Thief accessing photos on stolen phone

Any messages claiming the device has been found or is being accessed received as an SMS are scams. They are from there thief trying to get your Apple ID / iCloud password.

Ignore them.

click here ➜ Recognize and avoid social engineering schemes including phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support

Unless you had no passcode or touch id / Face ID enabled on your device, nobody can access your iPhone or your photos.

Whoever has the phone is trying to scam you and trick you into providing personal information so they can get into the phone. Ignore and delete any messages that you might see like this.

Your Photos are safe. They are simply trying to scare you into giving them the necessary information to unlock the phone. That is the one draw back of providing a number when marking it as lost. An honest person who finds your phone can use it to help return the device to you, but a thief who stole the phone is just looking to gain access to unlock it.

It is surely no fun to have a phone stolen, but your data is safe. The phone is gone, so you might consider erasing it as an extra safe guard.

RowberryOliver wrote:

Yeah I have selected that option on find my iPhone it’s just waiting to connect to do it unsure if it ever will do that. I had put it into lost mode on find my iPhone what will the thief need to get past that? The 6 digit authentication number and the original passcode of the phone?

Once erased, the thief would need your Apple ID and password as well as the 6 digit code if you have 2 factor authentication enabled.