Your iPhone Gets Stolen. Then The Cheating Begins

Every year, millions phones are stolen. When thousands iPhones and sent to China with part cracking, criminals can make a lot of money by selling a device that has been unlocked and wiped. Now researchers have discovered another part of the cyber crime network that could help provide access to stolen iPhones.

Online and beyond Telegramthere is a “thriving” ecosystem of software vendors who help fuel the market for stolen iPhones by providing “unlocked” hardware and manufacturing technology. fraud messages to help find the phone, according to the information obtained from researchers at the cybersecurity company Infoblox. The company says it has tracked down “dozens” of groups selling unlocking devices, mostly targeting iPhones, and has linked more than 10,000 websites to the service. Traffic to these areas increased 350 percent last year, the researchers say.

“Remarketing is 100 percent of what they want,” said Maël Le Touz, an employee threat researcher at Infoblox, who says people around the world seem to be buying up access to paid software. The average price is less than $10. “Most of the people who want to unlock phones clearly don’t have thousands of phones in their hands – they’re just not there,” says Le Touz.

Over the past few years, the number of stolen phones has increased—for example, and about 80,000 devices to be taken from London in one year. When apple and Google have improved their security against stolen devices, a variety of thieves both large and small can still make money from stolen goods: If the phone is unlocked or the thief has his pass, he can steal money from online bank accounts or crypto wallets; people stealing phones on the streets or in bars can do it hundreds of dollars to sell them.

“Phone thieves don’t just want the phone, they want access to bank accounts and personal information,” said Will Lyne, head of financial and cyber crime at London’s Metropolitan Police. Lyne highlights one story of the four men who were there to be caught handling over 5,000 stolen phones and spending money from financial accounts on these devices.

Dan Guido, CEO and cofounder of security company Trail of Bits and a consultant to the mobile security industry. iVerifyit is estimated that a stolen phone can be worth only $50 to $200 when locked. But if you open it, the price is $500, or it’s $1,000. These differences can encourage people to develop ways to test and access devices. “This whole thing is an ecosystem, and there are a number of people in different parts of the market who work together to unlock the phones,” he says.

Security researchers at Infoblox began looking into the phone unlocking economy earlier this year when law enforcement contacts in Asia reported their iPhones had been stolen and received a phishing message after including their contact information. locking device. A link to a fraudulent website has been downloaded Apple Find My Page and showed a fake map with the phone—and it showed a pop-up asking for the phone’s PIN code.

Many people on the Internetand the Swiss National Cybersecurity Center, have reported that they have received fraudulent messages after losing or having their iPhones stolen, in which the attackers want to access Apple iCloud accounts and delete them from the phones. “In order for the messages to appear authentic, they include the correct information about the missing device, such as its brand, model, and storage capacity – which fraudsters can read directly on the phone itself,” the Swiss agency said. he wrote in November. “Since there is no known way to bypass the lock, tricking the owner using social media is the only way to do it.”