My iPhone got pickpocketed in London on April 10th. I acted fast—I enabled Lost Mode, contacted my carrier, filed a police report, and initiated a remote erase. I even added my husband's number as the contact for Lost Mode. After that, he started getting phishing texts trying to trick him into giving up my Apple ID info. That all made sense.
However, it took a weird turn. I tracked the phone moving around London, but then it suddenly showed up in China. Now, I'm bombarded with spam texts, especially phishing messages urging me to remove the device from Find My Devices.
Here's my big question: how did these thieves get my contact details? The device name has my real name, so I understand why they addressed texts to my husband. But I'm baffled about how they linked the phone to me and my iMessage number. Apple Support and the police couldn't give me answers. Has anyone else been through this or figured out how their info got leaked?
3 Answers
If you had a physical SIM card, the thieves could just pop it into another phone and see your number. Did you have a physical SIM or eSIM?
If they wiped your phone and it went to the setup screen, there’s usually an option to display carrier info, like the number and IMEI. They might have accessed that.
Could it be from your emergency contact list? They might have access to that information.
My emergency contacts are family and friends, not my info. No one except my husband has been contacted!
I had an eSIM. My husband wonders if they could've found info during an Account Recovery attempt.