It might lead you to the original person who stole your bag, but it likely won't help you recover your devices because those are very quickly forwarded onto organized crime networks which take stolen phones, reset and refurbish them, and sell them overseas or via used goods channels.

How effective is this type of crime system with Activation Lock-secured iPhones? You can't just wipe an iPhone from DFU mode and then set it up normally without the owner's Apple ID information.

Do they try to sell to people who they know won't check if the device has Activation Lock and then disappear when the buyer discovers it doesn't work?

There are very convincing phishing attacks used to get the original owner to reveal their Apple password: https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/03/if-your-iphone-is-stolen...

I know someone who fell for this. Even though they were skeptical when they received the message, they thought there was a chance it was legit, and therefore gave them some change to recover their stolen phone. I guess they had nothing to lose, as the chance of recovering the phone was ~zero anyway.

Krebs really needs to stop publishing people’s PII.

Very common to then aggressively try to phish the user's iCloud credentials and remove the activation lock; third-party vendors offer this sort of service, and they're very convincing.

> How effective is this type of crime system with Activation Lock-secured iPhones?

Can't you just patch out the check with the checkra1n bootloader exploit?

Worst case, you can still use it as a bag of spare parts maybe?

Or sell the dud locked phone to some sap on ebay then disappear off the face of the earth a couple hundred bucks richer, as is done.

I have never heard of one of these. Link to where I can buy one for my laptop?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000221646126.html I leave it in my other bag. Phone and laptop I can recover directly.

Have you been successful in recovering your stolen items?

Not yet...

I wonder if it's a perception thing--since you are hyper aware to the point you have a specialized USB cable-lojack, you are far less likely to be a victim of theft.

Similar to how self-defense training doesn't necessarily make you a skilled fighter, but instead trains you to be more aware of your situations, and there for reduce the likelihood you will need to defend yourself.