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frankenbike-
You'd have thought/hoped.
To clarify, this is what we think happened:
Thief steals phone. Immediately turns it off. Removes sim and places it in another phone. Installs Whatsapp. Whatsapp syncs with the number on the sim. Thief starts receiving Whatsapp messages to that number and is able to respond, and has also messaged contacts from groups (including me) in one-to-one conversations seemingly at will.
Meanwhile my friend has logged onto iCloud in an attempt to find the phone and it's offline the entire time. He uses his girlfriend's phone to interact with the thief in an attempt to recover the phone. Friend has also reported phone to mobile operator, but thief has continued to be able to use Whatsapp for a period of time afterwards.
J0nathan
Friend had iPhone lifted. Seems as though the thief has removed the sim card and successfully posed as said friend in Whatsapp conversations, including asking for a reminder of email address which they then tried to reset the password for - presumably they were hoping to reset via text.
Difficult to know exactly what was happening, and thankfully it seems like the thief just got a blocked and reported phone, but this seems like a glaring vulnerability in Whatsapp if true. Will now have to be paranoid wondering if people are who they say they are on there.