I actually agree with OP that Wyze could do better about this. I even brought this up in an AMA and they said that they were working on some kind of solution, but I don’t think they ever did.
We do know that they now have the ability to block devices to never be able to work since they recently mentioned with the solar cam pan that if you file a warranty claim, they will blacklist that camera from ever being able to work again. It seems reasonable that they could do the same thing for theft if it can be proven that it was stolen.
Even without the company doing that… How do you know this:
That’s really interesting to hear that they sent a security alert email about the transfer. I think that might be the first time hearing about them doing this.
Just out of curiosity, do you actually know who this thief is? Is the camera the only thing they took?
I asked, because if you know who they are and it’s basically the only thing they took, then yes, they still broke the law and still trespassed and stole your property and police could consider criminal charges for all that. Though, it could be seen as more of a domestic dispute.
Also, if you have more than one camera, showing a receipt and everything like that could be difficult to prove that the ownership was for that exact device because the receipts and everything don’t say what the MAC address was, and they could have been for one of the other cameras. I say this specifically because I know of a person that did this exact same thing, where they tried to use a receipt for a different device to claim proof of purchase or ownership for an entirely different device. That makes it difficult for both the company and the police to accept proof of purchase in some ways as legal evidence in a dispute. Though a lot of the other circumstantial evidence could be sufficient, such as if the camera’s original activation date is basically around the same time as the proof of purchase and that there were no other activation dates around the same time.
If you definitely know who it is that took your camera, inform police.
Even if you don’t for sure know who it was who stole it, you should consider informing police anyway. If you file a police report, you can give the police all of the information about this camera. If you know the exact Mac address and other stuff that applied to this camera, then you could even ask the police to send a subpoena to Wyze to ask them for the IP address and the account information for the individual who set up the stolen camera. They can then use that to find where the person lives and see if the Mac address and the person matches your recording Of them stealing it and the MAC address that used to be on your account instead of theirs.
I had a friend in college who got all of his stuff stolen, and the thieves logged onto the internet with one of his stolen devices. We just got the IP address for it and the cops Can use that to have the ISP tell them the address that IP address was assigned to at that time and the cops went and caught them and found they were the ones responsible for tons of storage shed thefts recently. So I know the IP address method works for sure. On the downside, drug addicts who are just randomly stealing stuff, often sell them immediately to a reasonably innocent person, so finding out who activated the camera doesn’t necessarily prove that they are the thief unless their identity matches the recording of the theft.
Anyway, I think that in general if Wyze can prove that a device was previously on your account and is subsequently activated on another account, and you ask them to blacklist that device, I think they should generally do that. We know they can do that now since they are doing that with the solar cam pan models that claim a warranty refund. So if they have that ability now, they may as well start doing it for stolen devices as well. I’m not saying I’m entitled to force them to do that, but I think that would be a reasonable right thing to implement.
