Stolen iPhone handsets used to easily access users’ bank accounts. Brazilian criminals detail how


According to a report released last month, criminals in Brazil were stealing iPhone phones not to resell them but to access people’s bank details and then steal their money. These criminals were not ordinary elements. They could steal money from people’s accounts within hours of stealing their iPhone devices. These cases have seen a significant increase, especially after the onset of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Now another report, originally published in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, indicates that the police understood how these thieves were able to access people’s bank details through their Apple devices.

Sao Paulo police arrested one of those gangs that carried out the smartphone thefts, and one member even admitted that he could “unlock all of them. iPhone combined, from 5 to 11 ”. Sao Paulo police chief Fabiano Barbeiro says these thieves only needed one tool to steal money, and that was the iPhone’s SIM card.

How did they do it?

A report by 9to5Mac explained the modus operandi of these criminals. He said thieves would take the SIM card from a stolen iPhone and insert it into another phone. They would then access the owner’s social media accounts, such as Facebook and Instagram, to find out the email identifier used. In most cases, as has been observed, the same email would have been used for Apple IDs as well. Finally, they would reset the Apple Identification password using the victim’s phone number.

Everything just got easier after that. Barbeiro says all the criminals had to do now was find passwords by looking at the Notes app, as many users seem to store bank and credit card passwords there. Other than that, once criminals have gained access to the iCloud account, they could also get all iCloud Keychain passwords.

A 22-year-old suspect, a computer technician, told police he knows at least three other people who have instructed criminals interested in obtaining passwords from stolen smartphones. Police have so far arrested 12 people and identified 28 others in connection with smartphone thefts.

After the publication of the previous report, Apple reportedly promised Folha de S. Paulo that it would make it easier for users to delete all data from a stolen iPhone. With iOS 15, users will finally be able to track a turned off iPhone using Find My App.


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