Find iPhone 4 owner?

cormie

Hey folks,
I found an iPhone 4 and would like to try return it to its owner, however, the phone is completely dead and won't power on even after being plugged in for ages.

I took it to a friend who has a repair shop and he said it would be €65 even to get it to turn on and then I could be met with a password for the phone and even if there's no password, there could then be an apple ID lock on it so the €65 could be completely wasted.

I checked http://www.imeipro.info/check_imei_iphone.html and got the following info:

IMEI: 0130*******
Brand: Apple
Phone model: iPhone 4S
Serial number: DNP***********
Estimated manufacture date: October 30, 2011
Estimated phone age: 5 year(s) 3 month(s) 3 day(s)
Tech support: EXPIRED
Warranty: EXPIRED
Find my iPhone: ON
iCLoud status*: CLEAN
Blacklist status**: CLEAN

* - CLEAN iCloud status means that the iPhone/iPad is not in LOST mode. Nevertheless you should check Find my iPhone status before purchasing an used Apple device. IMPORTANT: Find my iPhone feature should be turned OFF.

** - Please note that it can take up to few days till the IMEI number is added to the global blacklist. We do not guarantee that our service is error-free. All results are provided "as is".

I have reason to believe based on how it was found, that the owner stopped using it anyway and probably doesn't even realise they lost it.


Any advice would be appreciated

cormie

I rang apple and they said all they have is a first name and purchase date, but there's no phone number or email associated with the IMEI so when I asked if they could contact the owner and tell them to contact me, they said they have no way to do so.

They just suggested hand it in to authorities but I'm pretty sure the owner doesn't even know it's missing and probably never will.

So probably just throw it up on eBay or something

baby and crumble

cormie wrote: »

So probably just throw it up on eBay or something

Why would you do that? It's not yours to sell. If you're concerned enough to contact apple about it, then you should be concerned enough to hand it in to the Gardai, surely?

cormie

What are they going to do with it though? I have a very good reason to believe the owner doesn't even know they lost it, that they'll never know they lost it and that they'll never actively try to find it, let alone that they would be able to recover the IMEI and that the Gardai would be able to match them to this one, so it will either just gather dust in some lost property lock up for 10 years, or I could pop it up on ebay!

Kimbot

Was there a sim card in it??

cormie

Nope, nothing at all. there are some barcode stickers on the back but scanning them gave no info at all, just some codes on top.

Kimbot

cormie wrote: »

Nope, nothing at all. there are some barcode stickers on the back but scanning them gave no info at all, just some codes on top.

They look like Asset Tags of some description so possible a Government/Council phone.

cormie

Yeah, was thinking maybe it was provided by a company or something.

Effects

Chuck it in the bin. The owner doesn't want it, it doesn't work anyway and it's uneconomical to repair.

Kimbot

Find my iphone is still on? If so that means the iphone is tied to an apple account already. Apple wont have a contact number for the person but they should have an email address for them.

madfcuker

Its not yours to sell. Hand it into the gardai and let them sort it. If its never claimed its not your problem. Do the right thing and not try and make a quick buck.

cormie

No, it does't even turn on after being left in to charge for more than a day. I rang apple support who only have a name, not even an email address or any way to contact the owner.

Not going to throw it in the bin, it's probably of some use to someone. Screen etc fine, maybe just needs a new battery.

cormie

madfcuker wrote: »

Its not yours to sell. Hand it into the gardai and let them sort it. If its never claimed its not your problem. Do the right thing and not try and make a quick buck.

See post #4. I've already taken a trip up town to go to a repair shop, called apple support, posted on boards, posted on facebook. You think I'm not doing the right thing because I don't hand it to the gardai when I'm 99.9% certain it'll never be returned to the owner and think I'm trying to make a quick buck?

Kimbot

cormie wrote: »

No, it does't even turn on after being left in to charge for more than a day. I rang apple support who only have a name, not even an email address or any way to contact the owner.

Not going to throw it in the bin, it's probably of some use to someone. Screen etc fine, maybe just needs a new battery.

If someone had a battery they could pop into it to get it powered that would be good. Apple still should have the IMEI number tied to an Apple Account which will have a contact email address on it.

cormie

jonnycivic wrote: »

If someone had a battery they could pop into it to get it powered that would be good. Apple still should have the IMEI number tied to an Apple Account which will have a contact email address on it.

I was thinking that, but sounds like a lot of effort?

I rang apple support and they didn't have any information and said they couldn't do anything for me.

Kimbot

cormie wrote: »

I was thinking that, but sounds like a lot of effort?

I rang apple support and they didn't have any information and said they couldn't do anything for me.

Cormie, I have contacts in Vodafone and Three I could get them to run the IMEI and see if they have anything for you?
Apple support seem to be fobbing you off in fairness as the IMEI will be currently tied to an ITUNES account if Find my iPhone is active, they shouldnt give you any information but they could at least drop the user an email on your behalf.

cormie

Is there a risk of cloning to giving serial or IMEI out? I got another PM offering assistance too, very nice of you both, but just want to know what the risks are

Kimbot

cormie wrote: »

Is there a risk of cloning to giving serial or IMEI out? I got another PM offering assistance too, very nice of you both, but just want to know what the risks are

Not sure what the risks are TBH but as I said in the PM I am just forwarding it on to our account managers so you can try find the owner

cormie

Thanks a lot IMEI sent and PM replied to again

Effects

jonnycivic wrote: »

Find my iphone is still on?

Did you read the first post?
" the phone is completely dead and won't power on"

Effects

cormie wrote: »

Is there a risk of cloning to giving serial or IMEI out?

No risk.

Kimbot

Effects wrote: »

Did you read the first post?
" the phone is completely dead and won't power on"

And did you bother to read it..... cos if you did you would see in the Quote "Find my iPhone: ON" is a status of it from an IMEI checker.

Kimbot

Effects wrote: »

No risk.

Have you proof of this please?

cormie

I just had a quick Google on it and found this:

https://cellphoneforums.net/general-cell-phone-forum/t300003-bad-give-out-your-imei-number.html#axzz4XYZnVQml

aaronlynch01

could have been a burn phone.

cormie

What's a burn phone?

BreadnBuddha

cormie wrote: »

What's a burn phone?

It's something people in TV series and films use. Or occasionally incredibly well organised criminals who go to the trouble of asset tagging and barcoding their devices.

Cormie, this is all more trouble than it's worth. Hand it in at your local Garda station and get on with life.

naasrd

baby and crumble wrote: »

Why would you do that? It's not yours to sell. If you're concerned enough to contact apple about it, then you should be concerned enough to hand it in to the Gardai, surely?

It's his, he found it.

cormie

I'm not going to give it to the Gardai, I don't see any point in it whatsoever. I've explained how I found it to jonnycivic via PM and he'd probably back me up on there being no way the owner would ever bother going to the Gardai about it and for the rest of their lives will probably never even think about it again :pac:

I believe I've gone far beyond reason to try find the owner, with nothing yet. If I don't hear anything back after this thread, it's going on ebay advertised with no battery (anpost won't ship with one and it's kaput anyway by the looks of things), with a starting price of 1c and a shipping price of $15 to cover registered postage and packaging to the US, Europe and wherever else the bidder may be. If it sells for 1c, I'll have no regrets at all.

dodzy

Cormie, just bin it. You've done enough.

Was in a similar situation a few years back and posted the story here. Iphone 4. With SIM. It was on o2. People said to drop it to guards. No thanks. Rang o2. They said bring it to the guards also.No thanks. Gave them the SIM number and told them that, it most likely being their customer, they would have contact details, so could they contact them, give them my mobile number and get them to ring me directly.

2 days later, phone and owner were re-united. Without the SIM, forget it. Too much hassle.

cormie

Yep dodzy, that's the way to do it!

It completely escaped my mind until last night, but there was a VF dongle found with it too which I never thought to check for a sim until last night. I checked it and low and behold there was a VF sim inside!

I called VF support last night, they said I'd have to call back in the morning, I called this morning, they said they could get any info from the sim and there was no match and there's nothing they could do, I wanted to give them the IMEI of the dongle but they said they wouldn't be able to get any info from that either and said for me to go into a VF shop that they'd be able to get more info in the shop than they would in CS over the phone. So I went into a shop an hour ago but again, same story, they said if there was anything on the sim, they wouldn't be able to give it to me, I said they can contact the owner and get them to contact me, they checked the sim, but it returned a blank. There were 3 staff members in the shop at the time and I was the only customer, they couldn't think of anything else that could be done. I brought the iphone with me to see if there was any way they could check that either and they said no.

I did similar before myself too, found two wallets in town no more than 50m apart from eachother in the early hours of the morning, all cash gone of course, but one had a bank card left in it and the other had loads of cards and stuff scattered beside it.

One had a receipt from a shop with customer name as their mobile number so that was easy to contact them, the one with the bank card, I contacted the bank and told them to contact their customer and give them my number. Both wallets returned later the same day.

I'm not going to bin it though, I don't like to waste things, especially if I think someone can get use from them. I moved a customer the other day and he had a guy coming a few hours after the move to get rid of waste, he was going to dump a bed, a cot, a fireguard and a desk, again I hate the idea of stuff going to landfill so took them all and told him I'd put them on adverts or give them to a charity. All were given away for free. Less **** going to landfill and less environmental impact from manufacturing the same things again :pac: