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> "How does phishing like this scale?"

I assume that the thief which actually steals the phone isn't the same guy which puts this kind of scam on. And if you're the one which buys the stolen phones at larger scale (e.g. by running a used-phone-shop) this kind of scam scales very well I would think.

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Pay flat fee for locket, stolen iPhones, which aren't very useful to most thieves (a few % less than the break even price for using them as parts). Before using them as parts you see if the victim's ID is worth pursing (low hanging fruit). If it's worth pursuing you script out most of what was done in the article. All the IDs you get you sell weekly and you use the phones as parts for a phone repair service and make money charging people for parts that you're not paying much for (or just sell the parts at a discount).

The free market at it's finest.

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