AIBU to ask what will happen to stolen iPhone?

[StoleniPhone]

DD had iphone stolen at a club. Discovered loss at 3:30am. I blocked SIM. DD put phone in lost mode which completed the erasing of her data at 5:45am. iPhone seemed to move from the club to a block of flats at 6.30am.
Now the phone is no longer in lost mode, but is now in repair mode.
DD contacted Apple who say that she should be OK as data erased from phone when she put it in lost mode.
Has anyone else had this when thieves put phone in repair mode? I am wondering what else the thieves could do as well as just selling her phone?

Having dealt with a lost laptop before that had data on it the most likely thing is that they will wipe it and sell it on apparently. there are rarely targeted robberies specifically for the data on the item but usually it’s just to sell it.

They will reset all the data and sell it. That's all the thieves care about. Though suggest your daughter changes all her social media passwords etc.

Each iPhone is registered to a iCloud account.
If the registration is not removed before wiping on the next sign up it will ask for the last account registered on the phone and will not move forward, so it will be used for parts, If somehow they signed out from the iCloud account on the phone... Then yes they will wipe and sell.
The older the iOS version the easier they it will be to do the latter.

Thanks all for your advice. I have claimed on our phone insurance today (able to do this as daughter at uni and still considered to be a dependent family member). The insurance company state that as they have barred the phone now, it won't be usable. They seemed to think that it will only be able to be sold for parts at this point. Hope they are right!

They’re not. The bar will only apply to the UK, and it’ll be taken abroad and sold. There’s thousands of people who can still track theirs online!

If it’s in repair mode, they’ll be wiping it and then it’ll be sold. It’s not easy to remove iCloud but it’s not impossible by any means.

I am sure you are right. Last time DD lost her phone, it ended up abroad pretty quickly.

She did already wipe her data and Apple have confirmed it has gone from phone. With any luck there is no data on phone for them to access.

It'll be on its way to China.

I hate hate hate the phone thieves. It's such a bloody nuisance.

100%. It’s winging its way to Shenzhen as we speak.

If it were true that stolen phones were unusable, they wouldn't be stolen.

They are sold on to people that don't know any better. They are unusable with iCloud lock still on and that cannot be removed unless they somehow know your password and can access your verification codes (highly unlikely).

Stealing phones is profitable for a couple of reasons:

• to sell on to people online as a genuine used product. Someone receives it and then finds out their bargain phone is locked and then gets ghosted by the seller

• phone sent to china and stripped for parts to 'repair' other phones with