I got my iPhone back!! Here is the cold hard TRUTH! Forget all you have read and heard except
http://www.rewardingreturn.com/ or a similar technology to encourage honesty through bribery because nothing else will work! Here is how I got my iPhone back ...
Unless a reward that appears on the phone works nothing else will, here is why. My phone was stolen from me and the thief removed the Rogers (Canada) sim card (so my number was gone) he then installed a new sim card. He also did a device erase (too easy to do) so all the apps were gone. Rogers was told 15 minutes after it was gone that it was STOLEN. Rogers did not care ... they had a new customer and would sell me a new phone at FULL PRICE $699, that is ALL they would do even though they know it as put back on their network within 8 hours.
Call the police. Get a sympathetic officer who actually wants to do their job. Go to your iTunes and click on "preferences" then "devices" and rest your pointer on your device's last backup. Information will appear including the IMEI number. This number is golden as the police with this number and a call to the correct department of your cell provider can easily locate the phone and thief even with a device erase and new sim card installed. Rogers has a police only department for this that will NOT speak to you the rightful owner but if detailed information is required, Rogers requires a WARRANT. Rogers Law Enforcement Division (416)935-5300.
The police who picked up my phone would not lay charges but I did get my phone back a little worse for the ware.
Two last pieces of advice ... lock the phone and enable "erase if 10 bad passcode attempts" because "restore" is amazing and restores EVERYTHING and no personal info has wound up in the wrong hands. Lastly write down the MAC address before you loose the phone as if is not in iTunes and it could possibly be used to locate it as well.
Tim
Ontario, Canada
