What's shocking is the lack of a clear explanation by the so-called experts contacted in this article. My explanation as to what is likely happening: "Every Wi

What's shocking is the lack of a clear explanation by the so-called experts contacted in this article. My explanation as to what is likely happening: "Every WiFi router has a special unique number - think of it as serial number - baked into the device by the manufacturer (known as a MAC address). Manufacturers request a range of these unique numbers from the IEEE, and are never meant to duplicate them. When you connect to a WiFi router, you connect to its friendly name (SSID), but also your phone receives a part of this special unique number (BSSID address) [1]. Companies like Apple, Google, and SkyHook, record the location of WiFi routers using this unique number. When a phone or other device has a strong GPS location and a strong WiFi signal, they can fairly reliably assume that this unique number is at this specific location. However, not all manufacturers strictly follow the unique number allocation rule, as getting allocations can be a time consuming process. 999 times out of 1000, reuse of these numbers is not a big issue, and goes undetected. In this case, it is likely that the thieves are using, or are located near, a WiFi router with the same unique number as this couple. Changing this special unique number is sometimes possible on expensive enterprise grade WiFi routers by knowledgeable experts, but not possible or advisable on home routers. The couple should change their WiFi router." Yes, I have conflated a number of terms there for simplicity. For technical accuracy: WiFi router -> access point. Edit: added [1] https://arubanetworkskb.secure.force.com/pkb/articles/FAQ/How-is-the-BSSID-derived-from-the-Access-Point-ethernet-MAC-address https://arubanetworkskb.secure.force.com/pkb/articles/FAQ/Ho... As BSSID is != MAC address.