Help My iPhone Was Stolen (Infographic)

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We are all familiar with the queues of Apple fanatics every time there is a new or upgraded iPhone released.

This Infographic shows you how to keep your precious iPhone safe.

People will do anything to get their hands on what is considered by many as the most of desirable of smartphones.

This desirability coupled with a buoyant second-hand market on sites such as eBay.com and Craigslist.com means that iPhone theft is a huge problem.

While this will become less of a problem with the new iPhone 5s’ fingerprint technology, theft is a huge problem for the current generation of phones currently in use. Police in the USA estimate that so-called “Apple Pickers” seal 133 phones every minute.

CBS recently reported that on the black market, iPhones go for up to $200 each.  

It may give you pleasure to know that your average iPhone thief may not be as tech-savvy as you, and may not be aware of the possibilities of electronic tracking.

That’s why you can use some of the iPhone’s features to defeat the thief.

Check “Find my iPhone”

If your iPhone has been stolen, the first thing is you must be patient; your iPhone thief will want to either use the iPhone themselves or sell it for some ready cash.

Therefore, it’s best to wait until they start to use it again and the phone comes back online via its 3G data connection or WIFI.

Check regularly the find my iPhone website and you may be able to find where your iPhone has gotten to.

You have to hope that your thief is not so tech-savvy and has reformatted the phone in recovery mode, which means that it will never appear online in your find my iPhone account.

It’s also worth knowing that if your iPhone is in airplane mode, “Find my iPhone” won’t work!

It might sound obvious but to be able to track your stolen iPhone  “Find My iPhone” must have been enabled.

To do this, go to the iCloud tab in Settings, and set the switch for Find My iPhone to on.

Even though you have iCloud enables you still won’t be able to get an IP address but it’s the best thing you have to work with, so use the information carefully and don’t plan any SWAT type rescue missions with you and your mates, give whatever information you get to the police.

Help my iPhone was stolen so Contact your mobile operator

You don’t want to get stung for fraudulent calls, messages, or App Store purchases, so contact your mobile operator immediately and have your account suspended, you can also ask them to bar or blacklist your phone’ IMEI so that it can be used on any other network.

Just bear in mind that should you recover your phone you will need to prove ownership.

So make sure you hold on to your receipts.

Use an iPhone Network Finder service

The good thing about iPhones is that Apple holds a central database with lots of information on each phone.

A small number of companies have access to this, known as Apple circles as their GSX.

Do a search online for “iPhone Network Finder” and enter your IMEI number you will get a report that should show you the CTN (current telephone number) if your phone has been reactivated the new number will be recorded centrally by Apple.

Add this information for your dossier of information to present to the police.

Change all your passwords

Your iPhone will have saved cookies and tokens to give you instant access to your most personal of data on Gmail, Facebook, online banking, and the like, change these passwords immediately, to stop your thief from getting access to your data.

Be warned that your thief will be able to access all your data on the phone unless of course, you delete it using the Find My iPhone application.

It’s also worthwhile sending a message to your contacts letting them know that any strange messages they receive from your phone are not coming from you.

Can you claim on your Credit card?

If you bought your iPhone with a credit card – you may be in luck. Many Credit Cards have a “lost/stolen/damaged” clause which means that you can claim a refund if your device meets their terms, key to filing any claim is a police report, so make sure this is one of the things you do immediately and get a copy for your records.

Setup your Passcode

One of the first things you should do to protect your iPhone and your personal data is setup a Passcode.

You can do this by opening the Settings tab and navigating to General –> Passcode Lock. A word of warning, research carried out by Daniel Amitay showed that the majority of users’ passcode can be hacked

So put a little imagination into your code because as Amitay says “Most of the top passcodes follow typical formulas, such as four identical digits, moving in a line up/down the pad, repetition,” With the most popular being 0000 followed closely by 1234 with the third, fourth, and fifth spots being 2580, 1111, and 5555  respectively.

How to protect your iPhone

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How to Protect your iphone

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