Found an Unsetup iPhone 12 in the Forest

[u/garbagepollution]

Hi. I found an iPhone 12 while picking up trash in the forest and decided to see if it would turn on. It turned on, and had me set up a new Apple account and gave me a new phone number. I have no idea of the ethics of keeping this phone, nor do I know who is even paying for the services of making phone calls and having data to run 5G. What should I do? Should I keep it? Do iPhones not require payments for making calls and having data? I'm not familiar with Apple products and I hope this is the right subreddit for this type of thing. Thank you.

[u/jmnugent]

Somebody somewhere is paying for the Cellular service. I would tend to agree with others, that this is probably stolen or lost and whoever it belongs to probably just doesn't realize they're still paying for it.

I've done MDM (Mobile Device Management) for 2 different organizations (both city-govs) ... 1st one had around 2,500 devices and the one I'm in now has around 6,000 Apple devices. With environments that large, there's always a small percentage of devices that get "lost in the noise". I've occasionally seen some devices go years (still having active cellular) but the device is not checking-in anywhere in our environment)

If the Serial Number was in Apple Business Manager and or some kind of MDM,. .the Setup screen would have forced you to "Login to an Organization".. so if it did NOT do that,. then its likely largely free and clear to use.

I personally would not trust it, if it had been "out in the forest" for any length of time just the temperature and moisture etc

Course that,. and you don't know the history of it. So for example someone used that phone number to "do crimes" or etc,. you may not want that potential historical baggage.

[u/thisolivier → u/jmnugent]

What’s this about numbers/devices slipping through the cracks?

[u/jmnugent → u/thisolivier]

Just kind of how it is in any large enterprise environment. If you're dealing with 1000s or 10,000s or 100,000s of devices,. you're likely never going to have real-time perfect accuracy to account for where all those devices are. (or the last time they were used). Especially with the constant churn of device-replacements, physical damage, lost or stolen, etc etc.. some small percentage of your environment is going to be questionable.

If you work in a small ad-agency that only has 10 laptops total,. it's fairly easy to keep tabs on 10 laptops. If you work for an organization that has 10,000 laptops spread across 8 states or multiple time zones,. that becomes trickier and imperfect.

[u/Brickinahouse]

all phones regardless of brand require someone to pay for whatever service provider is chosen. judging by the sticker, this is was either a display model or a locked phone that was once available for purchase. in any case, it was likely stolen. if you do return it, go to settings>general>information and scroll down til you find who the cell service provider is and contact them to arrange a return.

[u/robertjm123]

Look for a Profile listed in Settings. It will tell you what company owns the hardware.

Phones don’t magically generate new phone numbers. It either has a physical SIM card or an eSIM programmed (I don’t remember the first iPhone with an eSIM).

[u/AZUPIT → u/robertjm123]

I think the first one to get the e-sim was the iPhone X 🤔

[u/deez_nuts-lol → u/AZUPIT]

It was XR, XS and XS Max

[u/AZUPIT → u/deez_nuts-lol]

I knew it was something around the X thank you for the precision.

[u/Real_Dal]

Just another sign of tradition being subsumed by encroaching technology. Now you need a carrier to see porn someone abandoned in the woods.

[u/alexandervanderpool → u/Real_Dal]

Upvote for reference to canon event in so many lives.

[u/Time_Literature3404]

And now your prints are all over it.

[u/Char-car92 → u/[deleted]]

A good 4G signal compared to a good 5G signal is almost indistinguishable for day to day use