TikToker Viral Theft Recovery iPhone hack has sparked debate in the comments whether knowing the location of the stolen device is useful if there is no way to get it back.
The creator, Katrina Audrey (@katrinaforeal), shared her character iPhone theft story I guide users through a step-by-step process on how to find the location of your iPhone, even if the device is turned off. Her video has garnered more than 11.5 million views.
“You have to hack this iPhone in case your phone gets stolen because my phone was last night, and I already got it back,” Katrina says. She adds that she learned the hack from @reviewingtech on instagram.
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“Go to the first step to Face ID and Passcode, you want to turn off Control Center and USB accessories,” Audrey explains. Switch Location Services, Find My iPhone, and make sure to switch between these three [she’s referring to Find my iPhone, Find my Network, and Send Last Location]. “
This process requires the user to sign in to any other party iOS device Using their Apple ID and then remotely manage the settings of the stolen iPhone from the secondary device for this method to work.
Katrina continues, “This allows your phone, even when it’s off or on airplane mode, to still be found. Whoever stole my phone last night has literally been out all night.” She then showed a screenshot of a map of Chicago showing her phone’s path through a series of tracked steps.
“Look what they went through in Chicago,” she says. “Southside, Northside, they ended up going back to Gurnee, Illinois. That’s the address they had, nice little place, right?” TikToker then showed a picture of the house that allegedly housed the stolen iPhone.
Katrina called the Gurney Police Department and gave them the home address. She says the police went home and got her phone back.
The FCC Reports That 68% of phone theft victims are eventually unable to recover their stolen devices. The agency wrote, “The truth is that whether your smartphone is white, black or gold, it is now about 30 times more valuable an ounce than a mass of solid silver — and it is easy to discreetly convert it into cash.”
Despite Katrina’s advice, many TikTokers expressed that they had difficulty recovering stolen phones and items from local police departments. The comments section was full of criticism of the employers’ performance, or lack thereof, in obtaining these stolen items.
“The fact that the police actually listened and went to the site made me skeptical,” one user said. “The police told me directly” f? When I told them where my phone was.
Another said, “This is outrageous because when I called the police here in San Francisco and told them I knew exactly what house he was in, they said they considered it a loss.”
A third show: “It’s nice to help the police department.” When I tracked down my husband’s iPhone, the police forced us out of the neighborhood BC, it was dangerous.”
One user said they took matters into their own hands, ignoring any bureaucratic procedure. “This just happened with my phone a week ago,” they wrote. “But I didn’t call the police, I just floated around the house.”
TikTok Katrina left some people confused as she was walking the trends step by step rather quickly. Commentators came to the rescue.
One user wrote “Settings > Face ID & Passcode > Control Center and USB off, Privacy > Turn Location Services on, then Apple ID > Find My > Find My iPhone TOGGLE ALL ON.”
Another pointed out “Use someone else’s phone and sign in to your Apple ID on Find my iphone then all your Apple devices will be shown”.
The Daily Dot reached out to Katrina on TikTok for more feedback.
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*First Published: August 7, 2022, 3:50PM CST
Jack Alban
Jack Alban is a freelance journalist for the Daily Dot covering human interest/stories on social media and real people’s reactions to them. Always strive to combine evidence-based studies, current events, and relevant facts with these stories to create your own mediocre viral publication.
