I’ve had my iPhone stolen not once, but twice. Even with Find my iPhone enabled, the chances of you recovering a lost or stolen iPhone is still pretty low. Every now and then, a lost iPhone may find its way into a Good Samaritan’s hands. Instead of keeping this lost phone as their own or selling it, this Good Samaritan decides to make sure it finds its way back to its rightful owner. But, that scenario is few and far between. Instead, these stolen iPhones get sold to folks online and once they receive the item they may not even be able to unlock it. In order to avoid getting duped and buying someone’s stolen iPhone there is a nice tool that will allow you to identify if that phone is stolen before ever hitting that buy button, and we are going to show you how.
Tracking Ipad By Serial Number 1
How to identify a stolen iPhone
A serial number identifies a specific device such as an iPhone. Knowing your serial number does not in itself allow you to track your device if it is lost or stolen.
Tip: If you are buying an iPhone off of Craigslist make sure to meet in person and test out the device before handing over any money. Even better, make the seller Erase All Content and Settings right in front of you. They will need to enter their passcode in order to do so. If they don’t know the passcode, they won’t be able to do this. You never want to buy a device that is already linked to another Apple ID either. Besides being extremely annoy to replace with your own, this also could mean that the device was stolen, since most legit sellers won’t have any information still left on the device.
Tracking Ipad By Serial Number Lookup
iPhones are one of the world’s most popular phones, making it an easy target for thieves and resellers. While Find My iPhone has been a huge help in deterring wanna-be thieves from stealing random strangers iPhones, there are still people out there willing to take the risk for a quick cash payout. Most stolen iPhones will find their way to sites like Craigslist or eBay, where they are resold to unaware buyers at a nice discount.
If you are one of these unlucky buyers of a stolen iPhone or simply want to make sure you aren’t buying a stolen device you can check the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity).This IMEI number is unique to every phone, helping identify my iPhone from millions of other devices. Now, if Activation Lock was enabled by someone who lost or had their phone stolen, you’ll know immediately by putting the IMEI in at the Activation Lock website. You can find the IMEI number by going to Settings -> General -> About.
Track Ipad Location By Serial Number
Of course for this method, you actually need the device in-hand to look that up. This won’t really help when buying online, but you could ask the seller to send a screenshot of that page.
For different models and generations, Apple has changed where the IMEI number is located on the device. For example, my iPhone 5s has the IMEI number right on the back on the device, whereas my iPhone 6s does not. But for the 6s and 6s Plus you can find the IMEI number on the sim card tray. So, make sure to check out the Apple support page for each devices IMEI location. Once you know where to locate the IMEI number you can go more confidently when buying a device online, since you can check it with Apple.
Whenever you are buying an iPhone online from a third-party make sure to ask for the IMEI number. While this may be annoying for the seller, and legit buyer will do this without any issues and you can verify if the phone is stolen by entering in the information here.
Methods for locating the IMEI number
Track Ipad By Serial Number
- Dial *#06#
- Settings ->General ->About
- On the original packaging for the device
- In iTunes. Click on the number area when plugged in to reveal the IMEI
- On the bar code of the original device box.
The IMEI number is also available for a cellular iPad. You can get the IMEI for your iPad using the methods mention above.
Tracking Ipad By Serial Number Lookup
Read:How to find your iPhone or Cellular iPad’s IMEI number
On this topic, always make sure that you have your Find My iPhone enabled on your device. It is an extremely helpful tool and makes the potential recovery and safety of your private information super simple. You can enable it by going to Settings -> iCloud -> Find My iPhone.
Let us know if you’ve any questions in the comment section.
Read:What to do if you find a lost iPhone
Track Apple Ipad Serial Number
If you’re looking to buy a used iPhone, iPad or iPod touch device, Apple is now offering an online tool to let you first check if it’s been locked down by the previous owner, which could indicate that it was actually stolen or lost.
The service is available on the iCloud website and doesn’t require authentication. It allows users to input the IMEI (International Mobile Station Equipment Identity) or serial number of any iOS device to see its Activation Lock status.
Activation Lock is a feature first introduced in iOS 7 as part of the Find My iPhone service on iCloud. Once it is turned on, the device is locked down and the user needs to input the Apple ID and password associated with it in order to be able to use it again.
At least that’s how it’s supposed to work, but hackers figured out a way to bypass the locking mechanism by tricking locked devices into using an alternative iCloud server.
Apple’s new online tool could help prospective buyers determine if the device was stolen or lost even if it was unlocked with unofficial tools, because the IMEI/Serial Number check is done against Apple’s real Activation Lock database.
Activation Lock was optional in iOS 7, but Apple turned it on by default in iOS 8. Legislation passed in California this year requires all new phones sold in the state from July 2015 to have a kill-switch function.
Data from law enforcement agencies suggests that Activation Lock might have had a deterrent effect for phone theft. In San Francisco thefts of iPhones dropped by 38 percent in the first six months after iOS 7 and Activation Lock were launched in September 2013. In New York City the number of similar incidents dropped by 19 percent in the first five months of this year.