Cell Phones

Stolen phone questions

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  • Mar 27th, 2015 4:49 pm
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Deal Fanatic
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Jan 10, 2010
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Calgary

Stolen phone questions

A friend of mine had her iPhone stolen from work last year. She remotely erased everything but still hoped someone would return it. But she got a call from an out of province Rogers store asking for her Apple ID password so they could unlock the phone for a woman who bought this stolen phone. Obviously, the phone screen stated the phone was stolen but the guy in the store still wanted to unlock the phone for that women.

My friend's husband called that physical Rogers store as well as Rogers the company. They both told him that they were going to send the woman to Apple to get the phone unlocked.

I don't know how stolen phones are supposed to be dealt with but this whole situation seems incredibly ridiculous. If the store guy knew the phone was stolen why would he even try to unlock it? And why Rogers (the company) would even agree to send the woman to Apple to get the phone unlocked? Most importantly, will Apple unlock the phone even it's stolen?

Since the store wouldn't tell my friend who that woman was and her location, contacting the woman is out of the question. Will the police be able to help? Is there a standard protocol when it comes to something like this?
10 replies
Deal Guru
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Mar 13, 2004
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Ontario
Might of been a fake call. The guy who stole the phone was trying to pretend they were from rogers to get it unlocked?

Either way, if you can remotely wipe it I think you may be able to display an image on the phone. If you can just say, Phone is stolen Call this # for original owner.
Deal Expert
Aug 22, 2011
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Center of Universe
Call your cellphone provider and get it blacklisted ASAP!
Banned
Jan 20, 2015
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Toronto, ON
Blacklist it right away. If you ever get the chance to get back the phone somehow, you can remove it from the blacklist since you are the original owner.
Deal Fanatic
Aug 3, 2014
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Apple will not unlock it.
Deal Fanatic
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Aug 3, 2006
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althetrainer wrote: But she got a call from an out of province Rogers store asking for her Apple ID password so they could unlock the phone for a woman who bought this stolen phone.
Lol so obviously a fake call. This is like calling someone and asking for their credit card number. No legitimate company would ask for a customer's password.
Deal Fanatic
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Jan 10, 2010
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Thanks for all your answers. i will ask my friend to see if she has blacklisted the phone. I thought the phone call could be fake too but then her husband actually called the store so it must be real. Plus, Rogers the company said the same thing about sending the woman to Apple.

I am not holding my breath though... read about some loopholes to get around a blacklisted phone. Oh well, if no one else can put a stop to it at least she can try stopping this woman from unlocking the phone. This is just crazy!
Member
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Dec 3, 2013
223 posts
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Toronto, ON
It is pretty depressing that Rogers will stoop that low. Really defeats the purpose of the blacklist if carriers will just renege on their obligations. I'd encourage them to report to the CRTC. Appalling.

The good news is that there is no way Apple will unlock that phone. Way too many privacy concerns around something like that.
As the co-founder of a business dedicated to making it easy to buy and sell used iPhones, I have fairly extensive experience navigating Craigslist/Kijiji for used iPhones, and also troubleshooting said iPhones.
Deal Fanatic
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Mar 21, 2010
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Wow on the one hand carriers will blacklist a phone when the original owner calls it in stolen and then not fix it even if you show that you bought it legitimately from the original owner and they are just scamming.

On the other this is a legitimate case of theft and the carrier want to help the thief (or the buyer of the stolen good). Seriously canadian telecom companies are ridiculous.
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Deal Addict
Dec 6, 2004
1519 posts
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Downtown
You don't even need to blacklist an iphone, once its icloud activation lock NO ONE but you can activate it with your itunes account Apple will not unlock it or contact you to have it unlock period.

And besides who every has your friend's phone right now, its as good as a brick since they can't even get pass the activation screen without her itunes account to even use it as a ipod.

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