Things the guys who stole my phone have texted me to try to get me to unlock it - Gothamist

1984@lemmy.today to Technology@lemmy.world – 903 points –
Things the guys who stole my phone have texted me to try to get me to unlock it
gothamist.com

This is a very entertaining and educational article, giving insights into the methods used by thiefs to try and get access to your phone data.

I don't like Apple but it's great that their security is so good when it comes to this.

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This made me realize, as an android user, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do if someone steals my phone.

They have the same system. The phone is tied to your account and you can track, lock and erase it remotely with Google's Find My Device.

Luckily I've only had to use "find my device" whenever my phone decides to catch-up with the TV remotes under the couch cushions

We have a black coffee table and sometimes it's just on the coffee table and I'm like "Jesus fucking Christ what is wrong with you.". In fairness to me, it's summer, I keep the shades drawn, keeps the temps down.

Except you can more easily wipe the os at a low level and fully factory reset the device. That’s not possible with iPhones.

Funny thing, even if you do that you can be prevented from initializing the device. You get a "this phone was reset in an unusual way, sign in to the original account used for setup" message the may or not hint at an email address. I've got a stack of them on my desk from former employees that I'm trying to get back into. Pain in the ass for business, good for consumers.

Afaik, that changed a while ago. Nowadays, it should still ask for the google account of the most recent owner.

yeah, factory reset protection, it wipes the user data, but will refuse to fully finish setting up the the os after the reset until the google acct is verified..

You can’t do that on modern phones with locked bootloader. This is the reason why manufacturers who allow bootloader unlock still don’t ship phones with bootloader unlocked by default.

hopefully you have it locked so they just wipe the data. and then you buy a new phone.

Encrypt it with a strong password in the first place...