Lady Loses iPhone, Laptop, Gets Mocked on Own Facebook Page
A lady in the UK had her gear bag stolen, including her iPhone, laptop, and Nintendo DS, and to rub salt on her wounds, the thief decided to mock her on her own Facebook page:
“I have the laptop, phones ok but a bit scratched itll do, tv was rubbish so I left it , ds was a bonus, now to the porn shop, thankyou toshiba is my favourite make”.
While we hope the thief gets every ounce of karma (and justice) returned to him/her, we also echo Gizmodo’s hope that everyone reading this takes a moment to enable the passcode lock (and Remote Wipe if you’re an Exchange or MobileMe user) on the iPhone, and BIOS/Login passwords on the laptop. An ounce of prevention beats a pound of curses later…
August 17th, 2009 at 9:46 am
That Son of a Bytch!
August 17th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Hope she had mobile me with the tracking feature.
August 17th, 2009 at 9:53 am
With our new age of tech that we live in, we need like a gadget technology unit in every police squad.
August 17th, 2009 at 9:55 am
doesn’t she have to be friends with the thief for the person to write on her wall?
errr… hello?
August 17th, 2009 at 10:00 am
If she have passcode lock on her iPhone, wouldn’t everything be fine..? Unless the man have the USB cable..
August 17th, 2009 at 10:08 am
@interdeep
can you please think about it for a second, then post a “oh, I get it”
or maybe I don’t get your joke…
August 17th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Passcode lock is also handy when your girlfriend tries to check your safari history for porn.
I’m just sayin…
August 17th, 2009 at 10:13 am
haha.. thats halarious…. sucks for her though
August 17th, 2009 at 10:16 am
@ inderdeep
I think u need to “er… hello?” yourself because you don’t seem to have ever used facebook on an iPhone or an iPhone at all for that matter.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:20 am
…so sad.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:26 am
If she just left the bag unattended I don’t feel bad for her at all.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:27 am
In order for the theive to write on her wall, she has to befreinds with him. He can send her an Inbox message and that’s about it.
And what about the theives name? Whenever a post is made, the name is ALWAYS with it.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:32 am
The thief used her login from facebooj to write on her own wall. Most people have it enabled with auto login. Poor lady. What a **** the thief is
August 17th, 2009 at 10:40 am
@ Ivan … very sad.
August 17th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Like I said on the forums about do you lock your phones.. what is 2 seconds of inconvenience to a lifetime of hurt.. LOCK yo phones…
August 17th, 2009 at 10:56 am
One of the best 3.0 features for me is AutoFill. Since saving every username and password into a hundred logins, I’ve been using Passcode Lock on a one minute autolock. I only use two different numbers, so it takes a fraction of a second, and virtually zero effort to unlock it every time I pick up my phone. It’s NO inconvenience whatsoever.
August 17th, 2009 at 11:08 am
@ Dyms, We’ll keep your perspective in mind when passing by your car… I mean, if you left it unattended, we shouldn’t feel bad if it’s stolen, right? While people can certainly take precautions to lower their risk of having things stolen from them, there is no end to your argument… unless people are expected to at all times keep things behind lock and key, then every one of our possessions will be, in some manner, unattended. Blaming the victim might enhance the illusion of safety, but that’s about it. Things get stolen because people take them… not because of where someone left them.
The whole story is a shame, probably very frustrating and embarrassing and not something I’d wish on anyone. It does cause me to think about activating the remote wipe and password lock features of my iPhone, though.
August 17th, 2009 at 11:54 am
@ Joe McG. LoL…passcode… girlfriend….porn……lol
August 17th, 2009 at 11:54 am
I rarely post on boards, but feel compelled to, here. As a recent burglary victim I want to strongly echo the value of simple passcodes, etc. Most thieves want the toys and don’t care about your personal info … unless you virtually hand it to them. Then, they will use it. 3 easy steps can you a great deal if time and grief:
Simple passwords/codes to be entered when your phone/laptop is turned on or awakened.
Weekly backup of your most important documents.
Add these devices to your home-owner’s/renter’s insurance. Don’t have insurance? Get it. It’s cheap.
No one plans these sorts of things. The just happen.
August 17th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
The only time my wife list her iPhone the person who found it was able to get my number and call me to set up a time to return it. Good thing I didn’t have a screen lock.
August 17th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Antelope you are lucky, but the same effect could have been obtained by simply calling the lost iPhone. You don’t need to unlock the phone to answer a call
August 17th, 2009 at 1:23 pm
@Antelope You were lucky because the person who found it was honest. He/she could also have contacted your service provider and returned it to them, (I am sure they can trace ownership with the SIM card info or serial number) and had it returned to you. Regardless, screen lock the phone. It’s the safest bet. Nothing worse than a thief having auto login to your social networking sites, email, contacts, and all other sorts of personal information.
August 17th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Question???
i thought if u restore your phone it would wipe out the pass code for people who forgot it?
August 17th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Passcode lock is ALSO handy when your wife checks your phone for calls from said girlfriend…
I’m just sayin again…
August 17th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
For goodness sake just lock it especially now that people are starting to do banking via their phones too it takes 2 seconds to unlock
August 17th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Even if you do have a passcode they can still steal the phone. Then restore it and use it. The passcode only prevents the thief from accessing your info. Its kind of pointless unless you have all your credit card numbers, your adress, and socail security number in there, which most people don’t do…
August 17th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Matt B
Agree.
Disagree. Neither is it pointless to lock my doors just because someone can still break in. If it took me five seconds or more to enter a passcode each time I used my phone, I’d agree with you. But it literally takes less than one second to type two numbers (next to each other) twice, and the thief’s inaccessibility to my apps would give me more time to remotely wipe it.
Sure, a thief could restore it and use it. But someone unfamiliar with iPhones, who simply finds it if lost, might not… and could possibly even return it. So, an extra half second of my time is not “pointless” in my opinion.
August 18th, 2009 at 1:40 am
just lock it. apparently on OS3.0 the lockscreen emergency phone call option will let whoever finds it call you (if they are not too non-tech-bright
)
August 18th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Antelope– What I do is have my wallpaper display my phone number and email address, so that if an honest person does find it they can still return it to me even though the screen is locked. There are various apps that help you add notes like that to any wallpaper you like.
August 19th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
Good thing I live in canada. This kinda **** rarely rarely happens. My gf lost her iPhone in a bar. Person who found it gave it to the bar owner and than he called her house the next day when we were really hung over and never knew the phone was lost. I found a blackberry about 3 years ago and called the house only to have her mother answer and make me call the girls friend to let them know where to meet. She got her phone back and bought me a dinner. Pretty nice ain’t it in Canada?? One of the many reasons I love my country.
September 9th, 2009 at 8:41 am
i love that handset … i am nokia mobile follower and only purchase nokia handset .. is there any new releases?
regards cleon dann