"Lost Mode" of my Stolen Iphone.

Do not deactivate the Lost iPhone. Who told you that, the police? How, in person? Thieves often send texts and emails posing as police to get you to unlock the device. Call the police station yourself or talk to them in person.

Re: “If the phone is iCloud locked, then they will sell the phone parts by parts.”

Do not unlock the phone or remove it from your account. Chances are you will never see it again, no matter what you do.

Note that these days, Activation Lock also extends to iPhone parts.

"Pending" means that the phone does not have an Internet connection. There are several reasons for this:

The battery has run down

The phone cannot connect to Wi-Fi where it is located

The thief has wrapped aluminum foil around the phone or has placed it in a Faraday Bag to prevent the phone from receiving a signal or transmitting a signal about is location

If the status of the phone has been "Pending" for a week or more, there is about a zero chance that the phone will ever come back online. You will never see the phone again. It is gone.

That being the case, it would make sense for you to try to erase the phone, but do not remove it from the list of devices that are using your Apple ID.

It is unfortunate that you have received incorrect from the police. Believe them if you wish, but none of the experts on this site will agree with the information that you received from the "police".

Be extremely careful if you receive a message from "Apple" or "Apple Support" indicating that your phone has been found.....and you just need to provide some personal information so that the phone can be returned to you. Any message like this is a scam that is trying to trick you into providing your Apple account details, so the bad guys can access the data on your phone.

Apple will never send a message like this....because they do not get involved with lost or stolen phones....so you know that the message is not from Apple.

towfiq224 wrote:

Hi Bob, what the police are saying, you have literally few chances of getting the phone back. So, what are options to a thief 1. sell it to a customer. 2. Sell the phone by parts. 3. Bypass the activation lock and use the phone for Facebook, YT and Camera only.

As the phone is in lost mode, the thief can't Sell the phone to a customer or Sell by parts. They will bypass the activation lock using software

I don't think so. There are many places that claim they can remove Activation Lock – but all they actually remove is the money from their customers' wallets.

If I erase the phone, unlock iCloud and remove the phone, the thief will reset the phone and sell it to a customer at a significantly cheap price. When the customer uses a SIM to the phone, or connects to the Cellular network of my region, Police will capture them using Call Detail Record(CDR) analysis, colloborating with the network provider and GPS. So, if the thief sell the phone to a customer within my country that's the only hope I have.

Carriers generally won't get involved with tracking phones that are merely lost or stolen. They may get involved if, say, there is a missing person case, where the phone may be the only good way of finding a missing or kidnapped person, and the authorities have a court order.

Unlocking your phone will only reward the thieves. Do you even know that the communications you got from the "police" are actually from police, not from scammers pretending to be police, and saying whatever they think will get you to unlock the phone?

Your police rep is at best “misinformed” …

… and at worst “complicit.”

Lost Mode is an Apple Feature and has absolutely no impact on law enforcement’s ability to track a phone via the cellular network.

If your iPhone or iPad was stolen - Apple Support

When they can't break "Icloud Lock", thiefs sell the phones by parts. That's why they recommended me that.

This is not correct. It is unfortunate that you are not receiving accurate information from the "police".

Parts are also protected by Activation Lock. This is why you would not want to remove your iPhone from the list of devices using your Apple ID.

Unfortunately, you are also being scammed by whoever you are paying for information.

Please review and follow the instructions in the Apple iPhone Guide I linked to below. Be sure and enter your devices iOS version in upper left corner before reading.

Mark a device as lost in Find My on iPhone - Apple Support

towfiq224 wrote:

If I erase the phone, unlock iCloud and remove the phone, the thief will reset the phone and sell it to a customer at a significantly cheap price. When the customer uses a SIM to the phone, or connects to the Cellular network of my region, Police will capture them using Call Detail Record(CDR) analysis, colloborating with the network provider and GPS. So, if the thief sell the phone to a customer within my country that's the only hope I have.

If the phone gets erased via Find my...the activation lock will not be removed as long as you do not remove the phone from Find my...

Frankly, I'd be amazed if they actually bothered to try and track a stolen phone. What country are you in?