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."

Comments

Keep stolen phones off networks

[__aaltlg1547]

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.

Re:Keep stolen phones off networks

[davester666]

What's obnoxious is that Apple will 'helpfully' hand over a replacement iPhone for all kinds of reasons, but without any verification as to whether you are the owner. So thief steals iPhone, goes to Apple store and complains about something on the iPhone not working right, is handed new iPhone with new IMEI.

If you are cynical, you'd think Apple does this specifically so thieves will steal them, so you have to buy another iPhone.

Re:Keep stolen phones off networks

[oPless]

Yes, but what are you going to to about wireless-only iPads/Tablets?

IIRC GSM/3G phones in the UK and most of europe (assumption) all check against a list of stolen/insurance claimed devices - it won't register on the network, and 2nd hand phone traders/repairers/refurbishers will not touch them with the added bonus of passing your details onto the police.

However outside this area there is no communication between registration bodies. Your stolen euro phones just go to the middle-east/asia/africa.

In the states they're only just about getting their arses into gear. I doubt they'll data-share with their euro cousins either.

Re:Keep stolen phones off networks

[drunken_boxer777]

When my wife lost her iPhone we called AT&T and asked if they could help us get it back. They told us that they "can't track a phone". Not that "we can't do that for legal reasons" or something similar. They claimed that they don't have the technological capability. I asked, "If I were the CIA or FBI and asked you to find this phone, would you still say that you don't have the capability?" "Correct. We can't do it." Please.

The carriers don't care if someone loses a phone, or has one stolen. Whoever ends up with it could use it on their network, creating an additional customer. They care more about that than getting your mobile device back.

Re:Keep stolen phones off networks

[pepty]

Why would Apple want to make more money?

FTFY.

Re:Keep stolen phones off networks

[davester666]

Well, they just swap a used phone for a refurb, so it's a fairly low cost to Apple, and they want to keep their customers happy.

If the 'customer' happens to be a thief, Apple isn't out a lot of money and they know the real customer is probably going to shell out full price for another iPhone [resulting in a LOT of profit for Apple].

Re:Keep stolen phones off networks

[drinkypoo]

They do know the cell tower it's using and can approximately identify the distance and angle from the tower from signal strength. But that's not very accurate,

Actually, DTOA can provide accuracy better than ten meters these days. Look it up.

Apple's Find My iPhone is far more accurate since it gets the phone to use GPS rather than measuring signal strength, but because it relies on the feature being enabled, the phone being connected to the internet and not having been wiped isn't going to work all the time.

That's OK, all the USA GSM carriers implemented DTOA so that they could continue to use cheap GSM phones without GPS and still satisfy the requirements of E911.

Anti-Theft (or post-theft) software

[ThunderBird89]

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?

Re:Anti-Theft (or post-theft) software

[ThunderBird89]

I think Prey happens to survive a factory restore. I remember it being already installed after I did a factory reset after a dubiously-gone Android upgrade. And anyway, if you change the lock method to, say, password, from pattern, they won't be able to get into the menu to restore.
Although a recovery-mediated reinstall will most likely kill even Prey...

I'm aware that a blocked IMEI can't be circumvented, but that does make one wonder: why aren't telcos already implementing such measures? And what about not using the device on a cellular network? A WLAN-only iPad wouldn't suffer from IMEI-blocking, so there needs to be another way to deter theft for those devices.

Yeah but don't hide your screen for privacy

[cpu6502]

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.

Re:I got one

[wmbetts]

Anonymous Coward raising tomorrows generation of thieves.

Cost based versus Value based

[Okian Warrior]

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".

Re:I got one

[oakgrove]

You are scum.

It's only stuff

[benjfowler]

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.

Re:It's only stuff

[Anonymous Coward]

Living in a place where it's legal to carry, both open and concealed, a handgun, bringing a screwdriver to a gun fight is a bad move. Having had to draw a weapon, thankfully not having to use it, to defend myself and others, you'd be surprised what a deterrent it is. Most thieves, even the armed ones, are cowards.

Re:It's only stuff

[rtp]

The most effective deterrent to high-stakes crime is when victims are their own defense. More people should carry handguns, and the laws should be relatively straightforward for any lawful adult to own and concealed-carry a handgun. Muggings for pocket cash, phones, sneakers and logo jackets occur because the risk to thugs is near zero in cities where the government makes it difficult for law-abiding citizens to carry.

This logic - let the thugs take your stuff, "it's only stuff", is a prey mentality. We aren't sheep. nor ants. People must stick up for themselves, defend each other, and protect that which you worked hard to obtain. Simply letting the bullies take your stuff is a slippery slope to freezing in the cold while the grasshoppers party in your house through the winter. Have some self-respect, and draw the line. Don't let yourself be kicked around. Don't stomp on others, but definitely kick back hard if somebody stomps on you.

The government continues to want us to believe that "they" (the government) will protect us. The truth is, the police are more of a clean-up crew than a protective force.

Kill switches on iPads and iPhones may appear to negate the value of the device (while the muggings won't stop, they'll still jack you up for a wallet, watch, or Nike sneakers), but it opens the door to abuse where a cyber attack on the control system could render our legitimate mobile devices useless. Rather than try and reduce the value of our property, let's protect ourselves properly and reduce the overall operating risk of living in cities.

Crime can't be reduced to zero, but the "professional criminal" who has opted to pursue a living in crime (because the risk-reward ratio shows that crime does pay better than a minimum-wage job, especially in cities where victims aren't allowed to defend themselves with guns) will likely reconsider their career choice when the risk-reward ratio includes risking their own death or a murder charge in trade for a few hundred dollars. When it's simply "not worth it", most criminals move on to a different pursuit for sustenance. The sociopaths and mentally warped human monsters that prey upon us are statistically rare, but the common street thug who is stealing an iPad will become less common if you raise the difficulty above that of a legitimate job. These people often follow the path of least resistance. If we're making it too easy to be a criminal, you can't expect anything different than increased crime. If you make it much more dangerous to be a criminal, there will be less criminals.

Re:It's only stuff

[ACS Solver]

I come from essentially a no-gun area, so of course I have cultural bias, but to me there is a moral element that is really hard to understand.

I carry a phone worth some 400$. Other than that, I carry little that is valuable. I sometimes carry a netbook but overall I can't think of myself carrying items worth more than some 800$ total. Now, if there's a mugging attempt and I draw a handgun that I carry, that means all bets are off. The thug either backs off and runs or I have to be ready to shoot. Even having never so much as touched a firearm, I know you don't draw one without being ready to use it. So all in all, it means I have to be prepared for the possibility of killing the thug.

And that is something I find very hard to imagine being prepared for. Common thugs like that are pretty far down the list of people I have sympathy for, but I still can't see myself killing a human being when all I stand to lose otherwise is a few hundred dollars. I understand willingness to use lethal force to prevent serious injury at the hands of a criminal, but not in a situation like mugging for some electronics. I'd like to hear the perspective on this of someone from an area where people do have guns.

Re:It's only stuff

[ACS Solver]

Interesting, thank you.

I particularly find your assertion that violence is likely even if you surrender your property to the robber. Over here, generally people would assume the opposite, as far as I am aware. That is, that complying with the robber's demand will almost surely result in an end to the confrontation unless it happens to be a genuine sociopath and not just a common criminal following the path of least resistance.

If I had to speculate, I would assume that criminals know it's actually less risky to leave the victim alone afterwards. If they're caught for robbery, they'll do a few years in jail, if they get caught for murdering a robbery victim, they're looking at a 20 year or a life sentence. Plus, the authorities are more serious about investigating more violent crimes.

I can not exactly find a statistic like the one you quote from the FBI, but I did find statistics for 2011 about crimes registered by section of the criminal code (link only useful to Latvian speakers so mostly for my own future reference - http://data.opendata.lv/lindaaustere/kriminala-statistika/kriminala-statistika-2011-gads). In those stats, I see 91 homicide in the country in 2011 (that is combined number for murder, aggravated murder and especially aggravated murder, to roughly translate). Out of those, there is only 1 that falls under "murder related to a robbery". Can not say if it was an instance of street crime or breaking into some place.

Looking at robberies in that data, there's 1061 total, of them 66 fall under the most serious category, meaning that someone was seriously harmed or that the criminals were armed with firearms. AFAIK, so much as firing a shot in the air gets the robbery classified under that category, so it should be less than 66 cases where people actually got seriously harmed.

Re:Location, Location, Location.

[boarder8925]

For some reason, I find this comic appropriate.

That's so cute they think this is new

[SuperBanana]

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.

Re:That's so cute they think this is new

[Anonymous Coward]

For nearly a decade, my neighborhood has seen people getting mugged for their iPhones almost nightly.

iPhone was launched in 2007. Its 2012. How long has your neighborhood seen this now?

Re:Location, Location, Location.

[Hentes]

Or at least don't flash your fancy devices in a bad neighbourhood.

Re:Crime pays

[pepty]

How so compared to the present situation?

How About "We Already Do Enough?"

[Bob9113]

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.

Re:This is why I carry two iPhones

[houghi]

That could be a good idea. How much does an empty iPhone "casing" cost?

I can do one better and offer you a real working iPhone for a real low price. Interested? Cash only, please.

Re:Carry a gun

[pepty]

By the time you pull your gun out they will already be running away with your phone.

Are you going to shoot them in the back?

Bullshit statistic

[artor3]

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.

Re:Bullshit statistic

[Samantha Wright]

20k mobile phone robberies. A hundred thousand cell phone robberies per year in 1993 seems a little hard to fathom. Although you're right that crime rates are going down.

Re:Bullshit statistic

[drunken_boxer777]

Even though crime in NYC is down, it's not a matter of victims carrying more valuables: thieves are targeting iPhones. For at least the past two years, the NYPD has publicly stated that thieves are targeting iPhones. These aren't random; they wait and watch. When someone walks by talking on an iPhone they charge at them from behind, knock them over, grab the dropped phone and run. I know someone who had this happen in broad daylight. I saw it happen to someone in broad daylight.

I think it was two years ago that the NYPD advised people to keep their phones hidden and replace the iconic white earbuds. You can imagine how that went over with the fanboys.

I'm sorry but...

[ilsaloving]

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'.

Re:Location, Location, Location.

[AngryDeuce]

You jest, but I've heard people say shit just like that. It's a "status symbol", remember?

Personally, I've found a great solution for this.

[MyFirstNameIsPaul]

I own a BlackBerry.

Re:I got one

[Grave]

Not only are you scum, but the original owner is likely just going to buy another iPad to replace the stolen one, thus giving Apple more money. Congrats on your failure as a human being.

it started with iPods

[SuperBanana]

...which came out in 2001.

Re:firearms

[Attila Dimedici]

Statistically, it's on the order of ten times more likely your gun will accidentally hurt or kill you or a loved one than ever getting the opportunity to be used to defend against crime, let alone successfully.

The problem with that statistic is that we have no idea how often a gun is successfully used to defend against crime because a large number of the case never get reported (how large we have no way of knowing, since no one reports them). What is known is that criminals often choose not to commit crimes when they know that their target is armed with a gun. Most of the time when a gun is used to defend against crime it is not discharged

Re:firearms

[russotto]

You want to fight crime by giving money to the NYPD and allowing them to be thuggish, and you think other people are puerile and simplistic?

iCrime Wave?

[Lisias]

They ported this game to iPhone? X-)

Re:Can...

[Dan541]

Just block the IMEI number. It's been a legal requirement in Australia for decades.

Re:This is why I carry two iPhones

[Dan541]

I suspect you're joking, but that isn't a bad idea.

I've carried two wallets before in countries where the cops take bribes.
One wallet for using and if the cops need a bribe, that's all I have. Second wallet used for storing the bulk of the cash.

I've never understood this

[Kupfernigk]

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?