Stolen iphone with pending erase and fishing attempt

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amb2024_ Author

Level 1

4 points

Stolen iphone with pending erase and fishing attempt

Hi, My iphone was stolen a couple months ago, as soon it happened I locked it via find my with the "Mark as lost", after I was sure to not find it again, within 24h I activate the "erase my phone" -> since it has been pending and did not erase.

I removed device in apple ID, removed my card, changed all my passwords(email, bank, META, etc), I got second verification enabled on everything.

Here's my problem, I have been receiving scam to get my password of apple ID, I did not give it away. Now I think they exhausted every option and they are texting me directly. Saying stuff like :

"The erase request you made didn’t work, it was connected on wifi in china then got jailbreak and still saying pending it wont erase remotely. I’m telling you this because the phone is going be auctioned on the black market with your personal information and everything about you that you had on it. all your info including your phone number, address, everything will be cloned. That’s why I’m telling you to so you can REMOVE IT from your device list and I will factory reset it manually and remove the number."

What do I do? I don't want to unlock my phone so that they can steal my identity (which would be a poor choice for them haha), I want to phone to be erased.. so I can remove it from find my..

Posted on Dec 4, 2024 8:59 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

edclange

Level 5

5,138 points

Dec 4, 2024 10:07 AM in response to amb2024_

You have done everything correctly. Mark those messages as Junk and ignore them. They are trying to get you to remove the device so they can get around Activation Lock.

The erase is still Pending because it has not been allowed to connect to the internet. The data on your iPhone is encrypted and cannot be accessed by anyone.

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Answer 2

Bob Timmons

Level 10

193,096 points

Dec 4, 2024 10:21 AM in response to amb2024_

What do I do?

There is no need for you to do anything at this point. The Erase action will take place automatically when the phone has a good connection to the Internet.

Even though the Erase is "Pending", no one can get into your phone unless they know your passcode. There is no way that anyone could ever guess your passcode in less than the 10 tries allowed before the phone locks out completely and will not even allow any more passcode attempts.

I want to phone to be erased.. so I can remove it from find my..

You want the phone to be erased.....but you probably do NOT want to remove it from Find My. If you remove the phone from Find My, that will allow whoever has the phone to set it up again as their own new phone.

True.....you will never see the phone again, but at least you can really frustrate whoever has the phone by not removing your phone from Find My.....which what the bad guy who has your phone hopes you will do.

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Answer 3

amb2024_ Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 4, 2024 10:17 AM in response to edclange

Thank you! Another thing, I've noticed that there are iPhones under my name in my "find my" app, I'm pretty sure they were not there before. They don't appear in my icloud devices, only in find my - I have read that people can clone devices and they don't appear under icloud. I block them with the lost functionality, without erasing them. Are those clones of my stolen phone?

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Answer 4

amb2024_ Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 4, 2024 10:43 AM in response to Bob Timmons

Oh they are very frustrated at this point! It's satisfying

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Stolen iphone with pending erase and fishing attempt

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