Last week, Apple introduced two new iPhones with new features, including fingerprint recognition on one model, and extra password protections. But the new technology is up against a sophisticated black market that has had years to grow and adapt to meet the world's desire for smartphones.
To call smartphone-related crime an epidemic is not an exaggeration. By one estimate, more than 4,000 phones are stolen every day in the United States.
Last year the crime rate in New York City rose after years of declines. The reason? Fifteen thousand people reported a stolen phone.
Jessica Ingle was one; her phone was stolen in a crowded bar. "I didn't even notice it," she says. "They must be experienced or something at doing it without people noticing."
Pick Up The Phone
Over the summer, I spent a day driving around Brooklyn, hitting up places that advertise on Craigslist saying, "We buy used iPhones."
I brought an iPhone 4 I borrowed from my co-worker, which she had wiped.
Over the phone, a buyer named John agreed to meet me on the street in a rundown part of town.
John spotted me right away. We shook hands, and he took me inside a beauty parlor, where women sat underneath hair dryers. They hardly looked up from their magazines as John introduced me to his business partner. This guy picked up the phone, flicked through several screens, and said, "How much do you want for it?"
I didn't sell it.
I'll just say it: It didn't seem to me like these guys were too concerned where the phone came from. They also seemed pretty confident after looking at a phone that had been wiped that they would be able to sell it on, no problem.
— Ilya Marritz, WNYC