Thieves Spy on iPhone Owners' Passcodes, Then Steal Their Phones and Money

After an iPhone was stolen, $10,000 vanished from the owner's bank account — and they were locked out of their Apple account's photos, contacts and notes. The thieves 'stole thousands of dollars through Apple Pay' and 'opened an Apple Card to make fraudulent charges,' writes 9 to 5 Mac, citing a report from the Wall Street Journal.

These thieves often work in groups with one distracting a victim while another records over a shoulder as they enter their passcode. Others have been known to even befriend victims, asking them to open social media or other apps on their iPhones so they can watch and memorize the passcode before stealing it. A 12-person crime ring in Minnesota was recently taken down after targeting iPhones like this in bars. Almost $300,000 was stolen from 40 victims by this group before they were caught.

The Journal adds that 'similar stories are piling up in police stations around the country,' while one of their article's authors has tweeted Apple's official response. 'We sympathize with users who have had this experience and we take all attacks on our users very seriously, no matter how rare.... We will continue to advance the protections to help keep user accounts secure.'

The reporter suggests alphanumeric passwords are harder to steal, while MacRumors offers some other simple fixes. 'Use Face ID or Touch ID as much as possible when in public to prevent thieves from spying... In situations where entering the passcode is necessary, users can hold their hands over their screen to hide passcode entry.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.