Stolen iPhone scheduled deletion

Wonderer008 wrote:

Thank you Zachary. You mentioned erase the device. Does that meant when I press the erased button, all the info under Notes and all my pics stored locally on the stolen phone will be erased?

If the phone is not connected to the Internet, it will not learn abut the Erase request, and the passcode will be the thing keeping the thieves out.

Presumably the thieves are going to want to reset your phone to "make your phone their own". That would erase local data on your phone whether or not there was an Erase request outstanding.

The bigger threat to your data is that if you gave the thieves your Apple ID and Apple ID password, for as long as your account remained compromised, they could have logged into iCloud on the Web or connected to it on some other device to go through any data such as photos that you had synchronized there.

You fell for a scam. The message did NOT come from Apple. When you used the link, you gave the thief the credentials for your Apple account, allowing them to remove the activation lock.

Apple will NEVER send any such messages.

Sorry but you unfortunately have been scammed. That message wasn’t from Apple, but rather the thieves that have your iPhone and were trying to trick you into removing Activation Lock, allowing them to setup and use the iPhone for themselves. There is no way to undo that.

Regarding the Erase This Device. Unless you had a simple, easy to guess passcode on your iPhone, your data is already protected and there’s no need to erase the device. The thieves would have to guess your passcode within 10 attempts before the iPhone wouldn’t even take anymore tries. But if you did have an easy, guessable passcode, then you’ll want to Erase your Device just to be safe to keep it away from the thieves.

The criminals may not be able to pull your data off your phone, but if you gave them your Apple ID and Apple ID password, you gave them the means to pull synchronized data and backups from iCloud.

You should take steps immediately to regain control of your Apple Account, if you have not already done so. No telling what data the thieves might have gotten from there, but you don’t want them to have access to new data or to other things they could do with that account, going forwards.

Wonderer008 wrote:

Thank you Zachary. You mentioned erase the device. Does that meant when I press the erased button, all the info under Notes and all my pics stored locally on the stolen phone will be erased?

Correct. Everything on that iPhone will be erased, so the thieves cannot get access to it. You’re welcome.

I would think that changing the password to something they don't know and can't easily guess would be enough. But if you're paranoid enough, you could set up a new Apple ID.

The thing is – your Apple ID isn't just used for storing data in iCloud. It's also how Apple keeps track of content and apps that you have purchased from them (so you can re-download stuff to a new device); how they keep track of sales and orders; etc. I don't know that you would want to trash that if you've regained control of the account.