Verizon Wireless Verizon to start locking phones again in order to combat phone theft

To be honest, I think it's just an excuse to lock phones to their network.

 

Yes, the reason is totally lame. I hope FCC comes after them with a vengeance.

 

Sad, but true. I don't think the current FCC administration that wants to get rid of net neutrality would do that

 

Good point.

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This is why we need to educate consumers. Don't buy phone's from carriers, buy unlocked phones directly from manufacturers.

 

Seems really lame. I would think for an iPhone the locking system has prevent theft and resale of phones. Even the FBI cannot break into one.

It does seem like a Verizon thing


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Sadly, iPhones are still being stolen I'm not sure what can be done with a stolen iPhone, but I bet there are more options than FBI had as they wanted to access the phone data. A thief would likely be OK with not not having access to that.

 

I would think less options actually, as to reuse a iPhone you would need the Apple ID password, even if the iPhone was not password/fingerprint locked.

I’m sure iPhones are stolen and unknowingly resold to people that don’t realize how difficult or impossible it is to reuse. Yeah the data might be of non interest, but probably a lot of people don’t lock their iPhone so much personal data is lost.

But to actually reuse the iPhone, thieves have to attempt phishing for your credentials. I’m sure many fall for this too.

https://www.google.com/amp/www.zdne...als-make-their-money-from-your-stolen-iphone/

But otherwise it hard to get at.


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I believe Verizon said it was to prevent theft of phones prior to activation. IOW phones stolen on the way to Verizon stores. These aren't locked by Apple's system. I didn't go look it up so I could be mistaken but that's what I remember from the article I read.

 

That’s makes sense and also raises an old question: why Apple would never help block stolen iPhones by the IMEI number or S/N since a stolen iPhone would need to use Apple services.

It was that way years ago. If the policy hasn’t changed, then boo on Apple.
Of course there are other brands to consider.


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Maybe it was with earlier iPhones, but I think I remember posting about wiping an iPhone if you forgot passcode. Something about holding down the power key and selecting reset mode?

 

@viewfly interesting read. I thought it was as simple as jailbreaking and then the activation would not be required. And I guess there may be a market for parts as well.

 

That only wipes the phones data, and assuming the phone wasn’t password locked. But it doesn’t remove the Apple ID. So it will start up like a new phone, but at some point you have to enter the previous users ID to go forward. Simply put, the iPhone is not locked to a carrier, but locked to the owner.




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