What happens after thieves steal your precious phone

Do you know what thieves do after stealing your precious smartphone or iPhone?
 

Sell it. Yes, the first and obvious purpose of the theft. If the thief gets his/her hands on a shiny new, just-in-the-market phone then, the money is good. If you have a keen eye, you may spot it on one of the online classifieds or better still in the second-hand phone market.

While your new phone can fetch them the dough, imagine how much parts of old and outdated phones could get them! Yes, individual parts, like an unbroken screen, or memory card within etc can be a bonus.

One not so pleasant part of the whole robbery is that you may end up being a victim twice. First by losing your phone and secondly when your device contains incriminatory evidence, personal photographs, important documents or passwords of great value. Some thieves manage to track down users and begin a whole saga of blackmailing which then ends up in you paying up to obtain your personal stuff.

Not to forget, if you are one of those people who save every personal detail on their phones and have an acute memory problem, chances are someone somewhere can make millions out of the identity details you may have left on your phone like banking passwords, authorisation codes etc.
 

Yeah, if you think your IMEI number is going to help, then chances are unless you or your phone contains important evidence in a case, no one is going to trace it. Also, thieves have become smarter. There are ways to change the number. So it either is sold or ends up being used by someone other than you.

Illegal activities. This means trouble. Using stolen phones in shady drug deals or terrorist operations are known. So maybe someday the cops might come tracing the smartphone back to you, who knows? But hey! Look at the bright side, now you know who took your phone.

Export import does not happen only with food and clothes and smuggled goods to neighbouring countries can get thieves a neat sum.