Q: Stolen iPhone removed off Find My iPhone by thief - what now?

Unless they knew you and had an interest in your data, they *likely* only wanted the device itself. If you were a celebrity, they may have that interest in your camera roll and contacts.

To be sure, start contacting at the very least, your financial partners for advice.

The whole stolen iPhone thing is now all about speed. Since they are rendered fairly useless with activation locks, a thief typically wants to turn them  over very quickly. If yours did not have the activation lock that makes your device worth a bit more than a locked device. Thieves don't like to sit on inventory and don't have clear out sales. They move their goods fast and often.

I live in Miami,FL.

It takes a search on Craigslist and a call to meet with someone who will

1:Remove iCloud lock

2:Remove Passcode lock

3:Change IMEI code

4:Carrier unlock it (GSM versions)

Although Craigslist is indeed a murky place, I don't believe anyone there can "remove iCloud lock"

There are ways (I understand) to bypass it using alternate DNS severs, but that is not removal.

Yes, it can be removed as far as I know and not using different DNS servers because a lot of stolen phones here in Miami/South Florida wind up in South America working. It's a big $ business here.

I would suspect that they re-flash the firmware with a changed IEMI number, you remove the device's physical (IEMI #) association to the iCloud.

or downgrade to iOS 9.1 (reflash it) and jailbreak it, then remove the iCloud lock, I would think that is also how you remove a iPhone off the GSM blacklist

You can NOT get to the encrypted data (except by other physical means and possibly destroying the phone internals, like what the FBI should have done to that iPhone from the terrorist) but

the old saying goes,"No matter how smart you think you are, there is always someone smarter", and the fraud with Medicaid/Medicare here (Miami is the capital of the fraud in the US on that) is getting harder, the "people (a.k.a. criminals) find ways to keep making the money.

I would suspect this is how the NSA/CIA work in keeping their iPhones always changing the IEMI and wifi/bluetooth/GSM mac address,etc...so not to be tracked by a stingray tower (just my opinion on it)

I encountered the exact same scam. . These hackers can do whatever they want. .Apple cannot do something about it?

I was able to use find "Find my iPhone" and set it to lost mode. Location was tracked for few minutes but the device went offline and the location never updated afterwards.

The following day, the phone that we use to track the device got a txt message saying:

"Your lost iphone 6 IMEI**** has been found, view the location of the device at http://findmyph0ne.16mb.com/apple.support/ "

I opened the link and it directed me to a page that looks like a legit Find my iPhone login page. I login and it directed to google maps which indicates a location.

Unluckily after logging in that website, the device got lost in the list of my devices. I then thought maybe the thief was successful in unlocking my phone.

A day later, I read some threads in the internet and got an idea that the txt message a got was a phishing scam and it turns out to be the case.

Yeah look.......

If a LINK is there and it says APPLE in it, do yourself a favor and COPY/PASTE it into Safari

DO NOT CLICK IT, as it would be a redirect

also this is REAL important

IF a website does NOT say apple.com and is NOT a HTTPS connection

THEN IT'S A SCAM

and you fell for it

so now they can get into your iCloud and remove Find My iPhone

Sorry, but you did this to yourself. NEVER follow a LINK to ANYTHING

really

goto HTTPS://www.icloud.com and LOG IN THAT WAY, NOT THRU A EMAIL

and Apple would NOT send you emails saying they found your iPhone by IMEI

Change you iCloud password

you should have already done that

you fell for a phishing scam

your phone is GONE....

People learn from their mistakes or learn from reading about other people's mistakes

Remember, outside of your people you communicate with daily or weekly or family

they are not really your friends

ESPECIALLY on the INTERNET....

Thanks, appreciate it. .is it worth the hassle if I put my stolen phone in GSM blacklist?

yes

I would

BUT if you find it

remember it is gone for good

but I would report it and go thru the hassle of it

NOT that it would make a difference if the phone is going to South America

but in the US, yes, it would get black listed

I had this also. How did they get my number to text me?

I thought all my information was erased. How did they get my number to text me?

How can they text me if my information was deleted?

HHow do I locate my

iphone ???