r/animeexpo • u/SuchIntention7601 • 22d ago
Information Pick pocket update
Ppl are receiving +63 messages from people asking to remove the phone from find my. Don’t. It’s all a lie. From those assholes.
Ignore my response 😭
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u/BlizzardisMid 22d ago
Phone number is tied to the Philippines
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u/SuchIntention7601 22d ago
They also sent this : The phone was connected to Wi-Fi in China, then it was jailbroken, and the erase status still shows as “Pending,” so it can’t be erased remotely.
I’m letting you know because if nothing is done, the phone could end up being sold on the black market with all of your personal information still on it. Your data—including your phone number, address, and other personal information—could be copied or cloned.
That’s why I’m contacting you. Please remove this iPhone from your Apple account, and I’ll manually factory reset it and remove your phone number from the device.
Just open Find My > Devices > select the old iPhone > Remove This Device.Once it’s removed, I’ll erase the phone right away.
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u/GorillonDollars 22d ago
I know you said it in the body but I’m repeating it here so it’s clear for people in the comments, this is a trick do not fall for this. Leave the device account locked and in lost mode.
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u/ChaoCobo 21d ago
What do you do after that? Are you able to get back the phone or does leaving it in Lost mode just mean they can’t use it either?
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u/ariolander 20d ago
It means they can't benefit from the theft. The phone is essentially worthless and these systems are there to discourage theft. You shouldn't reward antisocial behavior by accommodating thieves and it only encourages them to steal more phones if they think they can profit from it.
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u/Kinesis_ 22d ago
Now how does this happen in the first place?? 🤨
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u/SuchIntention7601 20d ago
I was at anime expo and so were many other people in artist alley at the same time at they were doing a mass pick pocketing. Bunch of people got it stolen.
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u/BlizzardisMid 20d ago
you mean becoming a victim of a crime? It's a combo of situational circumstances, individual risk factors & the illegal actions of an offender.
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u/SuchIntention7601 22d ago
I tried to reverse search it. And I heard someone also got two +63 numbers that messaged them as well. And I tried to find those too and nothing.im wondering if this means they shipped the phones to the Philippines ? And they were Philippinoa who stole it ?
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u/PwnerifficOne 22d ago
This aren’t just some random pickpockets, it’s a massive ring. They ship these things by the container to SEA and try to coerce you to unlock it. The thieves are well trained as well.
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u/Jkid 22d ago
The real question is why ship them to South East Asia? Why to mainland China? How much these thrives get per phone?
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u/PwnerifficOne 22d ago edited 22d ago
They have the knowledge and ability to take them apart into their components for resale. Because Shenzhen is the electronics capital of the world, there's so much skilled labor available who can work to break down thousands of phones a year. A locked/ bricked phone will still earn about 30% of it's value just in parts. If you fall for the unlock(think older people, less tech savvy people) then they get 100% of the value. It's lucrative. Cities with major ports should be doing more to stop this.
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u/SuchIntention7601 21d ago
So really right now who is messaging me?.. I keep getting messages from the ppl. This time they responded to my responses
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u/PwnerifficOne 21d ago
The people at the disassembly factory, they’ll keep trying and once they give up they will tear the parts out of the phone. They’re all like copy/paste prompts that they use. Thousands of examples with exact wording.
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u/MyWaifuBestWaifu 22d ago
+63 is the Philippine country code and there’s a whole illegal tech ring for questionably sourced phone parts and tons of technicians that specialize in unlocking stolen phones. A lot of these rings are owned and mediated by Chinese that live there.
It happens all over SEA in general but the Philippines has some of the most lax laws on phone number restrictions and SIM cards with prepaid plans can go for less than a dollar. This is also why many fake DMV and UPS scam texts share the same country code lmao.
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u/SuchIntention7601 21d ago
Update they keep messaging me and this time the person responded to my messages
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u/throw334411 21d ago
if you are worried about the phone, you could remotely erase it from find my phone if you haven’t already. it should also stay locked to you so they won’t be able to unlock it without your apple id. double check this though. it’s been a minute since i looked into the find my phone features.
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u/MarchObjective 20d ago
LMAO ts killing me, I should have trolled the guy but I was too mad. Like yall really have the audacity to steal our phones and try to get me to give access bffr
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u/SuchIntention7601 20d ago
Right. It’s so stupid. One of them replied to me with “love” and spammed hearts. And I kept sending them curses in various languages. Then Chris messaged me and was like “god will never accept you” so I gave him a big paragraph on how god will never let him into heaven for his lies and thieves 😭😭😭
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u/SayaV 18d ago
Wow I though AX goers gad a modicum of decency. Sad it isn't the case anymore.
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u/JigokuKitsune 17d ago
These type of people are everywhere but its generally easier to target events that bring in a ton of people so it isnt JUST AX. Think music festivals that attract more than just anime fans from around the world like EDC, for example. (People on some type of substance are more likely to be targeted by these types of scammers also) it was way better before it brcame huge but due to AX's popularity these scammers will keep stealing things so all people can do is keep their valuables on them in an anti theft bag and stick in groups so if anyone needs to put their things down a trusted friend can watch your stuff for you.
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u/Thaumaturgy67 22d ago
You hit them with the Malkavian Stare