Stolen iPhone Unlocking Tools Hit Industrial Scale as Five-Fold Value Gap Drives Criminal Investment

Infoblox documented a 350% surge in traffic to iPhone unlocking domains over the past year, with dozens of criminal groups now selling unlock tools for under $10. The economics are stark: a locked stolen phone fetches $50–$200, but unlocked devices command $500–$1,000. This value gap has transformed smartphone theft from opportunistic crime into systematic data harvesting, with London police documenting cases of networks accessing financial accounts across thousands of compromised devices.