How to keep iMessages from being sent to stolen iPhones

Source: well duh…

The Verge’s Ross Miller published an article tonight about his findings concerning stolen iPhones and intercepted iMessages following the theft. In recent months, after the publication of iOS 5 with iMessage, „owners“ of stolen iPhones commented on the Internet that after they had their iOS device stolen they were still able to send iMessages but didn’t receive replies even though their friends assured them they sent them.

The tl;dr of the whole story is this. When you get your iOS phone stolen:

• remote-wipe the iPhone
• call your service provider and HAVE YOUR SIM DEACTIVATED!
• get a new/other iOS phone and activate your new Simcard

Because the only way for a thief to receive your iMessages is for him to still have YOUR ACTIVE SIMCARD.

This also means that all the reports on the net were of users who were so „intelligent“ as to post on forums while not having the Simcard in their stolen phone deactivated. Nowadays with call and text flatrates this isn’t a big deal but I remember the times when you had to pay up to two bucks for a single phone minute and how we feared losing our phone. The Simcard in your phone is like a credit card. Have it cancelled as soon as you find out your phone was stolen. Getting a new Simcard only costs 10 bucks, not deactivating it might lead to the thief receiving all your sextings…

This way or the other, Apple should offer educational videos on the Internet telling their customers how to deactivate their Simcard and how to remote-wipe their phones just like the video on how to reset your iPod.

Additionally Apple should have an account page like Amazon has for their Kindle Hardware where you can deactivate a device for the receiving of content.