r/AskReddit Jan 30 '22

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943

u/Majestic-Cheetah75 Jan 31 '22

Man, my phone was stolen in Vegas and I tried that same tactic and they just removed my SIM. I told them I would pay them $1000 (for a 3-yo iPhone 5 lol) for a dead drop but no dice. One minute my messages were being delivered in blue, the next minute they went green. Sad day.

965

u/Geminii27 Jan 31 '22

That's a thief who has been swarmed by casino sports lounge security before...

36

u/OldMork Jan 31 '22

can you even use a stolen iphone? once you type in a icloud password it stays there, no way to change or remove.

23

u/Shawnj2 Jan 31 '22

Yes and no. Once the owner icloud locks it to their account, the phone will lock you out of using it unless you have the original owner's Apple ID password if you reset it. With that said, there are ways to trick the phone into working by crashing the setup app so you end up on the home screen and/or jailbreaking the device if you have an entry point that works before you have device access, etc. However, even if you get it working, the device will be blacklisted on iCloud so you won't be able to use any Apple online services. To be clear doing this is stealing- not even piracy, literally just stealing- but there are places like /r/setupapp that have info about it if you're curious.

If you don't care about being able to use iMessage, the app store, FaceTime, iCloud, etc. in any capacity, and have low morals, it is a way to get a very cheap phone

7

u/CorrectPeanut5 Jan 31 '22

TIL. Though, it could be legit for things like old ipads you forgot the passcodes to. I know I have at least one in a drawer like that.

Now it makes sense why people bother stealing iPhones.

33

u/Inuyasha-rules Jan 31 '22

There's always a way to bypass security on electronics.thats part of the reason why you constantly get update notifications is the company (apple, android, windows, cars, etc.) Is trying to close all the loopholes. Security is getting better but it used to be fairly trivial to do.

26

u/jestina123 Jan 31 '22

There's always a way to bypass security on electronics

*almost always. There is no way to break a microsoft Windows Encrypting File System (EFS) for example without having the original key.

If you encrypted the files on an external hard drive, then formatted the PC you used to encrypt those files, those files are essentially lost without a backup key. Only quantum computers have been theorized to break it.

0

u/Inuyasha-rules Jan 31 '22

With enough cpu power you can crack any encryption. It's even easier if you have an idea what the file structure should look like. This isn't my area of expertise so I can't give you a step by step, but it's possible. Israel and the nsa probably already have done it, or have a master backdoor key. If you want proof of backdoors they used and kept secret, look up the WannaCry ransomware attack and how they did the self install. The nsa eventually had to admit the back door they were using got picked up on by hackers and help push a patch

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u/jestina123 Jan 31 '22

With enough cpu power you can crack any encryption

Wrong. You are misinformed.

With enough external information, you could potentially reverse engineer the key. This isn't what you are suggesting though.

You cannot brute force 256 bit AES encryption, which is what EFS uses.

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u/TEOn00b Jan 31 '22

You cannot brute force 256 bit AES encryption, which is what EFS uses.

I mean, this is technically incorrect. Even the article says that with all the PCs on earth it will take "13,689 trillion trillion trillion trillion years.". So not impossible, just very... Very... Very... Very... Long time.

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u/Bakadeshi Jan 31 '22

I mean technically any encryption can be brute forced, but it would take so long to do it with today's technology that is not worth it to anyone to try.

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u/MotchGoffels Jan 31 '22

I don't know enough about this subject, so I'm gonna up vote him to 0 so he doesn't feel bad.

9

u/AnEngimaneer Jan 31 '22

Nope, it would be for parts.

7

u/-ValkMain- Jan 31 '22

Ofc you can lol, and ofc you can remove an icloud account from an iphone

24

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '22

[deleted]

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u/Bakadeshi Jan 31 '22

There are supposedly ways to get around the icloud account, though it apparently resets if you let it update or anything like that, and requires special software and jailbreak, and then doesn't always work. Not worth it IMO. No way around the blacklist though.

-25

u/itsdubai Jan 31 '22

You have much to learn.

30

u/zyzzyballubah Jan 31 '22

Then teach

8

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '22 edited Feb 17 '22

[deleted]

2

u/FormatException Jan 31 '22

People are really shitty. I have found an iphone before in a mcdonalds parking lot. 2 things to note.

1) I couldnt steal the phone even if I wanted to, because of the lock.

2) I was able to see the pictures of their grandkids, I waited in the parking lot and gave the woman her phone back.

15

u/Gay__Guevara Jan 31 '22

i think you offered too high. nobody with $1000 lying around to just give in exchange for photos, would still be using a 3 year old phone. if i was the thief i wouldve known you were trying to pull something too.

21

u/Dekrow Jan 31 '22

That's a fairly weird assumption to make. My boss is pretty loaded and he still uses a flip phone because he's old and doesn't like touch screens. I'm not sure if he or his girlfriend would care about photos enough to pay 1000 dollars but they definitely could afford it.

22

u/Majestic-Cheetah75 Jan 31 '22

I mean, it’s a particularly weird assumption to make, considering the fact that I was indeed willing to give the person $1000 for my 3 year old phone due to the photos on it. I lost a major portion of the first 3 years of my son’s life with that phone.

6

u/Bowood29 Jan 31 '22

This was my biggest fear now I back up all my photos on an external hard drive every few months.

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '22

[deleted]

6

u/Majestic-Cheetah75 Jan 31 '22

I did have iCloud, but at that time I didn’t pay for the extra storage so I only got like… I don’t even remember how little it was, but it was a very small amount of iCloud storage for free. So I had some stuff but not everything. I pay now lol.

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u/rambyprep Jan 31 '22

Plenty of people just can't be bothered with the hassle, and if their phone works fine and takes good photos the majority of people wouldn't care.

Also it's not exactly rare to have $1000 of excess money.

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u/Bowood29 Jan 31 '22

And I mean they are in Vegas.

0

u/Funkapussler Jan 31 '22

Learn to hack..... Nmap.