My iPhone was stolen

The same exact thing happened to me. I also got my phone stolen and got a message from the number 8850 about my lost phone synchronising my content, which is untrue because I can see on Find my iPhone that the erase is still pending therefore the phone is either on aeroplane mode or turned off.

The first thing I did after it was stolen was to take the lost phone off my iCloud via my Macbook as this means that even on the slim chance that the thieves get into my phone, all data from iCloud won’t be accessible. I really recommend you to do this. Next thing to do to really ensure that everything disappears off the stolen phone is to remotely erase all the content and settings. You can do this via Find my iPhone too, even if you’ve removed that device from your iCloud. The content will only be erased as soon as the stolen phone connects to WiFi or 3G, though.

However, I’m not sure if they’ll be able to use it as a new phone after removing it from your iCloud. I believe that they can? Either way, just ensure that your stolen phone is completely erased and removed from your Apple iCloud as that is the most important thing to do after losing or getting your phone stolen. Also, file a police report in case they want to sell the phone as I saw somewhere that pawn shops have a way of determining whether or not they’re getting sold a stolen phone.

Good questions:

1) There is nothing further you can do to “protect” the data on your phone. However, as long as your passcode was secret and not easily guessed it is VERY secure and encrypted. The info can’t be extracted or used; even by sophisticated thieves.

2) If the thieves reset you phone, it will wipe the already-encrypted data AND invoke Activation Lock … making it unusable for anyone else w/o your AppleID credentials. (the target of their phishing attempt)

3) Keeping the phone “on” your AppleID will maintain this Activation Lock in perpetuity. Removing the phone from your account will “release” the lock.

Note that once the phone is indeed “wiped” (either by the thieves or your own FindMy-invoked “erase” command) you’ll not receive any more updates in FindMy as it’s no longer configured as “yours”

But .. Activation Lock WILL continue to prevent it from being “Activated” by anyone else.

So … Don’t Remove it From Your Account !

Was it stolen in Surrey, and sold in London? Do you have the latest locations the phone was? I also got my phone stolen and gotten those texts.

Did you report it to the police?