Kill Switch Could Destroy Stolen Phone Trade Worth £50 Million A Year

The booming trade in stolen mobile phones has suffered what police hope will be a devastating blow after Apple agreed to make stolen handsets effectively worthless.

In a move hailed as a breakthrough by Scotland Yard, the technology giant has switched on anti-theft protections by default, allowing owners to remotely lock stolen phones and prevent them from being reactivated or resold.

The change strikes directly at the criminal business model that has fuelled an explosion in phone snatching across Britain's cities.

Business Model Under Attack

Police say around 200 phones are stolen every day in London alone.

For years, organised gangs have profited by exporting stolen devices through international criminal networks stretching from Britain to Dubai, Hong Kong and mainland China.

Once a stolen phone was successfully reactivated, it could be sold on for hundreds of pounds.

The new system aims to stop that process.

Owners who mark a phone as lost through Apple's iCloud service can now trigger protections that prevent thieves from changing passwords or reconnecting the device to a mobile network.

Without the owner's credentials, the handset becomes little more than an expensive brick.

Sir Mark Rowley Issues Warning

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said the technology was helping dismantle the economics behind the crime.

"If stolen phones cannot be reactivated, their value collapses, and so does the incentive to steal them," he said.

He warned criminals that their profits were disappearing.

"The technology is catching up with you, and so are we."

Global Criminal Networks Exposed

The Daily Mail previously uncovered a vast international network responsible for moving stolen phones from British streets into overseas markets.

Three members of one smuggling gang later admitted involvement in a £180 million operation that handled tens of thousands of stolen devices.

Police believe organised crime groups have increasingly recruited teenagers to carry out street robberies, sometimes offering hundreds of pounds for a single stolen iPhone.

Pressure Builds On Rivals

Apple is the first major manufacturer to introduce the changes worldwide.

Scotland Yard is now urging other technology firms to follow suit, while Sir Mark Rowley has called on ministers to consider legislation forcing manufacturers to make stolen devices unusable.

Samsung and Google are already reviewing additional security measures.

Why This Matters

The significance of the move goes beyond technology.

For decades police have tried to arrest phone thieves one by one.

This strategy attacks the reason the thefts happen in the first place.

If a stolen phone cannot be sold, the incentive to steal it disappears.

That is why police believe the most effective weapon against phone theft may not be more officers on the streets — but a simple digital switch.

SOURCE

About time, but does this cover jailbroken phones as well? Peddling stolen phones is a large industry, and surely they are already looking into how to defeat this hurdle...

😂 Apple has had the ability to turn a stolen iPhone into an expensive paperweight for years. This isn’t exactly breaking news.

14 minutes ago, Nemises said:

😂 Apple has had the ability to turn a stolen iPhone into an expensive paperweight for years. This isn’t exactly breaking news.

This forum is called 'What the papers are saying'! It is not supposed to be 'Breaking news' which can be found HERE

🙂

19 minutes ago, Rimmer said:

This forum is called 'What the papers are saying'! It is not supposed to be 'Breaking news' which can be found HERE

🙂

😂 Yeah, all good. I was actually posting mainly because another member who said “About time…” and was just pointing out that Apple has had this feature for years. Wasn’t having a crack at the article itself, just adding a bit of context. 🙂