Stolen iPhone removed from Find My in London, now in Shenzhen, China

The only thing removing the phone did is allowing them to resell/reuse the phone.

So for your dad, having removed it is not a problem. Obviously you would rather that they get less value off a stolen phone but it's not something that will affect him.

It's the passcode that would be what is protecting his data.

Carlosn112 wrote:

My dad’s phone was stolen in London and now has ended up in Shenzhen, China. He just got a scam text on his iPad telling him to remove his stolen phone from find my. However, now I realize that this is bad and that you shouldn’t remove the phone from find my. I did “Erase this device” after he removed it.

Should everything be all set and ok now?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Stolen removed iPhone

Did your father respond and remove the phone from Find My? If he did, that's exactly what the thieves wanted and now they can wipe the phone and use it themselves or sell it to someone. If he didn't do as requested and all that has been done is to erase the phone, they can't use it. Your dad should contact his carrier and ask them to Blacklist the phone so it can't be activated on any network in the future.

I did “Erase this device” after he removed it.

There is some confusion here.

You would not have been able to do the "Erase this device" if the phone had already been removed from Find My.

In other words, if the device had been removed from Find My......and you tried to log on, you would have seen a message of Device Not Found.

It sounds like the good news is that the phone was really not removed from Find My.

Servant of Cats wrote:

I believe that once it says the phone will be removed, it isn't the OP's decision – not any more. The only way one would see that message would be if they had already made and carried out the decision that the criminals wanted.

The criminals will have a full month to take advantage of the absence of Activation Lock before Activation Lock could possibly kick back in. My impression from other posts on these forums is that, during that month, the phone is visible on Find My – but that there is no way to reverse the clearing of Activation Lock or the delayed removal from Find My.

Remove a device from Find Devices on iCloud.com - Apple Support

"If the device is offline, Activation Lock is removed immediately, and the device is removed from Find My after 30 days.

Note: If your device comes online after 30 days have passed, it reappears in your list of devices, and Activation Lock is reenabled if you’re still signed in to your Apple Account on the device (for an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch) or if it’s paired with your iPhone or iPad (for AirPods or a Beats product)."

Yep, this is my understanding as well.

I believe that once it says the phone will be removed, it isn't the OP's decision – not any more. The only way one would see that message would be if they had already made and carried out the decision that the criminals wanted.

The criminals will have a full month to take advantage of the absence of Activation Lock before Activation Lock could possibly kick back in. My impression from other posts on these forums is that, during that month, the phone is visible on Find My – but that there is no way to reverse the clearing of Activation Lock or the delayed removal from Find My.

Remove a device from Find Devices on iCloud.com - Apple Support

"If the device is offline, Activation Lock is removed immediately, and the device is removed from Find My after 30 days.

Note: If your device comes online after 30 days have passed, it reappears in your list of devices, and Activation Lock is reenabled if you’re still signed in to your Apple Account on the device (for an iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Watch) or if it’s paired with your iPhone or iPad (for AirPods or a Beats product)."

Ah, that's it. The phone was not removed from Find My.....yet.

You can really frustrate the people who have the phone if you do not remove the phone from Find My. The phone will be totally useless to whoever has it.

If the phone is removed from Find My, you will be doing exactly what the people who have the phone want you to do...... because they can set it up again as their own phone, rather than take the phone apart for parts. In case you were not aware, the phone is at huge remanufacturing plant that receives hundreds of stolen phones every day.

But, it's your decision.

The phone was erased....before.....it was removed.

It would not have been possible to remove the phone from Find My and then erase it......unless.....the removal request was still pending and had not yet occurred.

Then.....the erase could have occurred....before.....the phone was removed from Find My.

And mine as well. I was speaking in general about removing the phone from Find My.....when the user has that option. They don't now because the request was already made.

Now, if the phone comes back online after 30 days, the user in this thread would then have the option of not removing the phone from Find My. We've seen some reports of phones coming back online after 30 days, but I have no idea what percentage of phones this might apply to.

I'm still trying to understand the "advantages" of Stolen Device Protection when it removes Activation Lock immediately from a stolen phone.

Re: “I'm still trying to understand the "advantages" of Stolen Device Protection when it removes Activation Lock immediately from a stolen phone.”

Isn’t that a separate thing that makes it harder to change certain security-related settings on an unlocked iPhone?

About Stolen Device Protection for iPhone - Apple Support