Stolen Apple device - Serial Number Issue

For info, this is what Gazelle does with regard to not accepting stolen/lost devices

http://www.gazelle.com/law_enforcement

Hello,

I would like to add that this July 2014, while I was vacationing with my family, we had our Apple products stolen from an apartment that we were renting. We had our MacBook Pros, MacBook Airs, iPads, and an iPhone stolen. We had all these devices setup with Find My iPhone and Find My Mac, and I have them all setup to Lock. As of today, August 6, 2014, not one of these devices have shown up through my Find My iPhone app. I find it extremely difficult to believe that these devices have not been turned on, or connected to the internet so far. This leads me to believe that someone might have already found a way to break the Find My Device lock mechanism, unless these devices were stolen simply for scrap metal.

Has this also happened to anyone else?

Thanks,

Frank

Based ib posts here, some iOS 7 device are sold to unwary people who then find out that that can't activate them without entering the ID and password of the previous owner.

Evn with iOS 7, the device an be placed in Recovery mode and restored but the ID and password of the previous owner has to be entered. In that state all they have is a hink brick that can also serve as a poor flashlight. The recommendation is to turn it into the police.

Yours is one of very few posts I have found that even addresses the issue of the unauthorized reregistering of a stolen device at all. This happened to me recently so I've been trying to get info and it's strange that it's something nobody is talking about. My late 2009 Macbook was stolen while I was working at a summer camp in 2011. I immediately reported the theft to the police with the serial number and registered it to my Apple account (which I stupidly had not done previously). I also had been ignorant of iCloud and the options for free anti theft protection out there at the time. Recently, while I was clearing out old unnecessary emails, I came across the confirmation email I received from Apple verifying the registration of my Macbook when I registered it at the time it was stolen. I've never had need to log in to my Apple account in the past 3 years since I last did so to register the stolen computer so this prompted me to log in to my account to see if my stolen computer was still registered there. It was not!!!! I tried to add it to my devices with the serial number and a note appeared saying that this device was registered to another user. I have only ever had one Apple ID and I changed the email address but kept the same account when the computer was stolen. I also deleted my old email address and changed my passwords at that time. All the forums I read seem to claim that it is impossible to unregister a computer without access to the account it's registered with...unless you call Apple directly and present them with some special circumstance that you are able to prove (like buying a computer from Apple directly that was previously returned by a different buyer but not deregistered). So I have no idea how it is possible, but clearly it is possible to steal someone's registration with no notification that this happened whatsoever. I received no emails that my device had been removed from my account. The only thing I can suppose happened is that the thief somehow gained access to my Apple account and deregistered it, but again, no emails notification? And why wouldn't the thief try to lock me of my account or make purchases with it if that were the case. Just really confused about how this happened seemingly easily without my knowledge even though there is a police report on this stolen computer. I've contacted the police where my Macbook was stolen and they said they will contact Apple to get the information on who registered it and hopefully will be able to trace it back to the original seller/thief. So I guess, ironically, it could end up helping me. Crossing my fingers.

I had my ipad stolen last Dec (2013) and today, Sept 6, someone turned it on in a state far from here(unfortunately in a busy dentist office, not in a home where I could identify them), and apple sent me a message - with the specific address & time it was turned on. It is locked, and I guess unusable. I changed the on screen message to tell them to please call I will help them get money back if they bought on ebay (if owner files police report, ebay will refund the money to the purchaser). The serial number is still registered to my account, and nobody has gone into my apple account to change things.

It is offline now, though, so I don't know what will happen.

So your apple things may show up someday.

Of course it's true that Apple is in business to sell computers, not to police stolen iPods. However I respectfully disagree about a locked device being "a brick". You can wipe a locked down iOS device; I have successfully done this myself when I pulled my old iPad 1 out of the closet and realized I'd forgotten my own password to it. I won't go into detail about how to unlock it as that wouldn't be appropriate here, but suffice it to say that it CAN be done. Apple won't do it for you because that would clearly make them an accessory if the device were in fact stolen. If it's your own and you're capable you can unlock it, load the OS, and use it.

That was before iOS 7.

iCloud: Find My iPhone Activation Lock in iOS 7

You are correct. I'd forgotten that my old iPad wasn't running iOS7.

"Never mind." - Emily Latella

Team, it is NOT impossible to steal any of these devices. Someone JUST stole my old iPhone 5 and "Find my iPhone" is on. Whatever they did, they just registered their number to MY appleid. Now i'm getting all of their iMessages and they probably can't figure out why. His girl's photos are also coming to MY new apple device... too funny! I thought that if i sent out a "lost phone" signal from Find my iPhone that no one could use it but that is wrong. All you have to do is "Brick" the phone. When you plug it into iTunes it will force you to reinstall iOS.

I'm not sure how this guy got around my passcode but someone how my apple id remained in the phone but I'm pretty sure he's not aware of it as they were aspiring to sell weed last night and i was the one receiving the messages. It even told me that the new number was registered for iMessage and FaceTime with my apple id. I went to the police and they told me not to call the number but wait until an investigator calls me today to get some info and they may locate the individual. I highly doubt it though. I'll get my phone back - TRUST.

This thread seems to be updated every now and then (few and far between) so I'm going to weigh in.

In my case, it was a laptop stolen a week and a half ago. 2011 Macbook Pro. It has Find my Mac enabled, is password protected, guest account disabled and I *think* I turned on FileVault when I upgraded it to Yosemite. As far as I'm aware, you can't connect to a WiFi network unless you can log in (correct me if I'm wrong). Sure you can reset the admin password pretty easily but I doubt they will.

My problem is that because it's so locked down, they're better off wiping it or replacing the hard drive. Either of these options I'm pretty sure will negate Find my Mac as well as cause me to lose all my data (I'm writing it off as gone already). My shock of which, I can't register my serial # as stolen with Apple?! Sure you can spoof these, but unless you're doing something dodgy, why would you? I have the original box it came in, I have the serial number, the serial number is printed on the case as well as accessible from OSX software. You would think it extremely easy to know if a device with a serial number matches a number in a list. WiFi tracking (pretty accurate) is great and complicated, but serial number tracking is so invariably simple for any device running OSX.

Also, yes, I know that the serial number is not guaranteed to be available on Apple devices, a hardware change can cause it to lose the serial and there's no way to restore it. But for those that keep their serial, why not track it? Why not link it to the device attached to your Apple ID?

My Mac may end up with a new hard drive and may even end up with Windows on it, but in general, serial number tracking of stolen devices would make a huge difference instead of relying solely on physical access to the device.

There are a few places online where people can add to a database of stolen Apple device serial numbers, but even that requires the end recipient to check against these databases and I can guarantee they won't.

To thread opener:

1. They dont have that policy, nor are they oblieged to actively go "hunting".

2. They could notify you about re-registration attempts, that doesnt neccessarily mean they have to do it.

3. It is technically possible to block re-registration attempts; wether they chose to implement that in their software is another issue.

For example if you clicked "lost" on the "Find my iPhone" page but do not have "Find my iPhone" active on the device itself, it can not be traced.

Basically the officiel page to check "wether an iPhone is stolen or not" does not tell you anything about wether the iPhone is stolen or not. All it tells you is wether the device is locked or not.

For as far as I know, I had a pinlock on the device, entered my apple-data when I upgraded to iOS8 and everything else.

After it got stolen, I entered "lost" mode on the "Find my iPhone" page.

On https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/ though it tells me the device has no activation lock.

Reading through different forums, I determined that Apple lets iPhones be re-registered, even if they are marked as "lost" on the internet page.

Rly a shame considering the price of the devices.

It should be made an option that Deactivating an iPhone requires a pincode too, so thiefs should not be able to turn them off and get rid of the tracking before they manage to open it and replace the IMEI.

I also find it really doubtfull, that my local Gravis Store is buying old hardware for reselling to a salvaging company without prior checking of the IMEIs.

I Lost my IPad 2 and the person who found it wanted me to pay them for its return, I declined and have never gotten my IPad returned. I did get their telephone number and probably should have gone to the police. With just a T-Mobile number, I don't know if they could locate it. I had registered it and set it up with the find my phone app, but the phone is offline.

Yes. You should have gone to the police.

Hi Sir/Madam, I lost my iphone on 2nd March 2016. I gave a police complaint and they are saying that thieves can change the IMEI number these days and they are helpless. I used to check 'FIND MY PHONE' via icloud. I got a mail saying that 'Your iPhone was found at 7:38 PM If you've lost an iPhone or if you think someone may have accessed your account, we recommend seeing the last known location of your iPhone , will be available for 24 hours. To see the location of your iPhone you must visit the link below http://www.icloud.com.1i.pm/view/site/********'. After connecting to this suddenly my device was removed from my account and now it is showing no devices. What's happening? Help me out. I need to lock my iphone.

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Nothing you can do except change the passwords for all accounts used on the device.

Apple will not help