Yet Another Stolen iPhone Recovered Thanks to Photo Stream

[Maura]

TUAW has a story today that shows that people still don’t realize that taking photos of themselves on an iPhone that doesn’t belong to them (putting it delicately!) with Photo Stream still running is not a very good idea! According to TUAW, Katy McCaffrey’s iPhone was either lost or stolen during a Disney Cruise in April. She had probably given up hope of getting the phone returned to her in one piece, until pictures taken with the phone of a Disney Cruise employee called Nelson and his friends started appearing in iCloud on the stolen/misplaced phone’s Photo Stream. Disney says that having investigated the matter, the iPhone has now been recovered, and will be returned to Katy when the boat that it is currently on docks back on dry land. As for Nelson, the star of the photos, he is currently on “administrative leave”, presumably also until the boat docks at the end of the cruise.

Source: Stolen iPhone photos unwittingly posted by Disney cruise ship employee | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

 

[XamDam]

Well thats great news to hear about, but they played with a dummy as if anyone who knows taking the sim card out and tossing it away you will never track the phone.

The person who found it can wipe it clean and its all brand new.

All pll can do is call the carrier and try and get the iemi number blocked, but it most cases
the carrier will not do so. Heck even law enforcement won't do anything unless you get a court order to track the
gps movements of the phone, but do you the average person think they will do so, not likely.

So word of advice to all honest ppl, never leave your phone alone.

Glad to see a dummy is caught and i hope he gets fired for not even trying to find
the owner.

 

[zig9449]

I recovered my stolen iPhone as well. Tho it was thanks to a perfectly designed and intuitive Cydia tweak for tracking your phone, and taking pictures with its cameras on demand remotely, as well as a pretty damn accurate location. This tweak was called Cylay.

 

[XamDam]

Does that app use Imei tracking abilities?

If not then glad you tracked a dumb criminal and got your phone back.

I hate the fact i can't track by Imei.

 

[zig9449]

Does that app use Imei tracking abilities?

If not then glad you tracked a dumb criminal and got your phone back.

I hate the fact i can't track by Imei.

You use your carrier to track the imei.

But I don't see the difference in regards if just wanting to be able to locate your phone.

Why would you even want to track the imei?....if your tracking the phone...then it's the same thing....

 

[XamDam]

You need a court order to track it by Imei if stolen or lost.

If you read my first post you would see as to why as if the person removes the sim card and replaces it with another one, you will never ever track that phone again, unless you get a court order to allow the carrier to have legal authority to do so.

Even if the perso turned the phone off, again you can't track it, heck even of your phone was not password locked and they turned off icloud and/or location services off, you can't track it as there is no way by GPS to do so.


So i hate that i can't track by Imei as a user without a court order.

 

[XamDam]

Oh and thats even if they criminal did not unlock the phone and started using another carrier, then your carrier can't track i either as it not on thier service anymore.

But if you act quickly enough, they just might be able to track it, but court systems can take days or weeks to give you an order, even the police are not really willing to go arms length to get an order unless of course its a serious issue.


So moral of the story again is never leave your phone alone.

 

[zig9449]

Yeah, but SCERW that coart oder.lol.

Who is going to steal an iPhone and not connect it to the interney atleast once.

I find my phone on a map, better yet with a picture of the very last person to use it.......I'm going to go get it.lol.

yeah they could tun off loaction but if they restored it then location would be on by deafult, and then I would get an instant notification of it's last location with picture from the front and rear camera.

And i would still be able to track the phone down whether they activated it on another carrier or not. Cylay uses the devices UDID, which cannot be changed...well you can fake the UDID if you jailbreak but regardless, Cylay will "always" find the device when connectd to the internet with location on.

the imei sounds like the worst way one could track a phone in that reagrd.

 

[XamDam]

Does Cylay have to be installed on the phone?

Once the phone is wiped out and sim is replaced and so forth, you won't be able to track it, unless Cylay uses Iemi tracking which it will send you a sms message of the new phone number of the new sim in it and you would have to remotely login from a PC or another phone.

Localize is another app that uses Iemi, damn last time i looked for such a thing was about 3-4 years ago, good too see they came out with something.

Problem is if the phone was wipes out and location services turned off and then sim changed
before turnig it on, no program will track it the as no GPS info to track, then again it maybe possible to track
when the phone was connected to Wifi, but thats not 100% accurate info.

Try it out for me unlock your phone and install another carriers sim or actually try another one from your carrier.

See if you can track it still and if cylay is on the phone, turn it off and see if you can track it still.

The court order is only needed in the case you no longer can track it, all info Iemi and so forth once connected
will get posted to the server so the carrier can track it if needed to be.

So basically if the program whichni looked up Cylay is removed from the phone just like localize or even smrtguard for blackberries i had that and sure it sent me a Sms of phone when sim was changed, but when i turned it off Nope, can't track it.

So the only 100% to track it is through the carrier as they would after a court order track it by Imei on the servers.

I get what your saying as 90% of criminals will access the internet right away with a found or stolen iphone, but smart criminals know what to do.

Now in no way am i posting such information to inform ppl to do such criminal behaviour, just telling ppl that if you get lucky with a dummy who took it, awesome you will find it.

If not then by all means go get a court order and get it tracked, but again if they switched carriers you will need to get an order for a carriers, its a pain in the arse to get, but can be done.

Again moral of the story is never leave your phone alone.

 

[zig9449]

Does Cylay have to be installed on the phone?

Once the phone is wiped out and sim is replaced and so forth, you won't be able to track it, unless Cylay uses Iemi tracking which it will send you a sms message of the new phone number of the new sim in it and you would have to remotely login from a PC or another phone.

Localize is another app that uses Iemi, damn last time i looked for such a thing was about 3-4 years ago, good too see they came out with something.

Problem is if the phone was wipes out and location services turned off and then sim changed
before turnig it on, no program will track it the as no GPS info to track, then again it maybe possible to track
when the phone was connected to Wifi, but thats not 100% accurate info.

Try it out for me unlock your phone and install another carriers sim or actually try another one from your carrier.

See if you can track it still and if cylay is on the phone, turn it off and see if you can track it still.

The court order is only needed in the case you no longer can track it, all info Iemi and so forth once connected
will get posted to the server so the carrier can track it if needed to be.

So basically if the program whichni looked up Cylay is removed from the phone just like localize or even smrtguard for blackberries i had that and sure it sent me a Sms of phone when sim was changed, but when i turned it off Nope, can't track it.

So the only 100% to track it is through the carrier as they would after a court order track it by Imei on the servers.

I get what your saying as 90% of criminals will access the internet right away with a found or stolen iphone, but smart criminals know what to do.

Now in no way am i posting such information to inform ppl to do such criminal behaviour, just telling ppl that if you get lucky with a dummy who took it, awesome you will find it.

If not then by all means go get a court order and get it tracked, but again if they switched carriers you will need to get an order for a carriers, its a pain in the arse to get, but can be done.

Again moral of the story is never leave your phone alone.

Cylay has to be installed on the phone to utilize its beat features...but even if the phone was restored it would still show on a map....but that's all it would do.

There is an option in Cylay to prevent the phone from shutting off so it cannot be restored in the First place, but one knew how to enter DFU mode then they could restore it that way.

 

[Pinkpoison]

i have had many many mobile phones and never "lost" one yet,if I'm out of my home my phone never leaves my sight,if I'm not using it it is securely in my bag,i never ever put it down on a table unless I'm at the table,its all common sense really.

 

[dlwhtrose]

+1 ^^^^

Not only that but PASSWORDS people. Lock your information up tightly. You may not get your phone back but if you put a password lock on your phone then no one else is going to use it either and then you can use the gps to find it!!

 

[Pinkpoison]

+1 ^^^^

Not only that but PASSWORDS people. Lock your information up tightly. You may not get your phone back but if you put a password lock on your phone then no one else is going to use it either and then you can use the gps to find it!!

yes,at least you would have the satisfaction of knowing that it would be no good to them.

 

[XamDam]

Lol did you guys read my posts in here, even with a password on it. They can still wipe the phone out and use it, but yes my phone nevee leaves my sight and have a password so no one gain access to use it without my permission, but a thief can wipe we clean and put another sim into it and use it like a new phone.

Now like i mentioned if you have a dumb thief well you will able to find your phone, but if a good thief gets it. Then
good luck getting it back as you will need to get a court order to do so and again if they on another carrier your SOL unless you obtain a court order for all carriers in your country and good damn luck with that and better good damn luck trying to get a court order for any other country.

So like i said already the moral of the story is never leave your phone alone.

All these programs that say track your phone and blah blah blah are ok to find your phone at home and for dummy criminals.

My carrier offers a find my phone service for free up to 5 times a month and .30 after that of need to be. Its pretty accurate unless your in doors so make sure you have to make sure your outside to use it, it is tower base and gps base.

 

[XamDam]

Cylay has to be installed on the phone to utilize its beat features...but even if the phone was restored it would still show on a map....but that's all it would do.

There is an option in Cylay to prevent the phone from shutting off so it cannot be restored in the First place, but one knew how to enter DFU mode then they could restore it that way.

Yeah thats what i figured it would do see it on the map, which would be tower based and many times inaccurate, but gives you a general location spot is all.

And yep DFU mode would just overwrite it all, so ppl just need to more aware of what can be done and not done to save money for one, but to be more aware to never leave your phone alone.