Stolen iPhones Become High-Value Targets as Unlocking Tools Hit Industrial Scale

iPhone unlocking traffic surged 350% in a year as criminal groups sell unlock tools for under $10. A stolen locked phone fetches $50–$200; unlocked ones reach $500–$1,000. That gap has made phone theft systematic. London police documented criminal networks accessing financial accounts across thousands of compromised devices, turning smartphone theft from opportunistic crime into organized data harvesting.