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Apple’s MobileMe sync catches iPhone thief
Thursday, December 18, 2008 - 02:53 PM EDT

MobileMe - Apple Store (U.S.)
"While at the dry cleaner one day, Rob's iPhone was stolen. He immediately chalked it up as gone forever, and proceeded to purchase a brand new one that same evening. It was the next day when unfamiliar contacts began to appear on the new phone. The (not-too-bright) thief was unwittingly supplying him with names and phone numbers of his or her closest friends, via the magic of MobileMe synchronization from the stolen phone to the cloud and eventually to his new phone," Brett Terpstra reports for TUAW.

"MobileMe provided the groundwork for a little social engineering. Rob made quick work of wrangling a name and phone number from the provided contacts, supplying the police with everything they needed to get Rob his phone back," Terpstra reports.

Terpstra reports, "By the end of the night, he had his original iPhone in his possession."

Full article here.

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Dec 18, 08 - 03:56 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

Awesome christmas present.

Dec 18, 08 - 04:01 pm Comment from: dd

Nice. I may need to try MobileMe...


MW: Research - I may need to do some research on MobileMe.

The MWs are always within context. raspberry

Dec 18, 08 - 04:03 pm Comment from: R2

I hope the thief gets raped in prison.

Dec 18, 08 - 04:10 pm Comment from: Don't Bug Me

Privacy, privacy, whert thou has gone privacy?

Really, if you steal a iPhone you have privacy rights.

Yes even thief's have rights. The same rights protecting you from mistakes or malicious people in power protects those who most likely FOUND your iPod and was trying to return it to you. Making a few phone calls to friends in the process to find out just how to locate you.

Yes, I found a iPhone once and tried the same thing as this guy. Trying to return the iPhone to the proper owner. I wound up giving it to the police, which the idiot owner reported it stolen and I was charged.

$3120 spent on lawyer and a few months of court battles later I was found not guilty.

So you give up your rights to use a iPhone. Just make the right choice and don't even bother picking one up. It could be a drug dealers phone and you unwittly become heavily involved.

Dec 18, 08 - 04:16 pm Comment from: @Don't Bug Me

VERY, VERY, scary!

Dec 18, 08 - 04:26 pm Comment from: pg

Glad to hear that mobileme is good for something. The web interface is a slow, useless mess.

Dec 18, 08 - 04:28 pm Comment from: MacintoshSoftwareList.com

Wow R2. I must say I agree with you!

Dec 18, 08 - 04:31 pm Comment from: coolfactor

@pg

I'm so tired of people picking one aspect of a very broad service and judging the whole thing based on their opinion of that one aspect.

MobileMe has been invaluable for me.

Dec 18, 08 - 04:36 pm Comment from: Ralph M

@Coolfactor: Agreed. I subscribed to MobileMe (then, dot-Mac) early last summer and have been very pleased with its overall functionality. Not perfect, but it is great to be freed from having to sync my iPhone to my laptop and my iMac. I really don't know why people keep complaining about it.

Dec 18, 08 - 04:51 pm Comment from: not so fast "don't bug me"

Your example (and therefore your story/honesty) doesn't quite work...simply making phone calls to friends in a wonderful attempt to help return the phone to its rightful owner would not be MobileMe "sunk" to the new phone. This person was ADDING contacts to his Address book - this is not the same...and even if this thief WAS actually trying to "send a message via contacts" by adding his own personal contacts - all he had to do then is add a contact named "I FOUND YOUR PHONE" with an accompanying phone number. AND, your story doesn't make sense either...why would an already overburndened law-enforcement system add to the docket such a ridiculous case? You returned the phone...TO the cops...and since it was reported stolen you ended up with lawyer and court costs to try and clear your name and record (and stay out of jail?)? You say you tried the same thing as this guy? By what?...adding YOUR OWN PERSONAL CONTACTS TO THE ADDRESS BOOK? Put it this way...if you ever find yourself in the same situation, and another unstoppable desire to be such a great Samaritan overtakes you - try Calling his contacts - not adding your own...why not start with ones that appear to be relatives due to the most common last names...? Just another bullshit story...methinks.

Dec 18, 08 - 04:56 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

@ DBM

I wound up giving it to the police, which the idiot owner reported it stolen and I was charged.

Do you really expect us to believe that YOUR the victim in this? That it cost you three-thousand dollars and several court appearances to be cleared of the charges?

Your anecdotal account began with a thief's point of view! NTM that it's wafer thin and full of holes, like cheese. Especially the part where you stated you, "tried the same thing as this guy. Trying to return the iPhone to the proper owner.".

The reality is, you probably did something pretty stupid after "finding" an iPhone and it cost you three-thousand dollars for the privilege of telling the judge you'll never do it again.

Dec 18, 08 - 04:58 pm Comment from: HMCIV

@R2

Despite claims made in the movie Office Space, I don't think a Court Justice can order that kind of sentence in this country.

Dec 18, 08 - 04:58 pm Comment from: Predrag

Don't Bug Me:

I call bull on that one.

Had the story been true, the author must have been somewhat unintelligent. If you find a cell phone, you either give it to the police, or try calling some people in the address book, reporting the phone found. In all likelyhood, some of those people will recognise the number/name and relay the lost phone message to the rightful owner. How much simpler would that be. If you found a cellphone, you DON'T go adding your own friends' numbers into the address book. Unless you intend to keep that phone, what possible purpose would that serve?

The 'founder' (thief) of the phone in the original story should spend some time in jail for what he did. As for our Don't Bother Me fellow, I'm anxious to hear more. If you indeed returned that iPhone to the police, how did the original owner end up suing? Did you hold onto it for a week (or a month) before giving it to the police? Did you enter information into it (numbers, messages, notes, etc)? If yes, why, for the love of God??? Please, do elaborate on this a bit further.

Dec 18, 08 - 05:03 pm Comment from: Romeodawg

See? MobileMe does work. Unfortunately, it only works if you're trying to find a stolen iPhone....

Dec 18, 08 - 05:11 pm Comment from: @Predrag

Please don't encourage DBM to ever speak again. He's a liar that is too dumb to realize how dumb his lie is. Instead, why don't we treat him with the same respect we would if we were all in the same room together.

We should laugh at him and call him an idiot.

Dec 18, 08 - 05:22 pm Comment from: Well....okay, I'm in!

Ha ha ha! ... Idiot.

Dec 18, 08 - 05:23 pm Comment from: pg

@ coolfactor

I said, "The WEB INTERFACE is a slow, useless mess." I've been using .mac/mobileme for 4-5 years now and have found it invaluable. I'm not making a sweeping generalization. However, the web interface is a slow, useless mess.

Dec 18, 08 - 05:30 pm Comment from: boyweho

My iPhone is password protected, so only an emergency call could be made. If someone connected my iPhone to their computer, the most they could get would be my photos via Image Capture. iTunes would report, ''This iPhone is synced to another computer; Do you want to wipe it clean (including the phone number) and install your own stuff?'' That's the beauty of the iPhone -- it requires a computer w/ a complete backup copy of everything on the iPhone to use it. If you lose your iPhone, you only lose a few notes and photos -- everything else is backed up to your computer. Why would you not password-protect your iPhone?

Dec 18, 08 - 05:34 pm Comment from: BotonCandy

@ don't bug me - you had to spend $3120 on lawyers & court time over an iPhone? I don't buy it.
You're either lying or you returned the phone the stupidest way possible. If you returned it to the cops, why would you have been charged at all? .
Your story just doesn't make sense.

mw - might. As in I might believe your ridiculous story, but probably not.

Dec 18, 08 - 05:41 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

@DBM

You know where you fucked up? It was when you HUNG UP on the owner!

Anyone who has ever lost, or had their phone stolen, knows what I'm talking about.

Dec 18, 08 - 05:48 pm Comment from: Brau

@ Don't Bug Me

Don't let the morons get to you. I know from experience how unfair our legal institutions can be.

I had my wallet stolen in a bar and the thief later used my ID when he was caught breaking into a store. Despite my obvious innocence my job was put in jeopardy as my security license was revoked for having an alias to a thief. I had to fight for weeks to get it back, all the while being looked at sideways by my employer, who was willing to toss me out on my ass for nothing more than an erroneous allegation. I had my front door kicked in and was harassed by 6 of the biggest militant goons when the thief didn't show in court. The local press printed my name as the thief causing me a ton of grief every time I had to show my ID. I got pulled over in road checks a couple times and it took 4 hours to clear my name each time. It took 6 years to get it cleared from my name and during that time there's no way to know how many job opportunities I lost when security checks found this link.

Our legal systems operate most on allegations not realities, evidenced by a large amount of innocent convicts that are exonerated years later when evidence proves them innocent. It may feel counter-intuitive, but if you find a lost phone these days it's probably better to just kick it into a ditch and keep walking.

Dec 18, 08 - 06:00 pm Comment from: G4Dualie

@brau

but if you find a lost phone these days it's probably better to just kick it into a ditch and keep walking.

Also don't carry your wallet into a bar... or work for people who look at you sideways... avoid road checks... and move frequently

Dec 18, 08 - 06:21 pm Comment from: Jesus, just when I thought "DBM" was the only idio

...in walks Brau.

Holy crap, if you think "we" are the "morons" in this one-sided back and forth after reading his story...wow...I think both of ya' should just lay down in that ditch on top of all the cell-phones you didn't help return and wait for the stupid stick to come back around and beat the rest of the sense outta ya'.

MDNWord: provided - As in provided you meant anything you said.

Dec 18, 08 - 07:12 pm Comment from: HMCIV

One time I lost my iPhone in a brothel. The next morning I happened to find a knife in an alleyway. Later in the day, I happened to find the guy who dropped his knife. Wouldn't you know it, he had my iPhone!

Jumping for Joy, I ran down the block to catch up with him. "Hey good news," I said. "You can give me that iPhone!" I tried to hand him his knife in exchange for the iPhone, but slipped and handed it to him a little to quickly.

The guy groaned about giving me back my iphone but he was more preoccupied with holding his knife. Anyway, I went back to my apartment and that's when I realized this iphone may not have been my iphone.

The cops gave me a hard time and it took me 20 years to clear my name. Good grief, all I wanted to do was return this guy's knife. Some people are vicious opportunists.

Dec 18, 08 - 07:12 pm Comment from: SAB

Two things:

1st - All you would have to do is call your own phone from the found one. Caller ID should give you the owner's name, then start calling his favorites to find him.

2nd - I have MobileMe and it has worked very well. There have been a few minor glitches, but no more than Gmail has had. I think that it was well worth the investment and it saves me a lot of headaches. The Mac/iPhone synchronization alone made it worth it, and the iLife integration makes it that much cooler and more useful.

Dec 18, 08 - 07:34 pm Comment from: maestrosteve

I'm not exactly buying this story. Not enough details. The guy says his iphone was STOLEN at the Dry Cleaners. Was he held up? How was it stolen? Did he just lose it, and later realize that he may have lost it at the Dry Cleaners? Even the full article doesn't mention anything about how it happened. I've heard of people losing a phone and saying it was stolen, because they couldn't come to grips that they could be responsible for LOSING a cellphone, so it must have been stolen. The fact that someone, who might have just found the iphone and decided to just keep it, is called a thief doesn't work for me, especially when someone posts here that they hope the guy gets raped in prison. Ever find something somewhere that didn't belong to you, and use it? Are you considered a thief if you just find something that doesn't belong to you?

It seems like a good plug for MobileMe, but to me the story is just not believable. I'm not saying that the story could not possibly be true, but tell me how it was stolen and what the thief did to get the iphone.

Dec 18, 08 - 07:36 pm Comment from: Growl

Who gives a phone they "found" to the police?

Dec 18, 08 - 09:27 pm Comment from: ice cream

HMCIV's story is the only one here I really believe....





*

Dec 18, 08 - 10:10 pm Comment from: Steves Job

Despite having 2 macs at home I have to use a windoze computer at work and mobile me sucks moose wang on Internet Explorer. It is awful and has not improved since the beginning.

Dec 19, 08 - 01:22 am Comment from: anonymous asshole

wait a minute. What if the guy deleted all of the contacts on the phone???? Then the guy who lost his phone would have lost all of his contacts with mobile me through push.


this is a serious flaw...

Dec 19, 08 - 01:56 am Comment from: Derek in Milan

I lost my knife. Then I found an iPhone.
This guy runs up to me screaming,
'Hey buddy, heres your knife!"
He slips and stabs me, and then when I try to give him his stupid phone, he realises that its NOT his iPhone.

Luckily for me, he was a broker at Morgan Stanley and had just got a cheque for $5 billion as his Xmas bonus.
He slipped me a cheque for $200 million, now I have a beautiful native girl who answers the phone for me down here in Cata Zdel Fuego Las Habanas.

Dec 19, 08 - 01:57 am Comment from: Derek in Milan

Sorry, I'm just really bored.

Dec 19, 08 - 12:42 pm Comment from: AAPLguy

@Steves Job

Uh, everything sux on Internet Explorer.

Dec 19, 08 - 12:57 pm Comment from: AAPLguy

"wait a minute. What if the guy deleted all of the contacts on the phone???? Then the guy who lost his phone would have lost all of his contacts with mobile me through push.


this is a serious flaw..."

That's why there is a password option on the iPhone.

Dec 19, 08 - 01:58 pm Comment from: opie

What people fail to realize is that locks keep an honest man out.

Dec 22, 08 - 01:46 pm Comment from: justme2

@maestrosteve -- He may have been at the dry cleaners while his iPhone was in the car, in plain sight, and someone broke in and stole it. Agree that the information was sketchy though.

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