Apple is tightening iPhone repair rules to make it harder for thieves to do their job. The company has informed its employees and those of authorized distributors that iPhones marked as lost will no longer be repaired by their owners.
If You Can’t Unlock iPhone, It’s Not Yours
If properly configured and through our Apple ID, the search service allows us to declare an iPhone (or other device) as lost. In this state, we can assign an additional lock code and display text on the screen to make it easier for someone to return it to us. In this state, the iPhone is completely locked and cannot be used. Only the owner can unlock it with this assigned code.
Now, anyone who goes to a store to fix an iPhone in Lost Mode will need to unlock that mode (by providing the necessary credentials). Corn, the technicians will refuse the repair. It is assumed that if you cannot unlock it, the iPhone is not yours and you should not be holding it. Apple will use the GSMA’s Global Lost Mobile Registry to help.
And it is that the thieves have largely taken advantage of this “hole” of repairs: they steal an iPhone then they go to a repair shop like it’s their own claiming it was blocked so that the technicians could restore it. And with this reset, you eliminate any blocking issues that the owner may have applied.
It’s over, and the refusal to make repairs may have already begun to be applied in stores. We might have a slightly better chance of recovering a stolen iPhone this way… if it doesn’t end up being sold for parts on a black market.
Picture | Li Yan
