Breaking news and tips

It starts like any typical night out. You’re sipping something overpriced and half-listening to your friend’s relationship drama. Then, you check your pocket. Empty. You think maybe it was a pickpocket. But the reality is far stranger.

Dozens of iPhones stolen in cities like Washington, D.C., New York and Chicago have resurfaced thousands of miles away, deep inside religious communities in southern China. That’s the interesting part.

📍 A sinful trail

Folks whose iPhones were stolen are using Apple’s Find My app to track their phones’ travel across the world.

In one case, a man watched his iPhone move from a D.C. bar to Latin America, then Southeast Asia, and finally land in a building linked to a Chinese church. He had never heard of the town, let alone visited it. 

Other people reported nearly identical patterns, with their phones pinging from the same region.

So how did stolen iPhones end up in churches on the other side of the globe?

✌️ Peace be with iOS

Turns out, there’s an entire international pipeline designed to launder locked iPhones. These phones are pretty useless in the United States without the original Apple ID credentials. But in the hands of skilled hackers or digital middlemen, they can be exploited.

And many, it appears, are routed through church groups in China, getting them as part of larger electronics shipments. 

⛪️ So why churches? 

It’s not just about slipping past customs. It’s about creating cover. Spiritual sanctuaries don’t exactly scream “criminal enterprise.”

Continue reading →

Today is National System Administrator Appreciation Day, but this special day will soon be off the calendars. Thank you to all the unsung heroes updating, plugging and unplugging things and reminding us, “No, you can’t use 123456 again.”

Continue reading →