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Q: Clever trick to trap phone thieves?
Last sunday, my colleague's iPhone was stolen from the school office. We sorta know who did it; a disgruntled ex-colleague who came to say hi and left in a hurry. Security cameras show no unknown people going in the office, and everyone else was still present when we discovered the theft.
Unfortunately, the thief was a friend of another teacher, so it's difficult to discuss things with her saying it's "impossible" that her friend is a thief. Facesaving sucks.
The iPhone has likely been sold on to a fence now, because the victim received phone calls from him. First posing as police asking for the iPhone security code, then threatening and later even offering to pay for the code.
The victim has all but given up on getting the phone back. I suggested asking buiding security about the elevator cameras, but she didn't want to do it. Perhaps because the thief's friend is listening...
Anyway, I was thinking about the thieves and their desire to get hold of the iPhone code. Thieves in China are notoriously careless (perhaps they assume everyone will give up on catching them?), so maybe there's some convincing ploy that can be applied, to get them in police custody, and the iPhone back to its rightful owner?
If there are some clever traps proposed here, I'll be sure to send this link to her over QQ (so the thief's friend doesn't know about it).
10 years 2 days ago in Health & Safety - China
I later got this message from a colleague: "I suggest you do not talk about her phone any more.Because it makes her so unhappy and embarrassed."
Well, excuse me for trying to help!
It makes me feel really safe, knowing that people around me will do everything to STOP thieves from being caught. Isn't China just peachy?
I guess the problem is twofold: (1) how to get the thieves arrested safely
(2) how to convince the victim to be brave enough to take action.
Robk:
You know Chinese would rather lose their iPhone than their face.
Face is probably the most idiotic thing found in China, if not the world.
I am with you, I would LOVE to capture and expose the thief... it was be so satisfying. But a lot of Chinese would rather forget it and pretend like it didn't happen. Tell her that catching the thief and exposing them would make her gain face and make someone (who caused her to lose face) else feel the pinch.
She must restore her face for the company, for the office, for the family, for China!
I recommend everyone using an Iphone install find my phone app. It does not matter if they change the SIM card or not. If the phone powers up it will show up. I left my IPhone in a taxi and quickly tracked it down. The taxi driver admitted to finding it in his car and for a small 100 RMB reward returned it. Left it under the menu at a restaurant. Returned moments later and the staff said they had not seen it. Pulled out my IPad and showed them the phone was in the building somewhere. After a couple minutes in the back it had been found but not yet turned into the manager, but the ringer turned off.
A friend had theirs stolen, tracked down the thief using this method and the police actually contacted the person and made them bring the phone to the station. My friend had the invoice with the serial number. The person first said they found the phone and then said they bought it from a guy on the street. My friend got her phone back.
How did the fence know the victim's phone number if the phone was locked? And surely the victim's phone number was in the phone that was stolen?
OK. Easy to answer. I have an app on my windows phone that displays an " If found, contact this number, reward given" on my lock screen. And she canceled her sim and got a replacement with the same number.
I would get the phone she had when the fence called her, and use the caller ID to get the number to give to the police. Easy job for the police to find the location of a phone if they know the number. It's likely the fence used a number not registered to him, but you never know. If he is stupid enough to phone the victim......
It really isn't necessary trying to "trick" phone thieves with free anti-theft apps available. I use Avast Anti-Theft on my Android phone and I have it set to wipe all data on my phone if the SIM card is removed. Personally, I'm more concerned with thieves attempting to extort money from my contacts, than retrieving my phone. I can always buy another phone. Just my two cents.
Android users:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.avast.android.at_play
iPhone users:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prey-anti-theft-free-security/id45675503...
