A thief was able to make thousands of dollars again and over again using a plan that began with snatching iPhones.
Nobody wants to be a victim of theft, and most people dislike thieves, therefore it makes sense to speak with criminals who steal about how to avoid becoming a victim.
Aaron Johnson is presently spending time at the Minnesota Correctional Facility after being convicted of racketeering.
But, in an act that will most likely benefit victims, he has detailed how he was able to make a lot of money by stealing people’s Apple iPhones.
And it was far more involved than simply snatching the phone and selling it to any random individual who wanted it.
Despite his prowess, Johnson’s luck soon ran out, and his year-long smartphone theft binge earned him a 94-month prison sentence.
It is estimated that he made $300,000 before being arrested. Though this sum was not attained by him alone, the Minneapolis Police Department’s arrest warrant states that they apprehended 11 members of an entire business.
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Speaking with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), he claimed that since he was already being punished for his crime, he might as well try to make apologies by telling people how he became successful.
Which would be useful to know if you are one of the millions of individuals who never walk outside without their iPhone.
In terms of how he made so much, it was frighteningly identical to the sequences in Will Smith’s 2015 film Focus.
He would target a victim, preferably in a dimly lit club, and make his choice. He explained that college-age men became ideal because ‘they’re already intoxicated and don’t know what’s going on’.
He would befriend them, potentially give drugs, or tell them he was a rapper looking to add them on Snapchat.
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They would ultimately hand over their phone to Johnson, expecting him to enter his information and return it immediately, but this was not the case.
“I say, ‘Hey, your phone is locked’. What is the passcode? They say ‘2-3-4-5-6,’ or whatever. “And then I just remember it,” Johnson said.
Other times, he would simply record people entering their passcodes. If he could accomplish it, he would either slip away with the phone in his grasp or give it to a member of his team.
Once he got in, the game seemed to get much easier. He’d take immediate actions to prevent them from gaining access, like deactivating lost phone apps, changing passcodes, and changing Apple ID passwords.
He’d go a step further by enrolling his face in Face ID because, according to Johnson, ‘when you got your face on there, you got the key to everything’ because it provided him rapid access to passwords saved in the iCloud Keychain.
By the time Johnson’s drunk victims notice anything is amiss later that evening or the next day, he has already transferred money using apps like Apple Pay, either to keep or to make high-end Apple purchases to sell.
It’s probably safest not to let strangers take your phone, even if it appears harmless at the time.
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