Stolen iPhone question

[Guacamole]

Hello,
my iPhone was stolen in London about 10 days ago, now it's in Dubai
I called my carrier and got a new SIM card the next day. The phone is set to erase (still pending ) I'm not removing it from my account
Today I got two scam texts with links saying my Apple ID was used to access my phone... and that "Ahmed" has access to my photos, to stop it click here.. (I'm not falling for that)
how did they get my phone number if the SIM card was deactivated by my carrier ?
also, should I remove this phone from my trusted devices? I don't want to remove it from FindMy .. but I'm not sure about the trusted devices..

 

[Shirasaki]

You definitely must remove the stolen phone from trusted devices. This is a no brainer. You DO NOT want code to be sent to thief. As for the phone number situation, it is possible that your old phone number is still stored in iOS somewhere and they found it out. You can keep the device in find my for the time being.

 

[Arxr]

Safety Check for an iPhone with iOS 16 or later

Safety Check on iPhone helps you quickly stop all sharing and access, or easily review and update sharing with individual people and apps.

support.apple.com

 

[Guacamole]

You definitely must remove the stolen phone from trusted devices. This is a no brainer. You DO NOT want code to be sent to thief. As for the phone number situation, it is possible that your old phone number is still stored in iOS somewhere and they found it out. You can keep the device in find my for the time being.

But my SIM card was deactivated, I have a new one with the same number , that phone is not receiving any messages.
I thought by activating lost mode , the phone is not longer trusted ( even if still appears on the list)

 

[Fred Zed]

But my SIM card was deactivated, I have a new one with the same number , that phone is not receiving any messages.
I thought by activating lost mode , the phone is not longer trusted ( even if still appears on the list)

So many small things one has to do it they have their phone lost or stolen. I was under the impression that one just puts it in lost mode and erase. End off ?

 

[Shirasaki]

But my SIM card was deactivated, I have a new one with the same number , that phone is not receiving any messages.
I thought by activating lost mode , the phone is not longer trusted ( even if still appears on the list)

My point is the phone number might have been found somewhere On your phone. Not being able to receive text message and phone call doesn't mean phone number can’t be used for other purposes.

 

[Guacamole]

My point is the phone number might have been found somewhere On your phone. Not being able to receive text message and phone call doesn't mean phone number can’t be used for other purposes.

I thought a phone that's set to erase as soon as it's turned on would do just that, erase . Mine is still pending erase because it's switched off

 

[iStorm]

I thought a phone that's set to erase as soon as it's turned on would do just that, erase . Mine is still pending erase because it's switched off

It needs an internet connection to receive the erase command. It'll probably never do that because it no longer has a cellular connection, nor will they be able to connect it to Wi-Fi. I suppose they could pop in their own SIM card, but they probably know better.

 

[Shirasaki]

I thought a phone that's set to erase as soon as it's turned on would do just that, erase . Mine is still pending erase because it's switched off

It is stupidly easy for thief to sip through information on stolen iPhone without triggering potential find my erase command. As long as the stolen phone is offline, it can never be erased by find my.