Apple just changed its iPhone repair policy. According to a memo seen by our colleagues at MacRumors, Apple Store technicians and authorized repairers will have to refuse to repair an iPhone if it is deemed lost or stolen.
For this, they will receive a message on their internal MobileGenius or GSX systems, indicating that the terminal is considered lost. In this case, the repair request will be refused. Apple uses the database of the GSMA (GSM Association), an association which includes 750 operators and 400 other companies in the mobile telephony sector. This database makes it possible, for example, to know the IMEI numbers, made up of 15 digits, of telephones declared as lost or stolen.
The GSMA database is also used in the context of article L34-3 of the Postal and Electronic Communications Code, which obliges operators to block access to their networks for stolen telephones:
These terminals must be blocked within four working days of receipt by the operator concerned of the official declaration of theft, transmitted by the police or gendarmerie services.
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The repair request will also be refused if the lost mode was activated remotely on the iPhone. The user can for example activate this mode by going to the site www.icloud.com/find. Finally, repairers can only remove the Activation Lock feature from an iPhone if the customer provides proof of ownership of the device. This proof must include the product serial number, IMEI or MEID.
Source : MacRumors