[ruthmarx]

Are thieves really even stealing phones anymore? You can't pawn or sell them anymore because they can't just be reset and setup with a new account, batteries are becoming impossible to remove...all you can really take is the screen which isn't really worth much either.

[Eisenstein]

Yes. The part them out in China:

* https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/1co38zn/stolen_ipho...

* https://www.thetimes.com/uk/society/article/how-your-stolen-...

* https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13757041/Chinese-ci...

[tedunangst]

https://abc7ny.com/amp/crime-spree-phones-stolen-nyc-migrant...

[ruthmarx]

So they've given up on hardware and are now looking for insecure phones to try and access banking apps. Interesting.

[hunter2_]

> can't just be reset and setup with a new account

I know mobile networks keep lists of stolen devices, but they can't be used at all? Like all possible recovery modes demand authentication?

[sbierwagen]

Apple calls this Activation Lock: https://support.apple.com/en-us/108794 https://support.apple.com/en-us/120610

Obviously, the logic board is locked to the owner's Apple account, but so is the display, battery, camera, and selfie camera. Basically the only thing you can reuse is the metal frame of the phone.

Phones are still stolen (since the cost of theft is $0) but stolen phones are worth closer to $5 than $1000.

[avidiax]

> Phones are still stolen (since the cost of theft is $0) but stolen phones are worth closer to $5 than $1000.

I have read that there are services offered by specialized criminals to unlock stolen iPhones. These basically amount to phishing schemes where they trick the owner into entering their apple ID and password on a site under their control.

They can then factory reset the iPhone, but they also get to mine the phone/account for crypto, banking details, identity theft, etc.

Potentially the value of a stolen iPhone can be more than the aftermarket price, since draining a bank account has unbounded gain.

Low level thieves are getting $300-$600 for stolen phones.

https://abc7ny.com/amp/crime-spree-phones-stolen-nyc-migrant...

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253640344?sortBy=rank

[ruthmarx]

> I know mobile networks keep lists of stolen devices, but they can't be used at all? Like all possible recovery modes demand authentication?

Newer phones for, I want to say maybe the last 5 years, yeah.

If it's turned off and you don't have the code to boot it, you can't access any kind of bootloader or recovery mode, it just shows a screen with an obfuscated email that is required to unlock it or something similar.

Gone are the days of just being able to do a factory reset.

[sroussey]

True, but my iPhone 15 Pro was stolen, powered down, and likely ended up in china for parts.

[burnerthrow008]

> Are thieves really even stealing phones anymore?

Why do you think iFixit and collaborators are so opposed to serialization of iPhone parts?