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Fighting the iCrime Wave
theodp writes "'What's the point of a mobile device,' asks WSJ reporter and iPad-beatdown-victim Rolfe Winkler, 'if people don't feel safe using it while they're mobile?' A lucrative secondhand market for today's electronics devices — a used iPad or iPhone can fetch $400+ — has produced an explosion in 'Apple picking' by thieves. So, how big is the iCrime wave? In New York City alone, there were more than 26,000 incidents of electronics theft in the first 10 months of 2011 — 81% involving mobile phones — according to an internal NYPD document. And plenty of the crimes are violent. The best way to deter theft is to reduce the value of stolen device — the wireless industry is moving to adopt a national registry that would deny service to such devices. A remote kill switch has been discussed as another approach. For its part, Apple says the company 'has led the industry in helping customers protect their lost or stolen devices,' although some are unimpressed."
a kill switch be used to brick the phones of dissidents?
Perhaps you should not live in some city where getting beat up over your iPad is something you need to worry about. You'll have to pardon me that I'm not giving a shit that you got mugged in NYC, its kind of expected.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
I'm posting AC for good reason :P But i recently got a "second hand" ipad from a shady friend. Only reason i got it was cause the money wasnt going to apple and it was cheaper then the Nexus 7 i was planning on buying. Gotta say kids love it. Also i made sure it was never registered with that pesky find my ipad/iphone app shit before i bought it.
Crime pays apple. The owners of a stolen iToy replace it with another. This is not a problem for Apple in any way. It would be very simple for Apple to offer an opt-in DRM solution, part of their DRM walled garden thing, that lets you register your phone, and then requires you to offer an id when replacing the device under warranty. Similarly, if you fax a police report for the stolen phone with your phone number, presto, not a phone anymore, and not an iToy until jailbroken. Given that they already stalk you, what's the loss?
It's simple enough for carries to identify what a phone's IMEI is and not allow it on their network if it's reported lost or stolen. That would stop most cell phone theft.
I'm sure there are many apps out there that offer remote locking, GPS-tracking, and other features. I have Prey installed on my Nexus S, it can report GPS-location, access point names, network structure, etc, display messages, change the lock method, sound an alarm, maybe even wipe the phone, all with a single SMS or web interface setting.
This is the only one I know (luckily, I never had to activate it, though), but a quick search of the Android market reveals 1000+ results for anti-theft, I'm sure the App Store has a similar number of hits.
So there's no need for such a registry (although it wouldn't hurt either), people just need to prepare for the worst, and install such an app in time.
I'm not exactly sure if the SMS-activation would work on an iPad, though. Are they capable of receiving SMS, or only 3/4G?
Hyperbole: I use it liberally!
It's just another form of enforced wealth redistribution.
than the crooks.
chances are, you have encountered cops much more than you have encountered crooks.
and more and more, you hear of traffic stops and other police actions where they demand to 'peek' thru your personal goods, even ones that are password protected.
you can try to fight back against a crook if he wrongs you. you can't fight the cops. if they demand your phone and want to peruse thru it, you cannot refuse. its a big problem and many of us refuse to carry our personal info around with us, so easily tapped into by blue thugs!
Doing so is listed on the Dept. of Homeland Security's "suspicious potential terrorist" activities. If you see it, you're supposed to "say it" to the DHS.
My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
I don't leave my valuables in a place where they can be lifted, or they're locked up nightly.
People should be carrying a gun to prevent mugging. A criminal's life though is quite honestly, not worth the 30 cent bullet for my .45 caliber handgun.
Really Apple is the only major manufacturer who has provided me no-cost full disk encryption, location tracking, remote lock, and remote wipe capabilities out of the box for my phone, tablet, and laptop. Others have the option but it's purchased with a time limited service like LoJack or Computrace... and even then, the device support is limited.
It's unfortunate that they don't take a hardline with thieves and serial numbers of devices reported stolen. You remove the ability for an iPhone to activate and the device is useless to the thief.
One for stealing and one for using.
This is a good example of "cost based" business versus "value based" business.
The "cost based" carriers see a stolen phone as more income - the thief will use it to make calls on the owner's account, and the carrier will see this as more money. So long as stonewalling/ignoring is more lucrative than the effort it takes to fix the subscriber's problem, that's what the carrier will do.
(cf Cramming, which is another "cost based" practice.)
In a "value based" model, being able to disable a phone, or tell the owner where it is, or even working with law enforcement to recover lost phones would be a value and a benefit to the customer. Unfortunately, this would require work on the part of the carrier with no obvious gain in revenue.
(One would also expect that having the location of stolen goods and probable cause to enter and look around would be of enormous social value, but for some reason police don't see it that way. Few police will bother to recover a stolen phone, even if they know where it is.)
In times past the primary purpose of a business was "get and keep a customer". Nowadays it's "make money in any way possible".
Can't say I have sympathy for that twit who wrote that article who got the shit kicked out of him by these scumbags. He didn't HAVE to chase them, and obviously lacked common sense -- the average person challenges professional criminals at his peril. You never, ever know if the guy you're chasing is some crackhead who'll put a screwdriver through your temple.
It's only stuff. Stuff can be replaced. Lives and limbs cannot.
I was just wondering about this today -- if my Android phone got stolen, what do I do? Call up, ummm, Android and have them tell the police the exact phone coordinates and the police waltz over and get it, presumably using a tracking app on their own Android devices?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Because I would totally kill for an iPhone 5
For nearly a decade, my neighborhood has seen people getting mugged for their iPhones almost nightly.
Basically: there's a public housing complex 2-3 stops up the line. Our neighborhood has a lot of affluent 20-30 year old professionals, grad students, etc.
Guess what? People who think the world Owes Them like an easy commute just as much as you do. They jump off the subway, walk up and down the street until they find someone, mug them, and run off - usually back onto the subway, or get picked up by a buddy a block or two over. In the time it takes to even find someone to call 911 for you, they could have walked several blocks and are effectively gone.
Apple is unique in that their devices are managed heavily by iTunes and their online systems. A blacklist could be implemented within months - Apple has plenty of inhouse resources to make it happen. They'd rather sell you a new phone - every theft is a new sale.
Please help metamoderate.
During the London riots last year (known amongst the police here as the "retail riots", for obvious reasons), the two safest places to be in London was either a Muslim area (because the rioters didn't want to pick on anybody who would fight back) -- and bookstores.
It's obvious. The criminals saw a collapse in law and order, and got the stuff they wanted -- sportswear, consumer electronics, anything desirable by the underclasses, and/or fenceable.
The funny thing is, Foot Locker and friends actually loved it. Their stuff is seen as desirable by gangstas and gangsta-wannabes, and being robbed in the riots added to their cachet and street credibility. People want their stuff badly enough to steal it. Much the same as how Nike actually loved it back in the day when kids were getting their heads blown off by muggers for their Nike Air Pumps. The retailers themselves didn't care -- they were insured, and got special help from the government and banks in any case.
Apple also benefit greatly when people get violently mugged for their stuff, so they have no incentive to do something about it. They win in many ways:
* They get cachet and marketing power by selling stuff that people consider worth stealing and robbing for. Apple get free publicity every time an iCrime story hits the news.
* They sell extra stuff to replace what's stolen
* Their carrier partners benefit from fraudulent charges
Why would Apple have it any different?
In New York City alone, there were more than 26,000 incidents of electronics theft in the first 10 months of 2011
OHMYGODPANIC26,000ISABIGNUMBER!
Call it 30,000 per year at $200 per device average residual value. That's $6m per year. In a city of ten million, that's $0.60 per citizen, per year. The least expensive method of mitigating this problem may be to do no more than we are already doing. At $0.60 per year per person, do we really need to expend more resources on theft enforcement? Maybe we're doing well enough already.
Let's say you place some intangible value on the devices for the "sense of loss and invasion" that comes from stuff being stolen. Give it an outlandish price; call it $1000 total value per device. That's still only $3.00 per year per person.
People always talk about bloated government -- in the end, the only solution to bloated government is not asking for more government. Government is an important and necessary, but blunt weapon. At some level of enforcement you reach decreasing returns on a problem has been sufficiently solved. Enforcement is expensive; at some point, enough is enough.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
So, how big is the iCrime wave? In New York City alone, there were more than 26,000 incidents of electronics theft in the first 10 months of 2011 — 81% involving mobile phones — according to an internal NYPD document.
So only ~20k thefts "involving a phone". How many involved an iPhone? How many of those were actually targeting the iPhone and not just a targeting a random person who happened to be carrying one?
The number of robberies in NYC has been declining steadily since the early nineties. Where the city used to experience 100k robberies a year, they're now down to around 20k. In short, there is no "iCrime Wave". Just the same robberies that have always been happening, only now victims happen to carry more valuables.
I understand that they are talking about networking and not the phone part. however:
First they should start blocking phones by IMEI when they are registered stolen. Only then will I believe they are interested what else they might be willing to do.
I am sure they will think of rooted devices as 'stolen' and block them. I am sure they they will think of other ways to block your device. e.g. when your contract is up, so you are forced to buy a new one. I am sure that if you resell it, it will be 'stolen' as well.
Obviously a company will check it all which will be owned and run by the companies, so phone users have no say in it.
So first start using something that is already available before you force some other patented crap that will take away any tiny bit of right we have might have left from us.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
A company I worked for a few years back (before the bastards laid off the entire *building*) had a contract to provide tech support to apple. At that time, there was absolutely no policies for handling items declared stolen. Unless things have changed since then, I call shenanigans.
Granted, they do now have that "Find my idevice" service, but thats a self serve feature that only works for the most recent generation of devices. You could just as easily use Prey, which works on all devices. IMO, they haven't done nearly enough to justify claiming they 'led the industry'.
iGrabit, iSue and iRun LLC
Yes, but what are you going to to about wireless-only iPads/Tablets?
Generally they will not be used out-and-about as much as the devices you can use anywhere, so the risk is much lower.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I hate midgets. They're only good for kicking. Or letting them get fucked by an elephant.
They'd rather sell you a new phone - every theft is a new sale.
If that were so why would Apple make "Find my iPhone" (or iPad) for all devices? They were among the first to do so.
Obviously Apple wants happy customers more than anything.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Earlier this month, AT&T had launched a program that allowed users to report their device stolen. The IMEI of that device could be disabled from being used on AT&T. The blacklisted IMEIs exist with the FCC. Next year, msot of the major carriers will adopt this. The goal is to have this blacklist adopted worldwide.
One of the big pushes to do this is to deter these voilent thefts.
I remember the same hoo-hah bullshit about theft of products off the streets during the late-80s and early-90s for Reebok and Nike shoes, and then later in the 90s of Allstar team jackets. There was the occasional murder. I'm sure it happened, but probably not to the same degree as this.
I think a lot of it is marketing - corporations taking advantage of crime to push their products' popularity. "They're such a valuable rarity that people have to steal them off the streets to be able to get them, they want them so bad. Good thing you can pick your's up for only slightly more at any Walmart/iStore near you!"
With the recent Aurora, CA dipshit shooting spree, there's been a lot of talk about guns and how they make people unsafe. The mayor of NYC said the police force should (would? I forget the specifics) strike unless all guns were banned and collected.
What I'm curious about is why you never hear about people being robbed on the streets of their guns, or of armed people being robbed. Many people carry them 24/7, and they're worth a lot more used than an Apple product is new ($600-1800, give or take, typically). They also have a lot more value in terms of a 'crime investment', supposedly, and can't be remotely disabled/locked by a cell carrier.
Why do you think this doesn't happen with guns carried on a person?
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
I own a BlackBerry.
I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.
You are aware some of the Nokias have the same capability...out of the box?
...which came out in 2001.
Please help metamoderate.
Or something old and/or rare like a Palm Treo/Pre. :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Problem solved.
I believe both the EU and the US keep an IMEI blacklists. Though the blacklists are separate (not shared), so iPhones stolen from one region can still be used in another.
Also, although the IMEI of a device can be spoofed, doing so is less common because it is much more illegal (and more difficult) than spoofing the MAC address of a network card.
They aren't being paid to protect your assets, they are being paid to provide you with a product. If you have a problem with crime in your area, I suggest you take it up with your local law enforcement.
They ported this game to iPhone? X-)
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
Add 3 things to iDevices.... Mandatory Insurance, iCloud, and the ability to passively record video and audio upon owner's say so with police getting mirrored data-stream.
The insurance replaces the stolen device, no reason for the owner to resist and get hurt. Cloud Backup get's all your data, content, media. Its also is the place that get's the passive audio and video of the perpetrator screwing with you and your iPad or iPhone. All the while the iPad is clearing your data from the pad, and removing applications until the only thing remaining is IOS and the security apps capturing the information from the thief. The device run in stealth mode and looks like its off and the thieves can't seem to turn on. Once the machine has enough captured data, it get's bricked.
The Police now have video of the bad guys plus any names and locations that got mentioned in the audio of their conversation. You get a new device that can be synced up with your iCloud account. The bad guys get a pretty brick, and a live warrant for arrest.
The minute it becomes clear they can't steal these things and retain anything worth more than the slagged machine, and it get's them arrested, how long do you think the behavior will continue. I give it about a day. You can even add a spoken trigger, so that if a person is attacked they can call out "Mugged" and the whole process starts, including recording the devices accelerometer to indicate possible physical violence for an assault and mugging charge. By the time its all over, you have enough forensic evidence to send butt head to Rikers for a little R&R (in this context that would be Rape & Recreational Hemorrhaging.
those crazy ass niggas
From what I have been reading in the American media recently, wouldnt the best solution simply be to give away a free gun to every person who buys an expensive mobile device?
A thief cant take your expensive item if the thief is dead. As a side bonus, you get to shoot somebody to death! ( a national enjoyment from what ive been reading )
As a secondary bonus, you get to reduce the insanely massive gun problem in the USA at the same time, as apparently the *only* solution to lots of guns is.....moar guns!
a win-win-win from all accounts.
They refuse to blacklist devices and let you disable them. they have the ability to make an ipad or ipod become useless and show on the screen" STOLEN PROPERTY" and nothing else the first time it is connected to itunes to restore it to reset the password lock. iphones could be over the air blacklisted and set to "I am stolen mode"
They choose not to because they prefer to allow a black market of stolen property to exist.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
problem solved
If Apple trades another phone for a stolen one that someone brings in, isn't it now in possession of stolen property and couldn't the owner demand it back?
Yeah, if you have Nokia, RIM, or a Windows phone, the thieves will probably just walk away laughing their asses off instead of taking it from you. ... though perhaps them stealing it would be doing you a favor.
Even better, I own an LG Optimus 2x, 2x more crashes, 2x more frustration, 2x longer to get updates. Although it would suck to get my phone stolen, it wouldn't be that much of a loss.
If it's legal to carry handguns, and they are as cheap as they are in the US, why wouldn't the thief have a gun too? I've never had explained to me how the American legal system distinguishes between law abiding citizens and criminals when it comes to gun ownership. Assuming I ever visited the US again (and I've stayed away since the craziness started in 2000), how do I know if the person walking around with a concealed handgun is a legitimate person or an armed criminal? And if I am confronted because I look like I don't fit in the neighborhood - how do I know if it's Neighborhood Watch or a crackhead thief?
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
London is a different matter. One argument is that, despite its large budget, or perhaps because of it, the Met has been out of control for many years. Recent events suggest there is some truth in this: for instance the recent evidence of the violent policeman who left the Met because he was about to be investigated, returned as a civilian and then re-entered the police through a back door, and the number of senior policemen who are being investigated for apparent conflict of interest by being paid by the Murdoch press.
In short, the problem with crime rates in London may be because the Met needs a thorough remodeling such as happened to the NYPD in the past.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
As someone remarked only the other day, the difference between "Atlas shrugged" and "Lord of the Rings" is that one is a fantasy written by someone out of touch with reality, with cardboard characters, unrealistic premises and an unlikely conclusion, and the other is Lord of the Rings.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I've commented on this thread so I can't moderate, but the GP post is obviously sarcastic and I imagine (s)he agrees with you. And me...I love the libertarian fantasy world in which everybody is walking down mean streets carrying a gun in their hand with the catch off, because it would be no use in your pocket (the thief is holding his and pointing it at you....), and you are somehow supposed to distinguish all the honest citizens carrying guns from the criminals. I can only suspect that the hidden agenda here is that the test is "white or black". Because, as we know well, there are no white criminals in the US.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
criminals are not smart enough (at least where I live) to know what value is placed on electronic devices. A criminal will take something to resell it. removing the value of a product is impossible. but protecting yourself with a gun is cheaper than a new ipad.
I assume how this will work is: You call up a number (your carrier, a consortium or whatever). You tell them your phone's phone number, and they look up the IMEI associated to that number, and block it.
So tell me: What prevents your neighbor (or whoever) from calling and saying "Officer, officer, my phone was stolen, the number is 555-1234." ?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
If some people stopped buying cheaper alternatives to original devices (in this case iphones and ipads), there wouldn't be a market for stolen mobile devices. Phones are not like cars which can be disintegrated and sold by parts, or at least, in a way that is highly profitable.
Who doesn't know a guy that occasionally has those cheap almost new mobile phones for selling? Who didn't already find cheap almost new phones being sold in the streets? I'm sorry to tell you but most of those are probably stolen, so just don't buy them!!
And, it was very likely by one of her employees. I wasn't expecting any resolution, but I called up Verizon to see what they'd do. The response I got was essentially they'd do nothing unless you were subscribed to a $10/month extra fee service for phone insurance. So, basically, you either get robbed by your provider, or roll the dice on getting robbed by a guy on the street. And, the thought that cell phone companies are essentially enablers pisses me off.
Of'course, we'll be able to customize this to another word like "iPhone, iPad or Apple" ..
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
Apple is unique in that their devices are managed heavily by iTunes and their online systems. A blacklist could be implemented within months - Apple has plenty of inhouse resources to make it happen. They'd rather sell you a new phone - every theft is a new sale.
As it happens, Apple already has. Slashdot hated the idea, because OMG APPLE IS BIG BROTHER!