Find My iPhone

Beware, thieves want your ID to buy iPhones

Ed Sutherland ∙ January 7, 2013

Apple's iPhone for thieves is like a bar of gold with earbuds. The smartphone has been blamed for a rise in urban crime, been the target of mafia heists - even fostered one iPhone owner to launch an online sting operation. Now comes word thieves have found a more direct route to your iPhone - your identity.

Identity theft is now the hottest way to buy an iPhone and stick you with the bill. The key is instant credit used by Apple to provide online financing to purchase an iPhone, Mac or other iDevice. The typical bill from ID theft of Apple products averages between $1,500 to $2,000, according to a fraud investigator who talked with Reuters...

Read More

Posing as a chick, musician offers an iPhone thief a date

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 6, 2013

Apple's underappreciated Find My iPhone app (BTW, shouldn't it be called 'Find My iOS Device' instead?) has seen some clever uses that went a long way toward retrieving stolen iPhones and iPads. But punk trombonist Nadav Nirenberg took it to the next level when he posed as a women in order to lure an unsuspecting thief who stole his iPhone into a trap. According to media reports, holding a hammer in his hand, Nadav was patiently awaiting for the thief to arrive at his apartment to arrange an exchange...

Read More

NYC Mayor: iPhones thefts responsible for crime increase

Ed Sutherland ∙ Updated January 26, 2016

That iPhone you're carrying on the New York City subway, well someone else likes it: thieves. Indeed, the Apple device is so popular with Big Apple thieves the mayor is blaming the gadget for a rise in the city's crime rate. Mayor Michael Bloomberg told his radio audience some tactics for preventing your iPhone becoming the 3,891st Apple device stolen in 2012. Among the suggestions: tight clothes...

Read More

Apple updates iLife, iWork and other iOS utils

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 13, 2018

With today's release of iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2, Apple has updated its Podcasts app with support for iCloud subscription syncing. Just a few minutes later, updates to Apple's other apps went live in iTunes, including iLife and iWork apps and utils like Find My Friends, Remote, AirPort Utility and more. With so many third-party apps being updated for iOS 6 support as we speak, you may want to prioritize your downloads. Here's what's new in Apple's own updated apps for your iPhone, iPod touch or iPad...

Read More

AT&T launching new smartphone anti-theft service on Tuesday

Christian Zibreg ∙ July 6, 2012

Apple's Find My iPhone service is rather convenient for finding a lost device, but it falls short in theft prevention. See, thieves have figured out by now they simply need to shut down a stolen device to stop Find My iPhone.

Cabel Sasser thought of an interesting solution - a "Shutdown Requires PIN" feature in iOS Settings - and carrier AT&T's also been tackling this problem for some time.

It looks like the nation's leading carrier, which sold 17.5 million iPhones last year, has indeed come up with an effective remedy that might keep iPhone thieves on the grid longer: a block list of sorts on the network end...

Read More

Thieving Christmas Scrooge Gets Caught By Stealing Neighbor’s iPad

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated March 18, 2019

This isn't the first time that Apple's Find my iPhone service has helped to recover a lost device, but with Christmas involved in this particular story (as well as a resoundingly happy ending) we thought we would share it.

At around 3:30am on Christmas morning, a Westlake Village man was awoken by the noise of a burglar stealing Christmas gifts from his house. Amongst them was an iPad, which had, thankfully, already been activated and set up with an Apple ID. After a short foot chase the thief got away, but not for long.

The next morning, the owner of the iPad set about tracking the device and discovered that it was only a few doors away...

Read More

Dumb Burglar Leaves iPhone at Crime Scene, Inevitably Gets Caught by Police

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

Here's a little lesson to all the would-be criminals out there: If you are going to break into your ex-girlfriend's house, don't leave your iPhone behind as evidence. While most of us consider that common sense, that doesn't seem to be the case with Mr. Jason Scott Davis.

The 34-year-old Northern Californian is in custody as the prime suspect of a late-May home invasion. Authorities arrested Davis after discovering his iPhone in his girlfriend's bathtub the night of the robbery...

Read More

iPhone Tracks Down and Helps Arrest Burglars

Alex Heath ∙ Updated October 10, 2018

We love these types of stories on iDB. When the iPhone is used to thwart criminals, it's always fun to read about.

The story of Lilli Gordon and her missing iPhone details how the smartphone's GPS was used by authorities to track down the thieves and Lilli's stolen valuables. Hopefully stories like this will teach would-be-prowlers that smartphones aren't the best items to steal...

Read More

Stolen iPhone Discovered via Find My iPhone from 8,000 Miles Away

Alex Heath ∙ June 23, 2011

This is one of those stories that makes you scratch your head. How does a stolen iPhone end up finally phoning home after moving almost 8,000 miles away from its owner?

In a testament to Apple's genius Find My iPhone service, Cabel Sasser uncovered his stolen iPhone two weeks after it was stolen and transported 7,830 miles away. That's some good detective work.

Read More

How a Guy Got Beat Up Because of the Find My iPhone App

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 6, 2016

Another one of these stories that fall under our newly-created FML category.

You've most likely heard about Apple's Find My iPhone app, which when installed on an iPhone or iPad, allows you to track the location of the device in the eventuality it would get stolen. In short, that's a great app that allowed many people to recover their stolen iPhones.

The problem is this app can also come back to bite you, or rather to punch you, as 27 year old iPhone owner Brent Johnson was unfortunately able to verify not too long ago...

Read More

How to Enable Find My iPhone on Non-Supported iDevices

Sébastien Page ∙ November 22, 2010

A few minutes ago, we explained you how to set up Find My iPhone on your iPhone 4. Technically, the newly free Find My iPhone only works for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch running iOS 4.2. There is however a trick to make this work on older devices.

The funniest part is that Apple is even telling you how to bypass their own rules...

Read More