phone and pin code/password is stolen. What else should they do?
- andylynch 3y ago
  Not much, especially since much of this makes repair etc more difficult. Although maybe they could force iPhone in lost mode to loudly and constantly announce they miss their human, like a lost dog?
  - nebula8804 3y ago
    >It's absurd to not understand that Apple et al could easily (from a technical sense) eliminate cell phone theft. I think the option to make the lost iphone make noise is there in the "find my" menu. So if you have another Apple device like a mac, watch, ipad etc. you can locate it using the airtag network (ie. not requiring cell service), have it make noise, or remote wipe it.
- jrm4 3y ago
  Start with... Once a phone is reported lost or stolen, have it record everything and post that somewhere. To the cops would be nice, but also might be overwhelm them. No problem, make a subreddit or something and post everything there, etc. Now I may be missing something from the above, but whatever I havent thought of, I'm certain Apple could. I'm certain Apple could come up with a protocol that would make a stolen iPhone 100% useless, to the point that it would be a near perfect deterrent and thefts would go to basically zero. But I'm also certain that Apple will not do that because $$$$$.

pixxel 3y ago

> I get the privacy arguments, but if this does actually help stop thieves, on balance I'm in favour Or adjust how one carries their phone/belongings in super busy high theft areas. I bet your wife is now going to act accordingly. Better this than offloading awareness to more intrusive government surveillance.