iPhone thief posts picture of himself seemingly smoking pot on victim's Facebook page

Filed Under: Apple, Facebook, Featured, iOS, Law & order, Mobile

SmokerDo you recognise this man?

If so, the New York Police Department would like to hear from you.

Photographs of this young man (who may appear to be having an incident with ectoplasm, but is seemingly smoking marijuana) were uploaded to the Facebook account of one Viviana Estrada.

According to media reports, 27-year-old Miss Estrada had her iPhone 4S stolen in the early hours of March 2nd, after she and her uncle were approached by a man near East Tremont Avenue and the Grand Concourse.

It's bad enough having your smartphone stolen - but what happened next would really rub your nose in it. It appears that the thief then taunted his victim by posting images taken with the stolen iPhone to the victim's Facebook account.

Of course, maybe the thief didn't realise he was posting the images to his victim's Facebook account - maybe he thought that he was posting them to his own page on the social network. But because most people have their smartphone Facebook app permanently logged into the site, it's an easy mistake for a drugged-up phone thief to make.

We have often spoken on Naked Security about the dangers of posting inappropriate information on Facebook, and how it could lead to your privacy being compromised, or you falling victim to identity thieves.

This guy clearly isn't the smartest cookie, and if the photograph is shared far and wide it could lead to him being invited to answer a few questions by the New York Police.

For once, maybe something good will come out of a smartphone user not having properly locked her device with a hard-to-crack password.

Anyone who recognises the man in the photo is invited to contact NYPD Crimestoppers.

If you're interested in other Facebook goofs made by criminals, check out the burglar who uploaded his own picture to the victim's Facebook account and the two men who robbed an internet cafe, but forgot to log out of Facebook first.

If you use Facebook and want to get an early warning about the latest attacks, security issues and privacy threats you should join the Naked Security from Sophos Facebook page where we have a thriving community of over 200,000 people.

And make sure to check out our tips for better mobile phone security.

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6 Responses to iPhone thief posts picture of himself seemingly smoking pot on victim's Facebook page

  1. XSS says:

    Wonder if the photo has any geo tagging on it?

  2. Ian says:

    According to Jailbreak trend "By default iPhone resorts to tagging GPS and geographic information to the photos taken from your iPhone camera in EXIF data of iPhone Photos."

    But I imagine NYPD already thought about that.

  3. Richard says:

    I agree, not a very smart cookie at all. Stealing an iPhone in the first place isn't very smart; you're risking having your GPS location revealed the moment you turn on the device. Taking pictures of yourself doing illegal (at least in New York) drugs and then posting them to your victim's Facebook is a whole different level of stupidity. Posting to Facebook would also reveal his IP address to the account holder, and if he's connecting to his personal WiFi, he's done for.

  4. Seemingly says:

    "SEEMINGLY smoking marijuana"?????????

    I've heard marijuana seemingly turns you evil.

    Seemingly is a great word. From that photo he seemingly has no torso either. Imagine the headlines... "Head and Shoulders steal iPhone". I wonder if their shampoo products would drop in sales??

    He seemingly could be Colin Powell having fun uploading new facebook pictures on his "hacked account".

    Hmmm.... Seemingly I don't really have a point here.

  5. Andy says:

    Another phone without a password - when will people learn!

  6. random comment says:

    shame she hadn't registered with Find iPhone

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About the author

Graham Cluley has worked in the computer security industry for more than 20 years, developing anti-virus software and doing quite a lot of talking about internet threats. He's won awards for his blogging, but is proudest of the text adventure games he wrote when he was still wearing short trousers. You can learn more about those (the games, not the trousers) at grahamcluley.com. Send Graham an email, subscribe to his updates on Facebook, follow him on Twitter and App.net, and circle him on Google Plus for regular updates.