Skunks, The story below is hillarious. Has anyone been able to trace a stolen phone using one of these apps ( e.g Lookout and Xtrasec) Regards Kevin 18 April 2013 , By noreply@blogger.com (nairobi wire) <http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T6TZL9z0DyM/UXA-t-r0vxI/AAAAAAAAU4E/88HbVKd9oRg/s1600/thief.jpg> If you have a smart phone, then you can easily put a face on the person who will steal your phone, should it come to that. Several applications available on android market (Google Play) and iTunes, provide recovery solutions in case you report a phone as stolen. Some apps use the phone GPS to calculate its location and send the details to a provided email. Others alert the rightful owner when a different sim card is inserted, and even provide the number of that sim card. Others take a picture of the culprit using the front facing camera, if available. The effectiveness of this apps has not always been something to write about, but yesterday, a lucky phone theft victim received an email that will probably save many phones. Martin Githinji had lost his phone one week ago in a matatu at Kahawa Wendani, but luckily for him, he had installed XTraSEC, a phone security app. Yesterday, Martin received an email with a picture of the suspect. Yes, the app had worked. Apparently, as the suspected thief tried to unlock it, he made too many attempts, triggering the app to take the snapshot. Martin has now started a social media campaign to track the suspect down. According to the official XtraSec site, the application has the following features. ✔ Find Phone(with auto turn on GPS) ✔ Phone alert (make your phone scream!) ✔ Remotely SPY capture photo ✔ SPY Auto capture on invalid lockscreen password entered ✔ Detect SIM replacement ✔ Remotely turn on WiFi or 3G data using SMS ✔ Remotely check battery info ✔ Remotely check telephony info ✔ Remotely phone lock with PIN ✔ Remotely phone and SD data wipe ✔ Wipe proof (XtraSEC survive on factory restore) So now you cannot say you didn't know. Share this information and help your friends track down their phone thieves.