iPhone thieves take advantage of Apple’s generous repair policy

Anyone who’s ever owned an iPhone knows that Apple for the most part has a pretty good track record when it comes to customer service for the wildly popular iOS handset. The Cupertino-based company runs a faith-based customer service which allows any phone under warranty to be fixed — a process which ties the phone to the warranty, not the owner. This is one of the cool things that sets Apple apart from others.

This generosity displayed by the largest company in the world (when it comes to market cap) is reportedly being taken advantage of by thieves. It turns out that thieves are grabbing a little cash from trading in stolen iPhones and selling their replacements. Thieves also use another smart technique that has them bringing stolen iPhones back to Apple, as if broken, for either replacement or a discount on a new unit.

This isn’t new as its been going on since the inception of the iPhone, and because of that probably nothing will be done in the immediate future. Robert Siciliano, an identity theft expert, voiced the same sentiments, saying “Until consumers scream loud enough about this issue, Apple probably won’t do anything about it.”

The iPhone without a doubt is one of the top targets for thieves. An internal New York City Police report found that 70 percent of all phones taken from subway and bus passengers were iPhones, according to the New York Daily News which obtained the never-released document. Wow. The moral of the story folks, please keep your iPhone close, and make sure you have security on it to help better protect you from thieves.

[via Yahoo news]