Android Lost mobile phone

retrophiliac · Jan 9, 2023

Hello everyone!

My phone was stolen a couple of months ago. I reported the matter to the police, but they were unhelpful. Every time I questioned them about it, they always said they were looking for it. I'm convinced they won't offer any assistance at all.

Recently, I came across an Instagram page that advertised its ability to track a missing phone in exchange for payment. The profile looked legit, so I wanted to see if any member on this forum has any past experience with the promises made on the aforementioned Instagram profile.

Thank You!

rkkaranrk · Jan 9, 2023

retrophiliac said:
Hello everyone!

My phone was stolen a couple of months ago. I reported the matter to the police, but they were unhelpful. Every time I questioned them about it, they always said they were looking for it. I'm convinced they won't offer any assistance at all.

Recently, I came across an Instagram page that advertised its ability to track a missing phone in exchange for payment. The profile looked legit, so I wanted to see if any member on this forum has any past experience with the promises made on the aforementioned Instagram profile.

Thank You!

How do u find out that it's ligit.... Just coz this page has 74k followers?

Check the likes only 30/40 with the 74k followers they should be in thousands or atleast hundreds.

anikptl · Jan 9, 2023

rkkaranrk said:
How do u find out that it's ligit.... Just coz this page has 74k followers?

Check the likes only 30/40 with the 74k followers they should be in thousands or atleast hundreds.

In addition to this, they have disabled the comments section under all the posts.

enthusiast29 · Jan 9, 2023

Move on buddy, unless there's an FIR registered by the police nothing will be done. What you must have done is just provided information for lost/stolen item which you can also do online BTW. Nothing is done about that and it's only for your record.

You phone by now is erased and resold in some kind of chor bazaar. SIM destroyed.

t3chg33k · Jan 9, 2023

retrophiliac said:
Hello everyone!

My phone was stolen a couple of months ago. I reported the matter to the police, but they were unhelpful. Every time I questioned them about it, they always said they were looking for it. I'm convinced they won't offer any assistance at all.

Recently, I came across an Instagram page that advertised its ability to track a missing phone in exchange for payment. The profile looked legit, so I wanted to see if any member on this forum has any past experience with the promises made on the aforementioned Instagram profile.

Thank You!

You are unlikely to get it back. But if you have the police complaint, then get the IMEI blocked to prevent misuse.

https://www.ceir.gov.in/Request/CeirUserBlockRequestDirect.jsp

The inbuilt "Find my phone" tools are the best option to track them and having the phone encrypted is the best way to prevent it's reuse.

retrophiliac · Jan 9, 2023

rkkaranrk said:
How do u find out that it's ligit.... Just coz this page has 74k followers?

Check the likes only 30/40 with the 74k followers they should be in thousands or atleast hundreds.

anikptl said:
In addition to this, they have disabled the comments section under all the posts.

I did think it was legitimate because of the number of followers and the fact that a mobile app was made available for it on the Play Store. The comments and like section you're referring to, regrettably, escaped my notice. I appreciate you bringing it to my attention; it must be a scam.

enthusiast29 said:
Move on buddy, unless there's an FIR registered by the police nothing will be done. What you must have done is just provided information for lost/stolen item which you can also do online BTW. Nothing is done about that and it's only for your record.

You phone by now is erased and resold in some kind of chor bazaar. SIM destroyed.

Unfortunately, no FIR was lodged; they simply instructed me to submit an application for the lost phone and didn't even let me mention in the application that it was stolen. Do you think anything can be done now?

t3chg33k said:
You are unlikely to get it back. But if you have the police complaint, then get the IMEI blocked to prevent misuse.

https://www.ceir.gov.in/Request/CeirUserBlockRequestDirect.jsp

The inbuilt "Find my phone" tools are the best option to track them and having the phone encrypted is the best way to prevent it's reuse.

Fortunately, the phone was encrypted. I did attempt to locate it using Find My Phone, but sadly, I received no response. And I'll just report it to the website you indicated. I appreciate it.

enthusiast29 · Jan 9, 2023

retrophiliac said:
Unfortunately, no FIR was lodged; they simply instructed me to submit an application for the lost phone and didn't even let me mention in the application that it was stolen. Do you think anything can be done now?

Nothing can be done. Encrypted or not does not matter. they're not after your data and the phone can be wiped clean using recovery mode and then resold. Since a few months have passed your phone by now is with a new owner.

You must have bought a new one by now. Learn from your mistake and move on.

retrophiliac · Jan 9, 2023

enthusiast29 said:
Nothing can be done. Encrypted or not does not matter. they're not after your data and the phone can be wiped clean using recovery mode and then resold. Since a few months have passed your phone by now is with a new owner.

You must have bought a new one by now. Learn from your mistake and move on.

You are most likely correct. I should stop trying to get it back and just move on. Thank You!

t3chg33k · Jan 9, 2023

enthusiast29 said:
Nothing can be done. Encrypted or not does not matter. they're not after your data and the phone can be wiped clean using recovery mode and then resold. Since a few months have passed your phone by now is with a new owner.

You must have bought a new one by now. Learn from your mistake and move on.

I was talking about boot encryption. On iOS of course you can do nothing without connecting to iCloud so the phone is effectively useless, as even NAND change no longer works.

On Android, some manufacturers had implemented a password on boot feature in the past that prevents going into recovery without entering the password, but I suppose that is no longer the case then for most.

The irony of course is that custom recoveries like TWRP support encryption on recovery entry, so it is quite stupid that in some phones you can just wipe it using a key combination.

enthusiast29 · Jan 9, 2023

t3chg33k said:
irony of course is that custom recoveries like TWRP support encryption on recovery entry, so it is quite stupid that in some phones you can just wipe it using a key combination.

I've not seen a single Android phone ask for a password to go into recovery or fastboot mode.
Everyone who's stealing/reselling these devices is aware about wiping via recovery or reflashing the device.

Custom recoveries like twrp and others ask for passwords to decrypt internal memory (/data and /data/internal_storage). It's not mandatory to provide that if you don't wanna read that data in recovery. Then you can just proceed to wipe everything in those recoveries thus removing any kind of encryption along with the data.

t3chg33k · Jan 9, 2023

enthusiast29 said:
I've not seen a single Android phone ask for a password to go into recovery or fastboot mode.
Everyone who's stealing/reselling these devices is aware about wiping via recovery or reflashing the device.

Custom recoveries like twrp and others ask for passwords to decrypt internal memory (/data and /data/internal_storage). It's not mandatory to provide that if you don't wanna read that data in recovery. Then you can just proceed to wipe everything in those recoveries thus removing any kind of encryption along with the data.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GooglePixel/comments/5euu62

I was thinking of this, which used to happen on Nexus devices. However, not sure if it was full disk encryption or file encryption.

TWRP does perform only data encryption now but may be I am again misremembering full disk encryption support somewhere else.

enthusiast29 · Jan 9, 2023

@t3chg33k That password on boot is not before the bootloader kicks in. It's actually in the middle of loading the OS which is useless if one doesn't care about the data and just wants the device. You can still enter recoveries and fastboot mode.

t3chg33k · Jan 9, 2023

enthusiast29 said:
@t3chg33k That password on boot is not before the bootloader kicks in. It's actually in the middle of loading the OS which is useless if one doesn't care about the data and just wants the device. You can still enter recoveries and fastboot mode.

Yes, it is quite odd that there is no owner control on preventing recovery access and basically only data encryption is implemented, which can be reset.

I was trying to remember what I was thinking of in terms of protection and for organisations, it is possible to set a policy that forces the earlier credentials to be entered even after factory reset. Otherwise, only the organisation can unenroll the device.

How it works | Google device provisioning services | Google for Developers

developers.google.com

Too bad if there is no consumer equivalent of it.

enthusiast29 · Jan 9, 2023

t3chg33k said:
Yes, it is quite odd that there is no owner control on preventing recovery access and basically only data encryption is implemented, which can be reset.

I was trying to remember what I was thinking of in terms of protection and for organisations, it is possible to set a policy that forces the earlier credentials to be entered even after factory reset. Otherwise, only the organisation can unenroll the device.

How it works | Google device provisioning services | Google for Developers

developers.google.com

Too bad if there is no consumer equivalent of it.

For the first part, it'll be very anti-consumer move to lock out a user out of their device if they forget their password or something. Primary concern is always DATA, that should not get into the hands of wrong person hence with all reset methods data will be erased if you don't have access to passwords. This is absolutely right.

For the latter part, yes even Android devices has such ability to ask for previous accounts on setting up the device after factory reset. I think it's not enabled specifically by the user but happens automatically if the phone was encrypted (which it automatically is when a password/pattern/pin is set) and user was logged into a google account. If it's a Mi device then Mi account should be logged in.

I'm sure there are ways around this as well but I can't confirm.

nRiTeCh · Jan 9, 2023

A remote wipe via your google a/c shall work but been1 month then no need as if you had anything personal/private or controversial then by this time either it got stored, shared or deleted!

enthusiast29 · Jan 9, 2023

nRiTeCh said:
A remote wipe via your google a/c shall work but been1 month then no need as if you had anything personal/private or controversial then by this time either it got stored, shared or deleted!

Are you aware this needs internet on the phone? No thief is foolish enough to keep your device on after stealing it. They immediately turn off after stealing and only turn it on after wiping.

nRiTeCh · Jan 9, 2023

enthusiast29 said:
Are you aware this needs internet on the phone? No thief is foolish enough to keep your device on after stealing it. They immediately turn off after stealing and only turn it on after wiping.

I did mentioned 1 month duration as per OP!
And not all thieves are smart enough to wipe without an unlock etc. It all come down to how tech savvy that thief is/was and if he acted smart or not. But been 1 month+ so no point of this thing but imei blocking can be worthy.

kalph09 · Jan 10, 2023

Avoid Instagram pages, it’s mostly a scam. Viewbots/followbots can be bought to make the page look legit.

t3chg33k · Jan 10, 2023

enthusiast29 said:
For the first part, it'll be very anti-consumer move to lock out a user out of their device if they forget their password or something. Primary concern is always DATA, that should not get into the hands of wrong person hence with all reset methods data will be erased if you don't have access to passwords. This is absolutely right.

For the latter part, yes even Android devices has such ability to ask for previous accounts on setting up the device after factory reset. I think it's not enabled specifically by the user but happens automatically if the phone was encrypted (which it automatically is when a password/pattern/pin is set) and user was logged into a google account. If it's a Mi device then Mi account should be logged in.

I'm sure there are ways around this as well but I can't confirm.

A kill switch reduces theft because robbers know they are unlikely to be able to resell the device, and it has worked for iPhones since the past decade.

Apple Kill Switch Has Reduced iPhone Theft Worldwide

Since the implementation of the "kill switch" last year, iPhone robbery-related crimes have dropped significantly across the world. From report released

www.igeeksblog.com

Android is supposed to have the option to lock the phone to the last logged in account, but then I am not sure if that works then.

Turn on Your Phone's Kill Switch So It's Useless If Stolen

A stolen smartphone can ruin anyone’s day, though our smartphones’ built-in anti-theft software seems to be working, according to San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón, who cited a 50% drop in phone-related robberies from 2013 to 2016 after the passage of the Smartphone Theft Prevention Act.

lifehacker.com

kvn95ss · Jan 10, 2023

In android, you can encrypt your device. Once enabled, you have to enter password / pin / pattern to decrypt the device, after which the phone will work. Granted, its only to keep the data safe, as it could still be wiped with a custom recovery, not to mention it can be scrapped for parts.