
To Catch a Phone Thief, Take a 'Theftie' - JumpCrisscross
http://online.wsj.com/articles/to-catch-a-phone-thief-take-a-theftie-1401301130
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mschuster91
If I'd steal a phone, first thing I'd do is take the battery out. Right after
the job. Second, do a full wipe using Odin or similar tools. Third, reflash
the firmware.

As long as the device I stole is not an iPhone, the phone is now completely
under my control. And for what its worth, to avoid tracking it is iirc
possible to put in fake IMEI, BT MAC and WiFi MAC addresses. No one compares
these anyway, and e.g. a swap of the 3rd and 4th char would escape many
people.

~~~
mmanfrin
The crossover of people who know to do all that and people who steal phones is
very, very small. People who tend to get in to petty thievery are not the type
of people who have the technical skills or even the forethought to take those
precautions.

~~~
mschuster91
If you're doing this on "professional" level, likely the guy picking up your
loot will have told you at least about 1), alone to reduce the risk of cops
tracking down the merchandise. If you proved to be not at least totally
bananas, he might also tell you a bit more - the less time the stuff is in his
hands, but in yours, the better for him.

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dublinben
This reads like a submarine PR piece for Lookout. These products/services
aren't new at all, and there are many, many other providers than the ones
mentioned in the 'article.'

~~~
nedwin
Yep. Leverage the new "selfie" trend to get a news story placed about your
product = classic PR maneuver.

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higherpurpose
Oh the power of PR and/or money to pay media entities like WSJ. Other apps
like Cerberus have had this functionality for _years_.

~~~
devindotcom
No need to allege some kind of payoff conspiracy. I got the same pitch.
Editors just decide whether it's interesting enough or new enough to warrant a
post or not. Some readerships are far less likely to have heard or other
mobile security options, so a high-profile one adding this makes it news -
like when Facebook adds 2-factor auth years after Twitter does it.

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MarkPNeyer
if you install one of this (i use cerberus for android) you'll get a bunch of
pictures of yourself when you fail to unlock your phone.

makes for a good tumblr:
[http://invalidpin.tumblr.com](http://invalidpin.tumblr.com)

~~~
Zak
It's worth noting that Cerberus, with a one-time price of 3€ (about $4) is
considerably cheaper than some of the options mentioned in the article
(~$30/year).

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grecy
So once I have this photo of the thief, what next?

From reports I've read online, even when you go to police with a location of
your device, they won't do much.

~~~
devindotcom
There was a case a block or two away from me where the person made the phone
ring while the cop was there, which made it reasonable for the cops to enter
and conduct a limited search. It was a sort of a clearing house for fenced
electronics, if I remember correctly. So it depends a lot on the
circumstances. If the phone had been off, I bet it would have turned out
differently - though if you had a pic of the guy and the GPS said it was there
an hour ago... maybe.

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Cenk
[http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html](http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html)

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colanderman
Note to self: when stealing phones, cover camera lens with thumb

~~~
dublinben
Even easier, power them off ASAP. Don't turn it back on until you've removed
the SIM and taken it out of any Wifi range. These anti-theft services all rely
on having connectivity.

~~~
cwe
Exactly why phones NEED to require the passcode/touch ID/whatever when turning
the device off. Could add the same to Sim removals: "SIM HAS BEEN REMOVED,
ENTER PASSCODE TO DISABLE ALARM"

~~~
crunchy_toast
Or just build cerberus into your ROM and use the authorised SIM feature.

It will take a pic and send me an email of its location if another SIM is put
in.

