"Two days later, Vigo received a text message from iCloud, Apple's cloud service: Find my iPhone 13 mini. It has been connected to the internet and located today. Last location. It included a link to a strange address: apple(.)device-maps.net. The text message was awful: typos, a suspicious domain, and iCloud, says Vigo. But as a hacker, and with his partner without her cell phone, Vigo wasn't going to let that message go unnoticed."
"His weeks-long investigation coincided with a massive two-year police operation between 2022 and 2024 in six countries where 17 people were arrested: Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru. The magnitude of the operation clarifies why, despite improvements in security, cell phone theft remains profitable. They had a system in place to steal cell phones, send them abroad, try to unlock them to steal as much money as possible, and if they couldn't manage it, tweak them and resell them."
Hacker Martin Vigo's partner had her phone stolen at a Barcelona concert. Two days later Vigo received a suspicious iCloud text claiming a Find My iPhone location and linking to apple.device-maps.net. Vigo investigated, uncovering connections to a massive two-year police operation across six countries that arrested 17 people. The operation revealed a system to steal phones, ship them abroad, attempt to unlock them to steal funds, or modify and resell them. Spanish theft statistics fell from over 162,000 in 2019 to 120,510 in 2024, contradicting media claims of 250,000. Phones remain a high-value target despite security improvements.
Read at english.elpais.com
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