(1) It gets shipped straight to Eastern Europe or China and broken down for parts which are resold back to unauthorised repair shops in the West as official Apple parts.
Or more commonly (2) they will try to socially engineer the owner into giving up their Apple credentials so that they can sign out the iPhone and wipe it. If that fails, go to (1).
When my brother’s partner had her iPhone nicked, they extracted her phone number off the SIM then started sending her messages linking to a phishing iCloud sign in page, saying something like “Your stolen device has been located, sign in here to recover it.”.
(1) It gets shipped straight to Eastern Europe or China and broken down for parts which are resold back to unauthorised repair shops in the West as official Apple parts.
Or more commonly (2) they will try to socially engineer the owner into giving up their Apple credentials so that they can sign out the iPhone and wipe it. If that fails, go to (1).
When my brother’s partner had her iPhone nicked, they extracted her phone number off the SIM then started sending her messages linking to a phishing iCloud sign in page, saying something like “Your stolen device has been located, sign in here to recover it.”.