My daughters Iphone 12 pro was stolen a few months ago. We used “report lost”and also “erase device”. However they have just shown as pending. She has had messages from someone telling her to cancel the erase and remove the device from find my devices or else they will sell it and steal her data. Is it a scam?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
This is a scam that is trying to trick you into doing what the bad guys who have the phone want you to do......so they get into the phone, erase it, and sell it.
Ignore and delete the messages, even if the threats increase.
You will never the phone again, but at least you can really frustrate the bad guys who have the phone.
This is a scam that is trying to trick you into doing what the bad guys who have the phone want you to do......so they get into the phone, erase it, and sell it.
Ignore and delete the messages, even if the threats increase.
You will never the phone again, but at least you can really frustrate the bad guys who have the phone.
Definitely a scam.
The criminal who sent the message is clearly planning on selling the phone, regardless of whatever your daughter does. However, they have probably discovered by now that the phone is Activation Locked … and that they might not get as much in the way of ill-gained loot as they were hoping for.
The talk about stealing your daughter's data is meant to frighten her into thinking that the "honest" (LOL) criminal wants to do her some sort of favor. But think about it - if they have the ability to steal her data, how in the world could you trust them NOT to steal her data, whether or not you let them "make her phone their own"?
Don't reply to the sender and don't remove the phone from the list of devices associated with her Apple ID. She will never see the phone again, but hopefully she can keep the criminals from making much money off it.
Two items at the risk of sounding pedantic:
1) The criminals most likely obtained the phone number from the nanoSIM before your carrier deactivated it.
Going forward; recommend using eSIM (if available) to eliminate this possibility.
2) They CAN erase the phone now … but as long as the phone remains on your daughter’s AppleID it will remain unusable as an iPhone thanks to Apple’s Activation Lock
shadey1 wrote:
My daughters Iphone 12 pro was stolen a few months ago. We used “report lost”and also “erase device”. However they have just shown as pending.
She has had messages from someone telling her to cancel the erase and remove the device from find my devices or else they will sell it and steal her data. Is it a scam?
Scam.
If your iPhone or iPad is lost or stolen
About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone
if you have the number of the scam calling/texting you could give it to the police if you filed a report.
Again I agree! I guess we must have left the number on the "Mark as lost".
I think if you remove it from the Find My devices then they might be able to erase it I guess.
Yeah thats what i thought. I guess we must have left the number on the "Mark as lost".
I think if you remove it from the Find My devices then they might be able to erase it I guess.
Getting messages after iPhone was stolen. Are these scams?
