[stavros]

Phones aren't stolen for the phone, they're stolen because carriers enable the theft. There's a reason why thieves now cycle around on e-bikes and grab the phone from your hand, and the reason is premium rate phone numbers and shortcodes. They want the phone unlocked because they start texting as many SMS shortcodes (that they control) as they can, siphoning thousands of dollars worth of purchases off you.

If you make the mistake of not notifying the carrier immediately, which you won't think to do because everyone thinks the phone was stolen for the phone itself, you're on the hook for the charges.

Carriers know that no legitimate users use (or even know of) shortcodes, yet they have them enabled by default on all plans, exactly because they take a cut from this theft and they can turn a blind eye to it by pretending the charges are consensual.

[rkomorn]

I didn't know about this and it sounds interesting, so I've been trying to google how shortcodes can lead to theft as you describe and I think I just don't have the right terms for it because I'm getting results that match my terms but not the topic.

Any chance you'd have article links?

[gmokki]

I think he was trying to say that phone theft can benefit the same way as credit card theft. The thief uses the phone to buy stuff before the user reports it stolen. In this case the stuff that is bought is mobile services that are billed for example 100€ for each SMS message. The victims mobile subscription plan gets the bill and the associates of the thief get the money.

[stavros]

Yes, exactly, and the mobile operator takes a cut. I'm afraid I don't have references, I know this because it happened to a friend of mine.

[rkomorn]

Right. I guess the thing is I don't know how one spends 100s on SMS messages.

I guess that also means you either need the SIM card or an unlocked phone?

[stavros]

Premium SMS messages (to a thief-controlled destination) cost 2-3 (or whatever) each, and they send hundreds of SMS messages as soon as they can.

Yes, they need an unlocked phone, that's why they grab the phone while you're using it.

Android recently added protection to auto-lock if it detects sudden acceleration.

[rkomorn]

Ah, makes sense. Thanks!