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Smartphone Mugging More Popular Than Ever
SternisheFan writes with this snippet from gizmodo: "The Associated Press reports that smartphone robberies now account for nearly half of all robberies in San Francisco, as well as an impressive 40 percent here in New York City. And the numbers aren't just high, they're getting higher fast. In Los Angeles, smartphone robberies are up 27 percent from last year, with no signs of slowing down. The thefts come in all varieties as well. Victims have reported having their phones—iPhones in particular (surprise!)—yanked out of their hands while talking, snatched just as public transit reaches a stop, or even taken at gunpoint." When I was relieved at gunpoint of my (very, very dumb) phone a few years ago in Philadelphia (very, very dumb), it made for a lousy evening. Have you been robbed (or accosted) like this? If so, where?
I used to get random schmoes on the street asking to use my phone as I pulled it out to check the time. Now I have a wristwatch and the worst I've gotten is, "Hey buddy, got the time?"
That line, "got the time", is the exact line a mugger used on me once to determine if I had a watch, before he attempted to mug me for it.
It's extremely easy to reprogram the IMEIs or MEIDs. Anyone who can install a copy of windows can manage it with some of the readily available free software floating about for "research purposes"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Mobile_Equipment_Identity#Blacklist_of_stolen_devices
Hey, how about that. An existing solution. It's not perfect, but it'd make it a bit harder than just throwing the iPhone on craigslist - especially since they'd have to modify the sticker on the phone as well, and if they didn't, it'd be proof the phone was stolen.
Let's not forget that the reason these people steal phones is because there's a market - plenty of other people happy to get a phone cheap off craigslist.
Please help metamoderate.
CDMA phones have an equivalent id, called a MEID.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
IIRC, CDMA and our form of LTE is not compatible overseas.
That may be so but quite a lot of the iPhones made now have GSM chips in them that work just fine for data and voice overseas - all of the AT&T iPhones ever made, and every iPhone since the iPhone 4 will work overseas with data (even the ones sold to work with CDMA carriers like Verizon).
Not being able to use LTE in some countries is to really that much a roadblock to selling them.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
It sounds like you and your wife think the police are there to serve you. I can assure you this is not the role they fulfill in society.
There are legitimate reasons to want to change IMEI to boot. For example, if you move to South Korea with your current phone that isn't "made in Korea", you will not be able to use it with a local SIM card. It's the law there.
So you either change IMEI to indicate that it's a locally made phone, or you buy another.
I have Prey running my my phone for this reason. You can also install it on your laptop. There are quite a few interesting stories about people recovering their gear by using the utility. It's totally worth checking out.
If anyone else knows about other similar tools, I'd love to hear about those too.
http://preyproject.com/
Mike
What The Holy F-ck ... have you not heard of "Find My iPhone"?
It does *exactly* this behaviour. And I have a colleague at work who used it 2 months ago.
They located the house where the phone was, made it play a loud sound, and heard it in the front bedroom. Rang the doorbell, and got shooed away. Went to the local (Australian) police station, whereupon a detective jumped in a car, went straight back to the house, and put the heavy word on the residents.
They got the phone back.
No the guy is just completely wrong and some clueless guy with moderator points upvoted him