The story of Luis Herreras is that of many others. On January 1, he discovered that while he was traveling on the Madrid metro, someone opened the pocket of his jacket and stole his phone. Although he knows where it is and who has it, getting it back has become an impossible mission. The experience is already viral on Twitter, and more than 50 people have joined the thread saying they are affected by the same problem.
Learn moreThings to do before your phone is lost or stolen
Herreras told eldiario.es that after noticing the theft he "ran home to activate the iPhone's lost mode." Through this system, as indicated on the Apple page, confidential data can be protected or even a personalized message can be displayed on the screen as a form of contact.
He also tried to track it down, but it was useless. "It took me about fifteen minutes, and they had already turned off my phone," qualifies the injured party. Immediately afterwards, he called his telephone company to block the SIM card and went to a police station to report it. However, the surprise for Herreras would come ten days after the theft, when "the phone turned on and the alert came that he was in Larache, Morocco."
The thieves, after verifying that the only way to unlock the phone was to get hold of its user account, began to use another strategy to achieve it. Specifically, they used the contact number provided by Herreras to send him an SMS impersonating the manufacturer, a technique known as phishing.
According to Herreras, what they do is send a message saying that the mobile phone has been found and a link to a page that "works exactly like the one from Apple." Once the data is entered, it is already available to scammers. Since then, he has already received about ten messages with the same claims, some of them even written with spelling mistakes. And you can't block them, because there's not even a number that you can blacklist.
The damage could have been more. Herreras established his work phone number as a contact, since the staff have associated it with different services and social networks. This, as he himself indicates, would open up more avenues of persuasion for pirates: "If you put the phone on Facebook, the person appears and, therefore, they can extort you for these types of sites," he qualifies.
In addition, the author of the viral thread indicates that blocking the SIM is useless outside of European territory, since "it is an agreement they have with the antennas of the teleoperators and then when you leave Europe you can use the phone" . He adds that, then, "they removed the SIM, they put one from Morocco, and it already worked."
Does any art buddies know how to scan in thumbnails and print in blueline? #arthelp #imdumb
— Justin Mason Fri Nov 01 05:26:49 +0000 2019
A case without a response from the Police
The story of Luis Herreras has become so popular that it has already received almost 20,000 retweets. By achieving such an impact, he began to receive messages from other users with the same problem: "More than 50 people on Twitter have told me that their phone is in the same place [Larache]," he explains. He thinks "there's a mafia there or something."
After the suspicions, Herreras began to investigate with the help of a friend who works at a computer security company. Thanks to the phishing URLs, they were able to get all the necessary details to identify the captors: "I have the Facebook, the store, the guy, his face. I have everything," she adds.
When obtaining all this information, the affected person thought that he could go to the Police to report the case. He mentioned to them that it was possible to find the place where they stored all the iPhones, that he had more than 50 testimonials via Twitter that confirmed the place, or that he could even put a face to the offender.
Despite this, according to Herreras' testimony, they said that "it was impossible" because "relations with Morocco are not good" and that, furthermore, "more than 30 telephones are stolen every day", so they they had "better things to do." This newspaper has contacted the Police to try to find out how a citizen should act in a similar case, but for the moment they have not responded.
My cell phone has been stolen, now what?
Although Herreras feels powerless to find herself faced with a problem without a solution, at least she hopes that her case will serve to inform anyone under the same circumstances. He affirms that the important thing is "that you don't fall into the trap", since "Apple never contacts you, not by SMS, not by WhatsApp, not by Facebook, not by anything". It doesn't matter that the URLs seem true, because "as soon as you enter, if you try it, sometimes the copyright below is not even updated to 2018," he qualifies.
Although phones have different security methods, such as fingerprint or pattern, there are still holes that can be exploited by thieves. Among them, turning off the phone. "The only thing that would improve is that you can't turn it off without entering a code or fingerprint," says Herreras. In this way, a third party could be prevented from avoiding tracking until, at least, the battery is depleted.
For this reason, when faced with a case of theft, Herreras recommends reviewing his thread and following the same steps as him. Although his experience is focused on the iPhone, he could also apply to other manufacturers. The points to follow could be summarized in three keys.
Secure the data and try to track the device. The first thing is to try to prevent a third party from accessing sensitive data, either by erasing or locking the device. Whether it is iOS or Android, the steps are the same: go to the support page to preserve privacy.