The setting on your iPhone that thieves use to lock you out of your account

Image: AP (file)

Greg Frasca has been locked out of his Apple account since October and has done almost anything to regain access. He offered to drive from Florida to Apple’s headquarters in California to prove his identity in person, or write a check for $10,000 to claim the account.

The 46-year-old’s iPhone 14 Pro was stolen while he was in a bar in Chicago, and then the perpetrators wanted to drain his bank account and prevent him from remotely tracking the stolen phone. Use his password to change his Apple ID password. They also enabled an elusive Apple security setting known as the Recovery Key. In doing so, they placed an “impenetrable lock” on his account.

After Cameron Devine’s iPhone 13 Pro was stolen from a Boston bar in August, the 24-year-old said he spent hours on the phone talking to Apple customer support, trying to regain access to more than a decade’s worth of data. Every rep told him the same thing: no recovery key, no access. Devine said he had never heard of the key, let alone its creation.

Victims reported that iPhones were stolen in clubs or other public places at night. Some said they were snatched from their hands by strangers, after they managed to figure out the password for the first time.

As The Wall Street Journal reported: “Getting to know him “iPhone passcode“, The thief can easily reset the victim’s Apple ID password in the app settings, even if Face ID or Touch ID is enabled. The thief can then disable “find my iphone on the device, which prevents the owner from tracking its location or remotely wiping the data via iCloud. The thief can also remove other trusted Apple devices from the account to block the victim further.

At the same time, knowing the iPhone passcode allows the thief to do so UsesHey and acquisition of Apple PayI Access to banking applications With passwords stored in iCloud Keychain. Even if your iPhone has Face ID or Touch ID enabled, thieves can simply bypass these authentication methods and use the option to enter the device passcode.

With information from The Wall Street Journal

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