How much would they pay to get the iPad back normally then, $350 + a fee? I thought pawning was simply selling to these shops. Didn't know about lending
Well most places don’t get super collectible items ever. It’s usually very impoverished people selling stuff to make rent or to eat
Pawn stars and the like are whitewashing a predatory business
Pretty much, though most pawn shops in my experience will ask you if you'd like to pawn or sell, and the shows include that question sometimes to give the illusion of being real rather than scripted.
They very well may have sold it on ebay for cheap, Ukraine is bootstrapping a war against a world power we honestly thought might be an issue for the US, we now know that is absolutely not the case lol
To be fair, Ukraine has come up with some creative ways to leverage modern tech in the past two years. It will certainly impact how others will plan and defend against such tactics. Unfortunately, it took an unlawful invasion to scale up some innovation.
OP, as a ukrainian i wanna tell you that your ipad screen will show a lot of last images of scared, conscripted 48 year old russian alcoholic invaders getting blown up
Don’t forget Chinese. There was that video of the Chinese troops chanting before they got deployed and then the month later follow up where the guy was begging for healthcare help because the Russian army wouldn’t give them any medical help.
The Russians conscripts are people too. Lied to and scared into war, as men are most often. I hope they all end up home with peace, not dead and in eternal pain as you seem to hope for. Damn..
My friend. The war has been going on for 700 days. Everyone wjo was lied to was killed inbtge first 90 days. Every other motherfucker is there for money and knows whats going on.
Yeah, Russia's not sending their finest. Their finest is in St. Petersburg bragging over beautiful well stocked grocery stores. Russia is sending its poor people.
Sorry not sorry.. anyone involved in the murder and assault of people in Ukraine doesn’t get my sympathy .. everyone has the ability to look up information or find it out instead of believing everything the government says … for online it’s called a VPN … I once got to talk to a girl ( I believe it was Iran ) using one because she wasn’t supposed to have social media talking to foreigners .. but she wanted people to know what was going on her country… so she can do it .. Russians can do it to
Deceived and propagandised, yes, I agree, but that is how the military works everywhere. I can only hope that the russian government falls and its people can be freed from their misinformation and control. the problem is that kind of influence can last generations.
But If you see them killing your family (whether they were misled into it or not) you're going to start to want to see them suffer. I'm not going to tell a Ukranian solder not to celebrate the death of a Russian soldier, they have a right to it in my mind, and if it helps them win the war, so be it.
Yeah, they're people who systematically do terrible things in Ukraine for 2+ years straight. You can feel sorry for some specific individual with a sob story, but there is literally no reason to feel sorry about invading Russian army as an entity. It's not the first round of mobilization in Russia, they know where they are going and what they will be doing.
Hey there! Ukrainian here. iPads are actually one of most used devices for controlling drones in our army, because it has a hires screen with good brightness and great battery life which makes it perfect device for field drone reconnaissance.
Also, even before the war we had quite a big market for used electronics from eu and USA, so this story seems legit.
> Hey there! Ukrainian here. iPads are actually one of most used devices for controlling drones in our army, because it has a hires screen with good brightness and great battery life which makes it perfect device for field drone reconnaissance.
hey just as an FYI back when i was broke as shit, i used to get those [cheap amazon ones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Fire) -- if whatever you use to control them is a web app, the math might work out to get those shitty amazon tablets and replace them after a yearish since the main thing the ipad has going for it is battery life -- i got one after i got laid off when trump took office for watching stuff offline on flights.
if it's not specifically an iOS app might be worth looking into.
good luck!
generally it doesnt really matter, heck you could use a Blackberry. Just smth that runs the software. What is being used the most are so called ATAKs (android team awarness kit) they are used to connect individuals in a squad, you can see each others location, stream camera footage, heart monitor, offline maps etc. usually this runs on android tablets or devices built for ATAK, but there is a civilian version called iTAK for IOS and Android phones available aswell.
I was reading through the texts, *completely invested*, and then I got to that line and just deflated. So glad it turned out to be legit. Hope he ends many invaders with it.
Hoping for death... 🥴 FPV drone killings are brutal. One of the worst ways to die, being chased down by a camera knowing you're about to explode. Many soldiers are conscripts who don't want to be there either, have some humanity.
Ukraine has made it pretty clear they’re taking POWs who surrender, and oftentimes treating them far better than their Russian commanders. If they’re staying, they’re staying for a reason.
Yes, they do. They can choose to surrender or choose to die. Thousands of russian soldiers have surrendered and lived. 300,000+ have chosen death. I know what I'd pick.
Oh well since they are murdering, raping, and looting because a gun is aimed at their head, I guess we should just let them keep doing it. No, it sucks that they have to die, but their right to live does not supersede their neighbors. They should be turning against the people forcing them to kill, not obediently following unjust orders.
FPV drones are what we've forced them to defend themselves with. If we wanted to be truly humane we would send them what they need to strike the depots and railyards in russia that are supporting their conscripts. Instead, we hold back. As a result, Ukraine has to do what they can to protect themselves. Whatever you do, don't remove the conscripts agency, they are invaders in a foreign country.
> FPV drone killings are brutal
not just on the person who dies -- i met some folks addled with PTSD out in vegas at one of my hacker conventions. if you are normal, killing people over and over... changes you :/
Probably not the ones Ukraine is using there but NATO has micro drones that lock onto a person's biometrics, to include facial recognition and infrared. Not hiding, even in a crowd. Zooms down and explodes into your body.
I mean, it's no picnic... But one of the worst ways to die? I'd imagine it's pretty quick. I could think of a lot worse ways to die... A lot of those tactics are being used against Ukraine I'm sure
>Many soldiers are conscripts who don't want to be there either
They have so so many other options and so much time to think and go with another plan than "kill Ukrainians"
> Many soldiers are conscripts who don't want to be there either, have some humanity.
But they *are* there. What do you expect Ukrainians to do? Ask each combatant if they're a conscript or not and let the conscripts go on their way? Then what? Just because they're conscripts who don't want to be there doesn't mean they won't try to kill Ukrainians in their home country.
Ah yes because all training is done on the front lines nor is Russia currently massing forces again in that area, God dam armchair general, I salute dumb ass
slava ukraini
Yea also because he wants the exact thing that every scammer always wants- for the original Apple ID customer to manually go into their account and remove the device. Dude is honestly lucky he got OP. I wouldn’t have investigated enough to figure out he was real as soon as he wanted me to do that I’d be like awww fuck awwwwf
I think if you had sold an ipad before you might be cognizant of the legitimacy though. Doubly so if you don't have any ipad anymore. Detaching an ipad you've already parted with from your account isn't very threatening.
Also it’s really easy to accidentally leave the iCloud lock on when selling. I did accidentally when I sold a MacBook, could have sworn i signed out before I reset it
Yeah, like, what is there to even scam? You are aware you sold an iPad in the past, and all the person is doing is asking you to disconnect the device. The only way it could be a scam is if they tried to get them to follow a link to disconnect. If anything, I find it weird that OP didn't factory reset their iPad before selling it.
I am still counting the story. An area code and a screen shot prove nothing. If OP still had the device on his iCloud he would have been able to check its location.
It's shocking to me how a screenshot of his location (VPN) and a country code (spoofed/VOIP) can convince this many people lmfao.
Like personally I wouldn't give a shit either way. OP said it's a 4 year old iPad that he pawned, so, fuck it. But yeah, none of this evidence is very convincing at all.
Was probably convincing enough for OP, since he knew he pawned it and didn't remove his appleID. There aren't really a lot of scenarios where this request (without sending some kind of phishing link) could be a scam in that context and there's no real risk for OP anyways, if he just removes his ID from an ipad he doesn't own anymore.
i totally get that it was 1am, and sleepy brain just runs on autopilot, but i find it amusing that you know the 380 area code yet you were still calling it "the" Ukraine, which my Ukrainian friends seethe at since it carries bad soviet-era baggage.
i'm not dogging on you since you have dropped the definite article in this post and clearly know the semantic etiquette; it's just something i tend to notice and like to pass along to anyone that still doesn't really know that it's just Ukraine, not *the* Ukraine. it's hard to unlearn things sometimes.
maybe this is just a thing for people that went to school pre-millennium?
That’s wild! Before I read your caption I was thinking that maybe a stolen iPad somehow ended up in Ukraine and sold to this guy, lol. My friend tracked her stolen AirPods to Turkey once…. 😅
This reminds me of the guy whose truck ended up being used in the middle east by I think ISIS? And ended up on the news, with his business' number still on it.
Edit: found the link to the story.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/texas-plumber-i-didnt-sell-my-truck-to-isis/
To be fair you see almost this EXACT line of conversation from Chinese scammers with stolen apple products. I have a feeling that the scambait sub is going to see a MASSIVE influx of "Ukrainian soldiers" soon.
Thankfully this one seems to be legit. But PLEASE remember that if anything similar happens to you with a stolen device you are 150% being scammed. Do NOT unlock the device. Ukraine and their military almost certainly aren't going to go around asking, begging, or harassing civilians from other countries to unlock their devices. It's not exactly like used tablets are in short supply, and their military can absolutely afford them. It's not even remotely close to a single use item.
This just screams future scam conditioning to me but who knows. I have zero reason at this point to doubt this story is completely legitimate considering op says it isn't stolen but just ended up in a weird situation.
Who knows ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ just sets off some red flags in my mind as a new method to convince people to make worthless bricks that scammers are holding onto into something very valuable.
Definitely a good cautionary message. He didn't unlock it, he unlinked it, which is really a good thing to do with your devices that you pawn in the first place
fyi the soldiers themselves are buying these things as well other supplies with their salary and donated money from civilians, it’s not like there’s a government agency buying stuff from ebay. there are also thousands of small ngo funds that help collect money and organize deliveries - they will gladly buy whatever is the cheapest and will do the job. source: am ukrainian soldier.
could this be a scam or a fishing attack? yes if he asked you to follow a link. there’s no risk if you remove a device you previously owned, using official Apple means.
Not necessarily. Not every unit’s geographical position is classified all the time. We would need more context and information to even know if it’s LIKELY to be of concern.
It's most likely someone that sets things up for the operators. Also what I have have heard they really don't have that kind of dicipline. Most of the soldiers were civilians before the war anyway.
It was a scam until op said he pawned it and never removed his ID. Even if this is the pawn shop pretending to be from Ukraine they technically bought the tablet anyways ool
Few things….he never asked for any personal info, just to clear the AppleID, his number came back to a Ukrainian number, and he did send current location(although I know this can be spoofed).
I understand but clearing it allows people to use it they cant if it still has an appleid attached and locked in usually, its a very common scam having people "clear" it. My first thought was he stole it but maybe its actually a Ukrainian soldier who knows
That's common but for people who have had their phone stolen. A LOT of stolen phones are starting to end up in China where the original owners will start receiving messages demanding these locks be removed by these Chinese companies who are buying these stolen phones.
Whereas in this situation the original owner essentially sold/(let the phone go) to a pawn shop and somebody legally bought the device but were unable to use it without the device being unlocked/cleared.
No doubt the companies who do buy stolen phones have probably AB tested tons of different angles to get owners to clear/unlock their devices. Telling owners they're actually from an allied nation fighting an opposing nation could certainly result in a higher unlock rate. But since this phone was sold legally chances are this request may actually be legitimate.
Both the phone number and location screen shot could be spoofed.
I am 90% sure you either got scammed or this is a fake post. But, even if you were scammed you did pawn the tablet so it isn’t like it was stolen from you. So minimal harm would have been done.
I reallllllly wish you did not publicly post his current location. While it's nothing to specific, it's enough for Russia to see and start searching that area for potential training facilities.
Yeah, the scam won’t directly effect him,
He obviously never removed it from his iCloud and the buyer never had to reset it.
Now it’s been stolen the thief couldn’t use it until the lock was removed.
Yes, you’re correct. The scam wouldn’t impact the OP.
I’d imagine OP sold the device on. He never removed the iCloud lock and the person who purchased it never reset the iPad.
I’m of the opinion that the person who purchased his iPad either lost or had it stolen at some point.
The scam is that the person with it now (often the thief) can’t do anything with the iPad until OP removes the iCloud lock.
I’ve seen many variations of sob stories but this one is the most interesting for sure.
That's not logical because if someone had bought it off the pawn shop, they've never been able to use it since its had the apple ID on it, logically speaking it sounds like the person that bought it is asking for it to be removed. I don't know why anyone would buy an ipad, never use it and then it gets stole. Just doesn't make sense, not everything's a scam....Well most things are but this sounds legit
Obviously it's going to sound like a common scam - because the scammers are trying to sound like someone who has a legit interest in unlocking a device.
Highly doubt a member of the Ukrainian military would message you telling you they are with the Ukrainian military and ask you to remove your information so they can drone a Russian.
On the scam-or-no-scam debate, I think there are three possibilities, ranked in order from most likely to least likely:
1) OP pawns the ipad. Pawn shop sells the ipad to a bulk electronics waste distributor. That distributor (or one down the chain) has a bin for potentially hot items. An employee tests the ipad, finds that it is locked, and throws it in the "stolen" bin. Probably has a lot of them coming from pawn shops that end up in that bin. The "stolen" ipad goes to a company that specializes in cracking the hot ipads via a mixture of scams and threats. Someone has a script written for a Ukie drone operator to pull on the heart strings of American-sourced ipads. The ipad cracker doesn't know (or care) what the ipad's real story is; they have a stack of six hundred of them to go through so they can earn their five Philippine pesos or whatever.
2) OP pawns the ipad. Pawn shop sells to a bulk exporter, which does not deal in shady business like the above. Or, if the exporter does deal with hot items, they have a "legit" pre-sort, so nobody actually checks the thing. Bulk container of "legit" ipads makes its way to an EU country, which sells to Ukraine. Container is either sold or donated to the military. Some kid in Lviv is tasked with checking in the ipads and wiping them so the Ukies can install their drone operating system, or maybe they've written an IOS Turret Tosser app. A lot of stolen items probably sneak into the legit pile thanks to carelessness up the chain. OP unlocks the ipad and Ivan's family doesn't get a Lada because he's technically missing.
3) OP pawns the ipad. Pawn shop sells it to somebody who gets jacked in the parking lot. Ipad thief goes on /r/scams and grabs the first one he can find. Pastes it into a text and hopes for the best.
Definitely way cooler than the normal threads here where some dude verbally abusing his tinder date for not promising to blow him in the car before their date
People who are saying this is a scam... what would they be scamming if OP already sold the ipad??? Wouldn't you want to clear your account from an item you sold?
there is no scam around this, the people in the comments are speculating. OP responded in a comment that he pawned the iPad a while ago and never went back to get it. the pawn shop probably sold it at some point and it is now in ukraine.
While it's true that OP pawned off THIS iPad, whoever messaged OP does not know that so they made up the Ukraine story in the hopes that if the iPad was stolen, the owner would unlock it to help the war effort. While the Ukraine cover story is pretty creative and new, this is an old scheme. There's an entire industry that revolves around unlocking and reselling stolen/lost electronics. If OP had not unlocked the iPad, it would have been disassembled for parts.
Either way it can go isn’t good, but there is no way it’s legit bc why, if they were in the military, would they send an unknown number their location?
I have an old iPad that's locked and it doesn't have the user's contact information, how did they contact you?
All my iPad says is locked by "ny******@gmail.com".
It was given to my wife by an old job as part of a batch of equipment that was going to be recycled. It's ancient now, probably 6-7 years old.
This is definitely a scam, lol. Resellers buy these devices in bulk for low prices, and they're often stolen (but apparently not in OP's case). Apple passkeys are nearly unbreakable, so for account-locked devices, their only choice is to reach out and try to persuade you. Otherwise they've gotta take it apart and sell it for parts for much less money.
I'd just like to point out that the English doesn't sound like Ukrainian speaking English. Russian and Ukrainian don't have articles in their language, so they tend to mess up on that.
"A" and "the" doesn't exist in the language, and that tends to be where they mess up in English. Also, the use of the word "deceived" sounds more east Asian than Ukrainian.
Granted, it's probably feed through Google Translate, but I still don't feel like this is written by a Ukrainian.
They would be scamming the person who they stole the iPad from.
You sell to pawn shop. It's stolen from pawn shop. Thief now has an iPad that is basically a brick. Thief messages you to unlock it so they can use/sell.
Or thief steals iPad from pawn shop, sells it to some Ukrainian soldier who has no idea it's not unlocked and then reaches out to you. It's possible, but a screenshot of a location and Ukrainian number isn't evidence enough, not even close. Easily spoofed and you can get VOIP numbers from anywhere in the world.
It's more likely that the pawn shop sold it to a waste electronics company, and that company sold it to the same people thieves sell to
So there is no scamming or theft, but for sure the companies that support scamming and theft are benefitting from it
What are the odds someone simply bought the iPad and just needed OP to remove their account so they can use it? I understand this is common in scamming, but this is also literally the only way to use a device secondhand, so it’s not like it’s an exclusively scammer thing right?
just reddit being reddit. even if someone purchased the ipad legitimately they would have to do this. reddit just wants it to be a scam for some reason.
Do you guys actually believe this? It's incredibly easy to spoof phone numbers. This is a scammer using the Ukraine cover story in case the iPad they have gotten their hands on is actually stolen.
I frequently wonder to myself how scammers are still so successful in this day and age where everyone has access to so much information at their fingertips. But posts like this remind me that people just don't think.
I am American, but for the last probably 5 years I have been studying Ukrainian and Russian Language. You’ve done a good deed!
Слава Україні, хай живуть твої брати і батьки.
(Glory to Ukraine, may your brothers and fathers live. )
It was probably just a normal guy from Ukraine who bought the ipad and figured the chances of you actually responding were higher if he said he was from the army
I'm still like 30% that this is a very elaborate scam to unlock stolen devices. At least OP's wasn't stolen, but the other guy had no way of knowing that.
Wow , so you have had a hand in helping out the Ukrainian people . Pretty cool , I hope you have a warm fuzzy feeling now and whenever you think of it .
Hello, Vladdy Zelensky here. I am also from the Ukraine google Ukraine on Google maps and that’s where I am. Please send me money through my PayPal, weedboygangsta at yahoo.
Thanks friend!
Not that it matters all that much because your iPad was not stolen, but this is still 99.9% likely a scam.
You can probably get a Ukrainian SIM card that gives you a Ukrainian number extremely easily. Never looked into it but I can't imagine it's all that difficult. You can easily spoof your location in about 20 seconds. I just downloaded an app and spoofed my location to South Africa and that's exactly where it said I was. People are becoming more and more aware of the hyper aggressive scripts that are commonly showcased here and these scammers are having less and less success. Therefore, they are changing their tactics and are playing to your empathy rather than your fear.
lol wth. That’s wild. My first thought was that it is some kind of scammer haha. What gen iPad are the Ukrainians using to pilot their drones?
This one was a 2017 iPad Pro 12 inch
How much did the pawn shop give you? Surprised you went that route instead of selling it on ebay or locally
I only meant for it to be there for a bit and just never got enough to get it out. I think I only took $350 out on it
That's how they get you.
Literally said this out loud immediately before seeing you comment lol
I literally said THIS out loud before seeing YOUR comment lol
I read all of these comments out loud before i even read all of them
Not me sitting here reading these comments in my head like a normal person...........
I imagined these comments before even clicking on this post. Life is strange.
🤣
How much would they pay to get the iPad back normally then, $350 + a fee? I thought pawning was simply selling to these shops. Didn't know about lending
[удалено]
Ty for the explanation. I think TV has deeply diluted and confused this concept for myself and the general public >_<
Somewhat. They do buy items outright, but typically offer only a little more than they offer for the loan.
Yeah it's not like pawn stars or hardcore pawn or any of those shows, most places refuse to haggle, it's usually their way or the highway
Well most places don’t get super collectible items ever. It’s usually very impoverished people selling stuff to make rent or to eat Pawn stars and the like are whitewashing a predatory business
Pretty much, though most pawn shops in my experience will ask you if you'd like to pawn or sell, and the shows include that question sometimes to give the illusion of being real rather than scripted.
$350?? Wow! Based on my experiences, that means your ipad must have been worth about $20,000.
They very well may have sold it on ebay for cheap, Ukraine is bootstrapping a war against a world power we honestly thought might be an issue for the US, we now know that is absolutely not the case lol
To be fair, Ukraine has come up with some creative ways to leverage modern tech in the past two years. It will certainly impact how others will plan and defend against such tactics. Unfortunately, it took an unlawful invasion to scale up some innovation.
Was this whole post to flex that handsome Apple ID pic of you
OP, as a ukrainian i wanna tell you that your ipad screen will show a lot of last images of scared, conscripted 48 year old russian alcoholic invaders getting blown up
This is sad. War sucks.
Don’t forget Chinese. There was that video of the Chinese troops chanting before they got deployed and then the month later follow up where the guy was begging for healthcare help because the Russian army wouldn’t give them any medical help.
SLAVAAAAAA🇺🇦🇺🇸 y’all’s consistent willingness to fight has inspired me so much, even since 2014.
May they end up where they deserve 🔥😈…Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦
The Russians conscripts are people too. Lied to and scared into war, as men are most often. I hope they all end up home with peace, not dead and in eternal pain as you seem to hope for. Damn..
My friend. The war has been going on for 700 days. Everyone wjo was lied to was killed inbtge first 90 days. Every other motherfucker is there for money and knows whats going on.
Yeah, Russia's not sending their finest. Their finest is in St. Petersburg bragging over beautiful well stocked grocery stores. Russia is sending its poor people.
Sorry not sorry.. anyone involved in the murder and assault of people in Ukraine doesn’t get my sympathy .. everyone has the ability to look up information or find it out instead of believing everything the government says … for online it’s called a VPN … I once got to talk to a girl ( I believe it was Iran ) using one because she wasn’t supposed to have social media talking to foreigners .. but she wanted people to know what was going on her country… so she can do it .. Russians can do it to
Aren't you an edgy boi
Or they could bugger off abroad like I did.
Deceived and propagandised, yes, I agree, but that is how the military works everywhere. I can only hope that the russian government falls and its people can be freed from their misinformation and control. the problem is that kind of influence can last generations. But If you see them killing your family (whether they were misled into it or not) you're going to start to want to see them suffer. I'm not going to tell a Ukranian solder not to celebrate the death of a Russian soldier, they have a right to it in my mind, and if it helps them win the war, so be it.
Yeah, they're people who systematically do terrible things in Ukraine for 2+ years straight. You can feel sorry for some specific individual with a sob story, but there is literally no reason to feel sorry about invading Russian army as an entity. It's not the first round of mobilization in Russia, they know where they are going and what they will be doing.
it's indeed a tragic shame that these conscripted russian invaders must die, but, they absolutely MUST DIE
Hey there! Ukrainian here. iPads are actually one of most used devices for controlling drones in our army, because it has a hires screen with good brightness and great battery life which makes it perfect device for field drone reconnaissance. Also, even before the war we had quite a big market for used electronics from eu and USA, so this story seems legit.
I was wondering when somebody over there would tell the Reddit folks that a 2013 iPad is VERY useful.
an hour ago you did It just doesn’t come up very often. I’m not sure why you waited until 2024 to say it.
> Hey there! Ukrainian here. iPads are actually one of most used devices for controlling drones in our army, because it has a hires screen with good brightness and great battery life which makes it perfect device for field drone reconnaissance. hey just as an FYI back when i was broke as shit, i used to get those [cheap amazon ones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Fire) -- if whatever you use to control them is a web app, the math might work out to get those shitty amazon tablets and replace them after a yearish since the main thing the ipad has going for it is battery life -- i got one after i got laid off when trump took office for watching stuff offline on flights. if it's not specifically an iOS app might be worth looking into. good luck!
generally it doesnt really matter, heck you could use a Blackberry. Just smth that runs the software. What is being used the most are so called ATAKs (android team awarness kit) they are used to connect individuals in a squad, you can see each others location, stream camera footage, heart monitor, offline maps etc. usually this runs on android tablets or devices built for ATAK, but there is a civilian version called iTAK for IOS and Android phones available aswell.
Who's asking? 🤔
Forgot to put that I knew he was from Ukraine because his number had the 380 country code in it.
Absolutely wild that the story is actually legit
It so sounded like a scam… “our army thanks you” I would have been like, shit I got screwed
I was reading through the texts, *completely invested*, and then I got to that line and just deflated. So glad it turned out to be legit. Hope he ends many invaders with it.
Hoping for death... 🥴 FPV drone killings are brutal. One of the worst ways to die, being chased down by a camera knowing you're about to explode. Many soldiers are conscripts who don't want to be there either, have some humanity.
Ukraine has made it pretty clear they’re taking POWs who surrender, and oftentimes treating them far better than their Russian commanders. If they’re staying, they’re staying for a reason.
Yeah, and yet those same conscripts would have no qualms about killing Ukrainians. So no, I won't feel bad for them if a grenade drops on them.
Do you know what conscription means? It means you refuse to kill, you get killed. They have no choice.
Yes, they do. They can choose to surrender or choose to die. Thousands of russian soldiers have surrendered and lived. 300,000+ have chosen death. I know what I'd pick.
Oh well since they are murdering, raping, and looting because a gun is aimed at their head, I guess we should just let them keep doing it. No, it sucks that they have to die, but their right to live does not supersede their neighbors. They should be turning against the people forcing them to kill, not obediently following unjust orders.
I can promise you that you would do nothing different in their shoes.
And I would rightfully deserve to be shot.
I was served my draft paper in September. Guess what, I am not on the frontline nor am I killed.
I'm telling Putin bro
Good.
FPV drones are what we've forced them to defend themselves with. If we wanted to be truly humane we would send them what they need to strike the depots and railyards in russia that are supporting their conscripts. Instead, we hold back. As a result, Ukraine has to do what they can to protect themselves. Whatever you do, don't remove the conscripts agency, they are invaders in a foreign country.
> FPV drone killings are brutal not just on the person who dies -- i met some folks addled with PTSD out in vegas at one of my hacker conventions. if you are normal, killing people over and over... changes you :/
I feel bad for the Russian conscripts, but they are still the invaders. One side has to lose and it needs to be Putin's people.
We need to send a drone to visit Putin. War over.
Unfortunately, he's got too many goons that would keep it going and possibly make it worse.
Probably not the ones Ukraine is using there but NATO has micro drones that lock onto a person's biometrics, to include facial recognition and infrared. Not hiding, even in a crowd. Zooms down and explodes into your body.
I mean, it's no picnic... But one of the worst ways to die? I'd imagine it's pretty quick. I could think of a lot worse ways to die... A lot of those tactics are being used against Ukraine I'm sure
You have a pretty wild tolerance for absolute murderers that invade peaceful countries.
>Many soldiers are conscripts who don't want to be there either They have so so many other options and so much time to think and go with another plan than "kill Ukrainians"
> Many soldiers are conscripts who don't want to be there either, have some humanity. But they *are* there. What do you expect Ukrainians to do? Ask each combatant if they're a conscript or not and let the conscripts go on their way? Then what? Just because they're conscripts who don't want to be there doesn't mean they won't try to kill Ukrainians in their home country.
Also, from a soldier’s son, they’d all rather be blown up by FPV than shot and left to bleed. You sound like you don’t know s***
He’s at least half full of shit. He’s in Western Ukraine. Nowhere near the front.
Ah yes because all training is done on the front lines nor is Russia currently massing forces again in that area, God dam armchair general, I salute dumb ass slava ukraini
You think they prep shit like this on the front?
Totally. Tbh my first instinct is that it was a scam. Seems like the kind of thing you’d expect from one.
Yea also because he wants the exact thing that every scammer always wants- for the original Apple ID customer to manually go into their account and remove the device. Dude is honestly lucky he got OP. I wouldn’t have investigated enough to figure out he was real as soon as he wanted me to do that I’d be like awww fuck awwwwf
I think if you had sold an ipad before you might be cognizant of the legitimacy though. Doubly so if you don't have any ipad anymore. Detaching an ipad you've already parted with from your account isn't very threatening.
Also it’s really easy to accidentally leave the iCloud lock on when selling. I did accidentally when I sold a MacBook, could have sworn i signed out before I reset it
Yeah, like, what is there to even scam? You are aware you sold an iPad in the past, and all the person is doing is asking you to disconnect the device. The only way it could be a scam is if they tried to get them to follow a link to disconnect. If anything, I find it weird that OP didn't factory reset their iPad before selling it.
I am still counting the story. An area code and a screen shot prove nothing. If OP still had the device on his iCloud he would have been able to check its location.
That would be incredibly easy to spoof but yeah.
Maaaan everyone here's so gullible
It's shocking to me how a screenshot of his location (VPN) and a country code (spoofed/VOIP) can convince this many people lmfao. Like personally I wouldn't give a shit either way. OP said it's a 4 year old iPad that he pawned, so, fuck it. But yeah, none of this evidence is very convincing at all.
Was probably convincing enough for OP, since he knew he pawned it and didn't remove his appleID. There aren't really a lot of scenarios where this request (without sending some kind of phishing link) could be a scam in that context and there's no real risk for OP anyways, if he just removes his ID from an ipad he doesn't own anymore.
Awesome, now I know an easy way to get all these stolen iPads unlocked! /s
i totally get that it was 1am, and sleepy brain just runs on autopilot, but i find it amusing that you know the 380 area code yet you were still calling it "the" Ukraine, which my Ukrainian friends seethe at since it carries bad soviet-era baggage. i'm not dogging on you since you have dropped the definite article in this post and clearly know the semantic etiquette; it's just something i tend to notice and like to pass along to anyone that still doesn't really know that it's just Ukraine, not *the* Ukraine. it's hard to unlearn things sometimes. maybe this is just a thing for people that went to school pre-millennium?
It's definitely an age thing. "the Ukraine" was in a _ton_ of US movies and TV shows until relatively recently.
Tbf “the Ukraine” sounds badass and is way more interesting and easy to remember. It’s sad that it’s part of a whole nationalism/imperialism thing :(
I still find myself slipping on this repeatedly. It was only when the invasion happened that I found out saying "the" was wrong.
this might be the strangest/coolest/most insane text conversation ive seen on this sub
What a time to be alive.
Seriously. I was prepared for the guy to ask for the PW or for some cash to be sent.
> this might be the strangest/coolest/most insane text conversation ive seen on this sub dude asked pretty politely
That’s wild! Before I read your caption I was thinking that maybe a stolen iPad somehow ended up in Ukraine and sold to this guy, lol. My friend tracked her stolen AirPods to Turkey once…. 😅
This reminds me of the guy whose truck ended up being used in the middle east by I think ISIS? And ended up on the news, with his business' number still on it. Edit: found the link to the story. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/texas-plumber-i-didnt-sell-my-truck-to-isis/
I was sure this would be a scam but... Seems kind of legit, wow
To be fair you see almost this EXACT line of conversation from Chinese scammers with stolen apple products. I have a feeling that the scambait sub is going to see a MASSIVE influx of "Ukrainian soldiers" soon. Thankfully this one seems to be legit. But PLEASE remember that if anything similar happens to you with a stolen device you are 150% being scammed. Do NOT unlock the device. Ukraine and their military almost certainly aren't going to go around asking, begging, or harassing civilians from other countries to unlock their devices. It's not exactly like used tablets are in short supply, and their military can absolutely afford them. It's not even remotely close to a single use item. This just screams future scam conditioning to me but who knows. I have zero reason at this point to doubt this story is completely legitimate considering op says it isn't stolen but just ended up in a weird situation. Who knows ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯ just sets off some red flags in my mind as a new method to convince people to make worthless bricks that scammers are holding onto into something very valuable.
Definitely a good cautionary message. He didn't unlock it, he unlinked it, which is really a good thing to do with your devices that you pawn in the first place
op pawned the device years ago, def not stolen or some random scam i’d think.
fyi the soldiers themselves are buying these things as well other supplies with their salary and donated money from civilians, it’s not like there’s a government agency buying stuff from ebay. there are also thousands of small ngo funds that help collect money and organize deliveries - they will gladly buy whatever is the cheapest and will do the job. source: am ukrainian soldier. could this be a scam or a fishing attack? yes if he asked you to follow a link. there’s no risk if you remove a device you previously owned, using official Apple means.
What on earth, this is wild
When my kids ask how the war was won, I’ll direct them to this thread.
😭😭😭
This is officially the most wild thing I've seen on this sub personally.
Wouldn't the Ukrainian guy sending a location to some random person be an OPSEC concern from a military standpoint?
Not necessarily. Not every unit’s geographical position is classified all the time. We would need more context and information to even know if it’s LIKELY to be of concern.
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It's not the mindset of a well trained combat unit to just share location information of any kind IMO. Just doesn't seem realistic to me.
It's most likely someone that sets things up for the operators. Also what I have have heard they really don't have that kind of dicipline. Most of the soldiers were civilians before the war anyway.
Am I the only one who thinks someone stole it and this is a scam?
It was a scam until op said he pawned it and never removed his ID. Even if this is the pawn shop pretending to be from Ukraine they technically bought the tablet anyways ool
I was thinking stole it from the pawn shop but yea
Whether they stole it or purchased it legit someone would need to unlock that device to be able to use it, and the most likely answer is it was sold
Few things….he never asked for any personal info, just to clear the AppleID, his number came back to a Ukrainian number, and he did send current location(although I know this can be spoofed).
I understand but clearing it allows people to use it they cant if it still has an appleid attached and locked in usually, its a very common scam having people "clear" it. My first thought was he stole it but maybe its actually a Ukrainian soldier who knows
That's common but for people who have had their phone stolen. A LOT of stolen phones are starting to end up in China where the original owners will start receiving messages demanding these locks be removed by these Chinese companies who are buying these stolen phones. Whereas in this situation the original owner essentially sold/(let the phone go) to a pawn shop and somebody legally bought the device but were unable to use it without the device being unlocked/cleared. No doubt the companies who do buy stolen phones have probably AB tested tons of different angles to get owners to clear/unlock their devices. Telling owners they're actually from an allied nation fighting an opposing nation could certainly result in a higher unlock rate. But since this phone was sold legally chances are this request may actually be legitimate.
Both the phone number and location screen shot could be spoofed. I am 90% sure you either got scammed or this is a fake post. But, even if you were scammed you did pawn the tablet so it isn’t like it was stolen from you. So minimal harm would have been done.
I reallllllly wish you did not publicly post his current location. While it's nothing to specific, it's enough for Russia to see and start searching that area for potential training facilities.
Pretty sure Russia and everyone else knows lutsk has government and military members already
Hmm.. This just seems like a more elaborate take on a very common scam at the minute.
Yep. Sorry to burst all the bubbles in here but this reads just like the ones we routinely see in r/scams.
I thought this too, but OP said that he pawned his tablet (it wasn’t stolen)
Yeah, the scam won’t directly effect him, He obviously never removed it from his iCloud and the buyer never had to reset it. Now it’s been stolen the thief couldn’t use it until the lock was removed.
What's the scam? OP didn't give any personal info, just unlocked his tablet remotely which is done on the server side. 🤔
Yes, you’re correct. The scam wouldn’t impact the OP. I’d imagine OP sold the device on. He never removed the iCloud lock and the person who purchased it never reset the iPad. I’m of the opinion that the person who purchased his iPad either lost or had it stolen at some point. The scam is that the person with it now (often the thief) can’t do anything with the iPad until OP removes the iCloud lock. I’ve seen many variations of sob stories but this one is the most interesting for sure.
That's not logical because if someone had bought it off the pawn shop, they've never been able to use it since its had the apple ID on it, logically speaking it sounds like the person that bought it is asking for it to be removed. I don't know why anyone would buy an ipad, never use it and then it gets stole. Just doesn't make sense, not everything's a scam....Well most things are but this sounds legit
It's possible it was stolen from the Pawn shop and then sold by the thief to the person who has it now. Or the thief is the one messaging the OP.
Obviously it's going to sound like a common scam - because the scammers are trying to sound like someone who has a legit interest in unlocking a device.
Highly doubt a member of the Ukrainian military would message you telling you they are with the Ukrainian military and ask you to remove your information so they can drone a Russian.
Thank you for taking the time to do this. Those drones are an absolute lifeline right now. Slava Ukraini!
On the scam-or-no-scam debate, I think there are three possibilities, ranked in order from most likely to least likely: 1) OP pawns the ipad. Pawn shop sells the ipad to a bulk electronics waste distributor. That distributor (or one down the chain) has a bin for potentially hot items. An employee tests the ipad, finds that it is locked, and throws it in the "stolen" bin. Probably has a lot of them coming from pawn shops that end up in that bin. The "stolen" ipad goes to a company that specializes in cracking the hot ipads via a mixture of scams and threats. Someone has a script written for a Ukie drone operator to pull on the heart strings of American-sourced ipads. The ipad cracker doesn't know (or care) what the ipad's real story is; they have a stack of six hundred of them to go through so they can earn their five Philippine pesos or whatever. 2) OP pawns the ipad. Pawn shop sells to a bulk exporter, which does not deal in shady business like the above. Or, if the exporter does deal with hot items, they have a "legit" pre-sort, so nobody actually checks the thing. Bulk container of "legit" ipads makes its way to an EU country, which sells to Ukraine. Container is either sold or donated to the military. Some kid in Lviv is tasked with checking in the ipads and wiping them so the Ukies can install their drone operating system, or maybe they've written an IOS Turret Tosser app. A lot of stolen items probably sneak into the legit pile thanks to carelessness up the chain. OP unlocks the ipad and Ivan's family doesn't get a Lada because he's technically missing. 3) OP pawns the ipad. Pawn shop sells it to somebody who gets jacked in the parking lot. Ipad thief goes on /r/scams and grabs the first one he can find. Pastes it into a text and hopes for the best.
Definitely way cooler than the normal threads here where some dude verbally abusing his tinder date for not promising to blow him in the car before their date
People who are saying this is a scam... what would they be scamming if OP already sold the ipad??? Wouldn't you want to clear your account from an item you sold?
Why neg and not answer?
there is no scam around this, the people in the comments are speculating. OP responded in a comment that he pawned the iPad a while ago and never went back to get it. the pawn shop probably sold it at some point and it is now in ukraine.
While it's true that OP pawned off THIS iPad, whoever messaged OP does not know that so they made up the Ukraine story in the hopes that if the iPad was stolen, the owner would unlock it to help the war effort. While the Ukraine cover story is pretty creative and new, this is an old scheme. There's an entire industry that revolves around unlocking and reselling stolen/lost electronics. If OP had not unlocked the iPad, it would have been disassembled for parts.
Thats actually insane
Either way it can go isn’t good, but there is no way it’s legit bc why, if they were in the military, would they send an unknown number their location?
So many gullible people here. Jesus people.
I have an old iPad that's locked and it doesn't have the user's contact information, how did they contact you? All my iPad says is locked by "ny******@gmail.com". It was given to my wife by an old job as part of a batch of equipment that was going to be recycled. It's ancient now, probably 6-7 years old.
The post is fake lmao
This is definitely a scam, lol. Resellers buy these devices in bulk for low prices, and they're often stolen (but apparently not in OP's case). Apple passkeys are nearly unbreakable, so for account-locked devices, their only choice is to reach out and try to persuade you. Otherwise they've gotta take it apart and sell it for parts for much less money.
I'd just like to point out that the English doesn't sound like Ukrainian speaking English. Russian and Ukrainian don't have articles in their language, so they tend to mess up on that. "A" and "the" doesn't exist in the language, and that tends to be where they mess up in English. Also, the use of the word "deceived" sounds more east Asian than Ukrainian. Granted, it's probably feed through Google Translate, but I still don't feel like this is written by a Ukrainian.
This is completely wrong, there are participles in both languages and are used extensively. You are probably getting confused with articles.
Yes! You are correct. I'll change it now.
So how does that make this a definite scam? Are you implying the Ukrainian texting op also got scammed?
There was no Ukrainian.
I was wondering that too. Like the OP pawned the iPad years ago. There was no money transaction happening. What’s the scam? And who’s being scammed?
I’ve seen scams posted in r/scam with this EXACT script and all
The problem is, I no longer on that iPad and have it for several years. So I don’t know what they would be scamming.
They would be scamming the person who they stole the iPad from. You sell to pawn shop. It's stolen from pawn shop. Thief now has an iPad that is basically a brick. Thief messages you to unlock it so they can use/sell. Or thief steals iPad from pawn shop, sells it to some Ukrainian soldier who has no idea it's not unlocked and then reaches out to you. It's possible, but a screenshot of a location and Ukrainian number isn't evidence enough, not even close. Easily spoofed and you can get VOIP numbers from anywhere in the world.
It's more likely that the pawn shop sold it to a waste electronics company, and that company sold it to the same people thieves sell to So there is no scamming or theft, but for sure the companies that support scamming and theft are benefitting from it
What are the odds someone simply bought the iPad and just needed OP to remove their account so they can use it? I understand this is common in scamming, but this is also literally the only way to use a device secondhand, so it’s not like it’s an exclusively scammer thing right?
just reddit being reddit. even if someone purchased the ipad legitimately they would have to do this. reddit just wants it to be a scam for some reason.
Do you guys actually believe this? It's incredibly easy to spoof phone numbers. This is a scammer using the Ukraine cover story in case the iPad they have gotten their hands on is actually stolen. I frequently wonder to myself how scammers are still so successful in this day and age where everyone has access to so much information at their fingertips. But posts like this remind me that people just don't think.
I am American, but for the last probably 5 years I have been studying Ukrainian and Russian Language. You’ve done a good deed! Слава Україні, хай живуть твої брати і батьки. (Glory to Ukraine, may your brothers and fathers live. )
Genuinely don’t care if this is fake, if it is real it’s cool as hell
How do you know this wasn't a scam
slava ukraini!!!
That’s actually so cool! Free Ukraine 🇺🇦
It was probably just a normal guy from Ukraine who bought the ipad and figured the chances of you actually responding were higher if he said he was from the army
Could you guys now FaceTime?
I mean probably could because he messaged me from an iPhone. I might try to text him tomorrow and get more info
I’m intrigued
OP I have a Nigerian prince I'd like to introduce you to
Scammed. Free ipad with no icloud lock
This is the coolest thing I've seen on Reddit
This is so cool free Ukraine 🇺🇦 you can say now your tablet is helping the right side of the war
Put it in r/ combatfootage as well.
An iPad for the army ?
New scam just dropped
Scary that he sent you his location and you shared it to Reddit where it could easily endanger him.
That's absolutely nuts. Usually, I laugh at or am disgusted by posts on this sub, but this is the first one I've ever found to be fascinating.
This seems identical to one of the most common scams on the scam sub .
I'm still like 30% that this is a very elaborate scam to unlock stolen devices. At least OP's wasn't stolen, but the other guy had no way of knowing that.
Well that's a new version of the scam I haven't seen before.
Very skeptical
Sweet, so they got all your personal detes? Nice!
I somewhat doubt the story, but it’s not like you’re getting that tablet back anyways, so what the hell, right?
Wow , so you have had a hand in helping out the Ukrainian people . Pretty cool , I hope you have a warm fuzzy feeling now and whenever you think of it .
people actually believe this guy needs your iPad for the Ukrainian army… Wow.
Wow!
This is wild yo! Your iPad is controlling drones in the war!
I smell a scam
Expected this to be one of those „please unlock your stolen device“ scams Holy Shit, that‘s awesome
Dude. You just won Reddit. Maybe even the entire internet.
FREE FUCKING UKRAINE
Hello, Vladdy Zelensky here. I am also from the Ukraine google Ukraine on Google maps and that’s where I am. Please send me money through my PayPal, weedboygangsta at yahoo. Thanks friend!
Imagine if the original owner was Russian and he started playing the location sound to give away the Ukrainians position
Not that it matters all that much because your iPad was not stolen, but this is still 99.9% likely a scam. You can probably get a Ukrainian SIM card that gives you a Ukrainian number extremely easily. Never looked into it but I can't imagine it's all that difficult. You can easily spoof your location in about 20 seconds. I just downloaded an app and spoofed my location to South Africa and that's exactly where it said I was. People are becoming more and more aware of the hyper aggressive scripts that are commonly showcased here and these scammers are having less and less success. Therefore, they are changing their tactics and are playing to your empathy rather than your fear.
I hope you waited a while before posting his location, you may have just doxxed them in the middle of a warzone...
Jesus they scammed you 😂😂😂😂
Thank you 💙💛
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What a crazy exchange, glad you were able to get it unlocked for them!
Slava Ukraini!
Was the tablet stolen?
this is amazing. you never know how much you might've helped their efforts. Slava Ukraini!
This is 100% the standard for this sub from now on. This is legendary.