Apparently, iPhones are designed to be stolen

[SavageSig]

My iPhone 4 was stolen over the weekend, and I have learned a number of upsetting facts.

1) The IMEI # and Serial # you have are useless. AT&T refuses to blacklist phones that are reported as stolen. It has been rumored that this is deliberate to increase sales. It doesn't take a genius to see that this is true. They told me it's too complicated to put a system in place: tell that to the UK, where they have been blacklisting stolen phones for years. I mean, seriously? Everybody activates through them. Why is it so complicated. Add another step to the activation process that checks the IMEI#. Boom, problem solved.

2) Said phone can be restored with iTunes WITHOUT the password needed to access the iPhone itself. In other words, if you steal an iphone with a password, no sweat. Just hook it up to iTunes and wipe it clean. Presto! Like new iPhone!

3) I had 2 AT&T CSRs tell me that they WILL blacklist phones. They even put me on hold to do so. But they were just lying to get me to get off the line, because 3 other AT&T CSRs told me that was complete BS. I was also told that the thief cannot use the iPhone at all without the password, but as I mentioned before, that is not true.

4) AT&T will gladly activate a stolen phone for you for $15. And probably fall over themselves trying to get you to sign up for a sweet new contract.

5) Despite the fact that the iPhone has GPS, they refuse to track it. They claim they cannot, but again, this is a bald faced lie.

6) MobileMe is $100 and is not guaranteed to work. Most PD's refuse to regard iPhone theft as a true crime, as it is a cell phone. A cell phone worth more than some small cars, but "just" a cell phone.

7) Insurance is $15 a month plus a $300 deductible for an iPhone 4. So if you have it for two years and happen to lose your iPhone, you will have paid for a new iPhone and then some. A suckers bet for sure.

So all of these facts combined and you have to wonder why anybody WOULDN'T grab an iPhone they see lying around. It's like cars from 20 years ago: they were so easy to steal, they were stolen all the time. Get the industry to beef up some countermeasures though, and you make cars unattractive to steal, and so car thefts go down.

[G27]

You do have a couple of options, if they are already in place:

1] you can remotely wipe all personal data from your phone, and

2] you can track it yourself via MobileMe.

You probably knew this, just saying.

[nolo]

Sorry to hear that. Your next phone should be a Droid incredible. That way you don't have to mess with at&t or Apple.

[kb4ns]

Well, I see AT&T hasn't improved since the days I was with them...

[vontar]

I can believe that about AT&T.

When I get my bills in order, here I come Droid X.

[SavageSig]

Well, I'm not so sure it's specific to AT&T. Do other phone companies blacklist phones? I get the impression none of them do it.

[Currently]

ATT has quite the following on this board ... that is why every one is switching to Verizon.

It is called customer service ... it does make a vendor stand out.

[dralarms]

Well, I'm not so sure it's specific to AT&T. Do other phone companies blacklist phones? I get the impression none of them do it.

I think if you report a phone stolen to Verizon and provide them with the police report then the phone becomes a paperweight. I know they will not activate a phone that has a balance owed against it.

[vontar]

well, I know a blackberry can be blacklisted and security wiped.

Where I work in IT, we have a proceedure in place if someone reports a lost or stolen phone. We submit the forums to the blackberry enterprise admins and they issue a kill command to the phone.

We have blackberrys that are mostly verizon, but I believe some are AT&T.

I Have not had to look at the support document for that in many months so I can not be certain about AT&T but i do know we can have ones on Verizon killed.

Edited July 27, 2010 by vontar

[BigK]

I too am really sorry to hear your phone was stolen. Sometimes I want to handcuff mine to my wrist, since they are so expensive. So far, I've been really lucky. In 15 +/- years, I've never lost one or had one stolen.

BTW...I was told when I bought my iPhone that I could NOT take the SIM card out to put it into a new phone or Apple would think it was stolen and "brick" the phone. True or not, I would never want to use another phone anyway.

Just curious, how did someone manage to steal it? I'm assuming blacklisting means if someone tries to register it, they won't let them, right? Do they call the police and report the address they were given during registration?

[Guest strelcevina]

how about if somebody jailbreak your Iphone???

anyway sprint 4G is almost everywhere.

now i get it at my house to so far is 3mb+ down and 1mb up

[Fallguy]

Really hate to hear about this.....will try to always keep mine close...

As far as AT&T goes....I have been with them for nearly 10 years, back when it was Bellsouth Mobility around here and except for one incident, have always had great customer service.

Back before unlimited texting plans my daughter ran up $400 worth of texting on top of the rest of the bill. I called them up and basically said I just don't have it...they wiped $200 of it off and allowed me to pay the rest over two bills.

[Yikes!]

AT&T - The reason I don't have an iPhone. (I've had a Mac since 1991) and the reason I no longer have a home phone/fax.

[Guest Buzz87]

I find it hard to believe they won't shut the phone down. I know several people who have had family plans and when they split from a spouse, the spouse reported the phone stolen and these two guys were left SOL and cant activate these phones. Neither were iPhones but both were smartphones.

My experience W/AT&T has been wonderful for 10+ years. I hardly ever find an area w/o service and encounter the best customer service when needed.

Dude sorry about your phone though. That sux. Be sure to remote wipe it for sure. Best of luck.

[StPatrick]

7) Insurance is $15 a month plus a $300 deductible for an iPhone 4. So if you have it for two years and happen to lose your iPhone, you will have paid for a new iPhone and then some. A suckers bet for sure.

Put it on your renter's / condo owner's / homeowner's insurance as a personal effects rider. I did that a while back with my guns, guitars, and iPhone. For several grand worth of merchandise, fully insured against anything including my own idiocy, I pay less than the $15 a month you cited for a single phone. Seriously - I can slip and fall and break a guitar, or drop my phone in a pot of spaghetti, and it's replaced with no deductable. The only caveat is that you can't be using the items for anything but personal use - if they're for business (not sure if it's "primarily" or "at all"), they fall under another umbrella.

You really can't beat it - fire, flood, theft, and your own oopsies for far less than the phone company.

[G27]

I'm with you Fallguy - I have two cel phones (both iPhones with AT&T) - my older line has been with AT&T (Bellsouth mobility, Cingular, whatever) since 1996. I've had zero issues with them over the year, and only dropped their business DSL because they couldn't offer speeds that matched what I currently get from Comcast cable.

IME, AT&T's service and support has always been top-notch. Bonus for the iPhone contract.

[Il Duce]

how about if somebody jailbreak your Iphone???

anyway sprint 4G is almost everywhere.

now i get it at my house to so far is 3mb+ down and 1mb up

hey look! its you again with another post that is irrelevant to the thread.

anyways, yes they can BL phones but they wont. insurance for phones is a joke. tracking of phones is doable att is just lazy.

[VolunteerGuns]

hey look! its you again with another post that is irrelevant to the thread.

anyways, yes they can BL phones but they wont. insurance for phones is a joke. tracking of phones is doable att is just lazy.

[Il Duce]

lol

[Guest spoolie]

It doesn't matter if ATT blacklists phones or not. They know this, it's useless...give me any phone that has been "bricked" or "locked" or blacklisted....I will have it up and running again in a few hours.

Verizon phones are easy to erase and re install with new imei numbers and serial numbers. ATT is just smarter than most. And btw...I've unlocked several crackberries that were "marked". They are the easiest to fix.

[vontar]

Ok, I hate to be the one to being up an old thread, however I was talking with a co worker. This topic came up. I remembered this thread. He said reporting to AT&T would be wrong. Report to APPLE Security, they have a way to track the device though Itunes, so if the device ever gets plugged back into Itunes, they can locate it. He said same goes for their Laptops and he told me he had a friend that got a laptop back a year after the fact thanks to Apple Security and Itunes, don't ask me details. I wasn't there.