iphone and theft

Got my iphone 4 stolen while shopping yesterday. Other than suspending my numbet, my service provider refused to lock / deactivate the phone for me. I heard that a mobile phone could be deactivated or disabled. Anyone know anything about this? Thanks.

You can wipe and disable an iPhone if you have Mobile Me and have activated the "Find my iPhone" feature.


If you don't, I think the phone's hardware number can be blacklisted but not sure.

There was a post by ed a few weeks back with a list of useful things to know. One item was how to lock your phone and make it 'dead' is stolen. I believe you need the phone serial number. I can't find the link to the articlel....

Still can't find that article...

But it seems the trick with the phone serial number still involves asking your provider to disable it. So if they already refused then it is no help.

except that the content of that post was found to be a bunch of hoaxes via snopes...probably why it's deleted...

This is taken from today's edition of The Sydney Morning Herald. It won't help the OP from finding his lost phone but may be of help to iPhone owners:

"Apple has made the Find My iPad and Find My iPhone services available for free to all iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch owners. This uses your iPad's GPS to send the device's location to Apple so the device can be tracked.


This service requires that you enable the Find My iDevice option in Settings/ Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Once that's done, you need to download the free Find my iPhone app from the App Store. The only problem with this is that you need access to a second iOS device to find a lost device.


For MobileMe subscribers, access to tracking lost devices is available through any web browser. MobileMe costs $99 a year.


Another option is to look at apps such as GadgetTrak and Security System.


GadgetTrak is not only able to track your device should it be lost or stolen but also uses the iPad and iPhone camera to shoot photos of the thief and their surroundings. These are silently emailed to an address you specify in the settings so that you can provide information to police to assist with apprehension.


By using a combination of GPS and mobile tower positions, GadgetTrak is able to pinpoint the position of the iPad. This is used to display the location on a map. If the crook tries to delete the GadgetTrak app from the device they'll be thwarted, as GadgetTrak can be used to lock the device down so that the app can't be removed.


GadgetTrak costs $4.99 from the App Store.


Security System takes a different approach. By analysing movement and ambient sounds, the software makes a determination as to whether the device is at risk of being stolen. If it is, Security System sounds a loud alarm that requires a PIN code to be entered. Instead of an alarm, you can also set a song to play when a potential theft is in progress and the app can send an email that isn't made visible to the thief.


Security System costs $1.99 from the App Store."




Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/how-to-defeat-the-thieves-after-your-ipad-20110524-1f1m9.html#ixzz1NEzt9b9F