How can I track a stolen iPhone 14 in China using IMEI?

murtz13 wrote:

Basically my iPhone got pickpocketed a month ago from a school I thought it was Just a iPhone 14 I thought a normal school girl took and probably would sell it in my area but.. however no it’s ending up in china shenzen wtvr they kept sending sms msgs to be pretending like apple to remove find my for some reason…

You cannot track your iPhone by IMEI. Find My is the only method available to you.

If the phone has shown up in China, it is probably at an infamous 'reprocessing" plant where many stolen iPhones wind up. The thieves are sending you "phishing" messages pretending to be Apple in the hope of tricking you and getting you to do something that will remove Activation Lock, or that will give them the credentials (yours) needed to remove it themselves, thus allowing them to "make your phone their own" and get more money for it.

The thieves may also want to ransack the data in your Apple Account (which they could do if you were to give them your credentials).

Apple has recently extended Activation Lock to iPhone parts, in an attempt to deter the theft of iPhones for trade in stolen parts, so if it is at the infamous "reprocessing" plant I am thinking about, the operators of that plant may soon be in for a dent in their "business."