[ds9]

Government already can do that by co-opting the phone companies.

@wehadfun, I like the general concept of identifying and taking action against the bad actors, but there are two flaws in your plan.

(a) Most of the users of stolen phones are not the thieves, they're secondary buyers. And amongst them, how do you propose to distinguish knowing buyers of stolen goods from innocent purchasers? Maybe in some cases the circumstances are suspicious, but what if you buy from someone on craigslist with a reasonable story and pay a market price?

(b) While in theory it's possible to trace back to the thief, in practice police don't have the resources to do the necessary investigation when the value is only a few hundred dollars. In many jurisdictions they won't even send an officer unless someone is bleeding.