GoKawiilThere’s been an epidemic in the past few years of iPhone thieves using scooters and electric bikes to snatch devices from the hands of their owners while they’re walking down the street.
The reason this is the method of choice for thieves is because it enables them to grab an unlocked iPhone, which can be worth $800 more to them than a locked one …
Industrial-scale phone snatching
A report last year said that the use of stolen scooters and e-bikes to snatch phones on the streets had reached an “industrial scale.” One Met Police crackdown in London saw 230 people arrested and more than a thousand phones recovered in the space of just one week.
Part of the problem was that safety concerns had initially led police to discontinue pursuits when the risks to the thieves was considered too high. In the UK, a decision was taken to reverse this position and to allow officers to use “tactical contact” to knock them off their bikes.
Unlocked iPhones worth up to $800 more
A Wired report says that unlocked phones attract a very substantial premium because they facilitate access to data and financial accounts. Although banking and other financial apps should require Face ID or a passcode to access, phishing attempts can be made in order to obtain logins.
“Phone thieves don’t just want the handset—they want access to bank accounts and personal information,” says Will Lyne, the head of economic and cybercrime at London’s Metropolitan Police. Lyne highlights one case of four men who had been caught handling more than 5,000 stolen phones and spending money from financial accounts on the devices. Dan Guido, the CEO and cofounder of security firm Trail of Bits and a strategic adviser to mobile security firm iVerify, says a stolen phone may only be worth $50 to $200 when it is locked. “But if you unlock it, it’s worth $500, or it’s worth $1,000.”
One law enforcement professional had their iPhone stolen and they received a phishing message which mimicked the Apple Find My page and asked for the phone’s passcode. When someone falls for this, it allows the buyer of a stolen iPhone to remove Activation Lock and sell it as a working device.
The illegal trade is assisted by sophisticated phishing software sold on a pay-per-use model.
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