Woman threatened after her iPhone was stolen and transported from the US to China: ‘I can find you and your family’

Jordyn Davis’s iPhone was stolen at the beginning of August, sparking a month-long cross-continent journey that’s seen her harassed by criminals and threatened with bodily harm.

Davis had just attended a concert in Nashville, Tennessee, and was hanging out with her friends at a bar when she noticed her iPhone only had about five per cent left.

Wanting it to last until she got home, she put it in her purse.

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She later noticed it was missing, and she and her friends searched the bar floor before checking with the bar staff and security to see if it had been handed in.

Using her friend’s phone, Davis checked her iPhone’s location on the Find My app and discovered her phone was located elsewhere in the city.

It had been updated 40 minutes ago, and Davis assumed it had already run out of battery and was now lost for good.

Back at the Airbnb, Davis remembered she’d brought her iPad on the trip and used it to report her phone as lost.

The next day, she received a notification on her iPad telling her the iPhone’s location had updated and was nearby.

Davis immediately called the police and filed a report.

Her iPhone was detected at locations across Nashville over the next day, but didn’t stay in one place long enough for police to attend.

Davis and her friends flew home to Raleigh, North Carolina, and when she checked her Find My app, her stolen iPhone was now in Georgia.

From there, it travelled to Florida — but then it stopped updating.

Then she got the first text message.

“Your lost iPhone 14 128GB Midnight has been located today, to see the location of your device please reply with {Yes},” the text, claiming to be from Apple Support, read.

Without thinking, Davis immediately responded in the affirmative.

They responded with a link — but her intuition had kicked in, and she didn’t click on it.

“You almost got me there,” Davis joked in a video she shared on her social media.

Since then, she’s received multiple text messages.

Davis’s phone was also strapped in for a trip across continents, showing its location as Guangdong in China.

“This has been going on for an entire month,” Davis said.

At first, the text messages attempted to scam her by presenting as Apple alerts.

They would identify that her phone had a new SIM card inserted, its photos had been accessed, or a jailbreak request had been submitted.

But then the scammer changed tack, claiming to be a “mobile phone recycler”.

“I don’t know it your mobile phone was stolen or robbed,” they said. “But I want to tell you that I’m just a mobile phone recycler.”

“I bought your mobile phone. It was escaped by the bad guys.”

The “mobile phone recycler” told Davis they had no knowledge of the phone’s prior journey.

“They must want to steal your credit card and personal information,” they said. “Use your ugly selfie to deceive your family and even your friends!”

They offered to help Davis remove her Apple ID from the phone. When Davis didn’t respond, their tone quickly changed.

“Now that I can get your number, I can get in touch with you,” they said.

“You should know that I can also find you and your family.

“I hope you don’t ruin your happy family because of an old mobile phone.

“Due to your lack of cooperation, this has caused me a serious loss.

“So don’t force me to do what I don’t want to do.”

Davis has blocked multiple emails and reported them, but the wannabe scammers simply use another email.

In a final update, Davis showed the expletive-written messaged she received after posting her first video.

While she heavily censored it, so she wouldn’t be banned on the social media platform, it clearly shows that the person threatened to cause serious bodily harm to Davis.

The text was followed by a video of a man holding a gun.

Davis and her brother later found the same text on a Reddit forum, sent to someone else who had their phone stolen.

While the ordeal has been terrifying, Davis said she knows it’s all just a scare tactic.

“Obviously, a lot of people are getting these (texts),” she said.

Sharing her story and learning she wasn’t alone in the experience also made her feel safer.

What to do when your iPhone is stolen

If your iPhone is stolen, Apple recommends you look for it on the Find My app, mark it as lost and report it to the police.

If you have AppleCare+ with Theft and Loss covered, you can file a claim for a replacement iPhone.

You can erase the device if it has iOS 15 or later installed, and you will still be able to use Find My to locate the device or play a sound on it. Do not remove the device from Find My or your Apple ID until your claim has been approved.

If you have not activated Find My on your device, Apple recommends you change your Apple ID password and your passwords for any accounts you are signed into on the device.

You should also remove the device from your listed trusted devices on your Apple ID.