With modern iPhones now, you can perform a remote wipeout of the phone’s contents if it is stolen or lost. So you would think that your private data would be safe and that would be the end of it, right?
Wrong!
The stolen or lost phone will continue to receive text messages being sent to you. Even if you get a new iPhone and a new phone number, the messages will still continue to go to the old phone as well.
Below is part of a thread from the Mac Rumors forum that one unlucky iPhone owner went through and his text messages were still going to his old phone:
“My iPhone was stolen last week. I did a remote wipe, but the thief is still receiving my iMessages from other friends with iOS5. I would really appreciate any help.
What I’ve done:
– I called Verizon, and they redirected me to Applecare.
– I called Applecare, and they said to change my Apple ID password.
– I did this and sent my number an iMessage from my friend’s phone; it was delivered and read.
– I called Applecare again, and they said to get the ID cancelled through iTunes.
– I contacted iTunes, and they said that iMessage is not associated with Apple ID, and cancelling my Apple ID will not stop the stolen phone from receiving my iMessages.
– I changed my Apple ID email, password, and billing address in hopes that it would do something to disassociate my Apple ID from iMessage. No luck.”
Then he was asked if he did a remote wipe and if he got a new phone or is his number still on that phone and the iPhone owner replied with:
“It might still be registered to my number, but is just deactivated. I was hoping that the thief maybe somehow got it to register under a different service.
Here’s what went down the night it was stolen:
– phone was stolen
– went home and sent the phone a message, but it was turned off
– called verizon to suspend the service
– sent a remote wipe
– went to bed
– reactivated the service through verizon so the remote wipe would send through
– the remote wipe sent
– i called the number in order to check my voicemail
– some lady with broken english picked up and said she bought it from craigslist
– called back verizon to tell them to suspend the service again”
For some users, one thing that is fixing this issue is to cancel your Apple ID and create a new one. It looks like the iPhone owner from above tried that already and it did not work, but after some research, this has worked for other consumers.
