A smartphone thief who earned $300,000 by stealing iPhones explains ``How to steal smartphones and countermeasures''
If your smartphone is stolen and unlocked, your money will be stolen from payment apps and electronic money installed on your smartphone, resulting in a large amount of damage. The Wall Street Journal, a major media outlet, conducted an interview with a person who illegally earned about $300,000 (43 million yen) by stealing smartphones, mainly iPhones, and learned about methods and countermeasures for stealing smartphones. Masu.
Aaron Johnson, an inmate serving time for stealing hundreds of iPhones, was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Inmate Johnson is said to have earned approximately $300,000 (43 million yen) through the stolen iPhone.
Inmate Johnson primarily stole from bars and other restaurants where alcohol was consumed. The person wearing red clothes in the lower right corner of the surveillance camera video below is Prisoner Johnson. Inmate Johnson first got the victim's interest by saying, ``I have drugs, but...'' and then said, ``I don't have any drugs at the moment, so please write down my information.'' This will prompt you to record a memo on your iPhone.
Once the victim takes out the iPhone, the attacker watches them unlock it, memorizes the passcode, and steals the phone later. In some cases, the victim would say, ``I'll write it down,'' and then receive the iPhone from the victim and ask, ``What's the passcode?'' If the victim handed over the iPhone in an unlocked state, he would lock it once and then say, ``I'm locked,'' and ask him to tell me the passcode and unlock it.
Additionally, Ryan Gregersen, who was the victim of the theft by Johnson, testified that Johnson asked him, ``I'm a rapper. Can I add you as a friend on Snapchat?'' I am.
Once your iPhone is stolen and unlocked, open your Apple ID settings and change your passcode.
When changing your Apple ID password, only the 'iPhone passcode' is required, so you can change your password even if you are not the user.
Once the password is changed, the victim will no longer be able to sign in to their Apple ID.
Once you have successfully changed your Apple ID passcode, you can then register your face with FaceID.
Now you can pay using Apple Pay.
Furthermore, you can also view passwords for various web services registered in iCloud and passcode management services, so you can sign in to payment services and earn money.
Many of the victims recorded passwords for various services in 'memos.'
Sell your old iPhone to a second-hand store for cash. According to Inmate Johnson, the Pro series and Pro Max series sold for about $650 (about 93,000 yen).
On the other hand, the purchase price for models without Pro was $300 to $400 (43,000 to 57,000 yen).
Inmate Johnson was said to have set his sights on the high-selling Pro series and Pro Max series. This model is easy to tell apart because it has three rear cameras.
Prisoner Johnson made a large amount of money just by selling the stolen iPhone to a second-hand store, and at most times he was earning $20,000 (about 2.9 million yen) in a week.
Inmate Johnson also used the method of ``purchasing large quantities of Apple products such as iPhones and iPads with Apple Pay and selling them'' in order to obtain cash.
To prevent iPhone theft, Inmate Johnson and the Wall Street Journal recommend that you pay attention to the following points:
・Do not record passwords for various services in the memo app
・To unlock, set a password that includes alphabets and symbols instead of a passcode that consists only of numbers.
- Pay attention to your surroundings and always understand your situation.
In addition, in iOS 17.2, the latest version at the time of article creation, you can change your Apple ID password by simply entering the passcode, but in the beta version of iOS 17.3, you can change your Apple ID password using Touch ID or Face ID. A setting has been added to require authentication.
iOS 17.3 beta adds a feature to protect stolen iPhones with biometric authentication - GIGAZINE
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