In life, sometimes troubles happen. One of them may be the case when someone steals someone else's phone for the purpose of profit. It happens that as of the device you can’t make a lot of money - the phone may turn out to be old, broken or inexpensive initially. But the former owner of the device is upset if only because someone gets possession of all personal files and data. Agree, it’s unpleasant.
In order to forestall such a course of development, you just need to lock your phone. In this article, we will talk about how to block the phone if it was stolen, as well as what actions should be taken further.
Distinguish between concepts - phone and SIM card
At the very beginning, I would like to distinguish between two concepts, and they need to be distinguished: this is the phone itself (physical device) and the SIM card that is installed in it. In order to prevent attackers from seeing your private correspondence, photos and other data, it is enough that a security key (password) is on your smartphone. If you have a device that runs on the Android or iOS operating system, then without resetting all the parameters, thieves will not be able to access your files. Therefore, if they perform such a reset, all the information you left on the device will be deleted. Even without completely locking the phone.
The function of this lock is different: it is to prevent fraudsters from selling your phone. Read more on how to do this.
As for the SIM card, it is blocked so that fraudsters could not make calls from your number and vice versa - no one called the number. They also block the card if they make a copy with the operator (as often the victims of mobile thefts arrive). Those who want to deactivate a card ask how to block the number. We will talk about this in the next chapter.
Card lock
Making your SIM card stop functioning is very simple. Just call the operator and ask to deactivate your number. To confirm the action, you will need the following information: 3-4 numbers to which calls were most often made, information about the account status, as well as information about the last balance replenishment. It is not necessary to name everything to the penny - it is important to simply show that you are oriented, at least approximately. This is all instructions on how to block a phone number. The operator will accept the application and disconnect the card from the network.
In this regard, it is worth noting the following: as a rule, attackers independently remove the card as quickly as possible from the stolen device. We will explain the reason a bit further. At this stage, you understand how to block the number, it is completely simple. This action will not affect the phone, but it will make the card itself a useless piece of plastic.
IMEI lock
As for deactivating the device, the procedure here is about the same. In the same way as blocking a phone number, you can ask about turning off the device itself. True, this requires more information than just the most popular numbers, balance and replenishment. It is important to know the secret 15-digit code that identifies each mobile phone. It is called IMEI. Having reported this value to the operator, you can render your device unusable.
Some operators give instructions on how to lock the phone. MTS, for example, reports that this procedure must be done as quickly as possible - before the thief manages to remove the SIM card from the device. If you don’t have time, it will be more difficult to establish where the phone is.
For everything to happen as it should, you must quickly, immediately after the theft, again contact the operator and, dictating IMEI, ask to lock the device. If you make it in time, the phone will stop functioning even when the SIM card is removed from it later.
What is IMEI and how to recognize it?
However, if you are interested in how to block the phone if it was stolen, it is important to clarify one point about this 15-digit code. There are two ways to find it. The first is a combination of * 06 #, which will display the code assigned to your device. It works on any device model. The second method is the original box in which the mobile device was sold. You can also find IMEI there.
Ideally, a fraud victim should contact the operator and give them the code as soon as possible after the theft. Accordingly, for this she needs to have IMEI at hand. And which of us carries this 15-digit number with us? Many do not even suspect its existence.
Contact the police
Knowing how to lock the phone if it was stolen is only half the battle. In fact, the task of any owner is not just to make what was stolen useless, but also to return the thing. For this you need to contact the nearest police station, where you will receive a statement about the incident. Law enforcement officers will need to write down the IMEI number for further searches of the device and at the same time take a description of the person you suspect from you, maybe they will find out some additional information.
The procedure for contacting the police is actually more important than finding information on how to block a lost phone. Therefore, both of these steps must be completed as soon as possible.
Search for a criminal
The police (or rather, in the district office) will receive your statement about the theft, after which they will begin to develop it in the so-called department “K”. This is where the information will be transmitted for your case. The specialists of this unit receive instructions exclusively from the police, so you should not try to contact them directly.
Law enforcement officers will contact the mobile operators and look for where the device was registered with the number you specified in the application. As soon as the signal from it is "detected", an operational group will be sent there, which will find out how this person appeared in this or that person.
Remember: the operator can find out the location of the device only after appropriate requests from the police. He has no right to do this on his own initiative. Therefore, to demand that your thing be returned to you, it is necessary not from him, but from the police.
Device Protection Programs
Finally, if you use a smartphone, in addition to the question of how to lock the phone if it was stolen, you can also ask how to control your device yourself. In this regard, an interesting solution was proposed by Apple, having bought AppleID phones.
For Android, there are some third-party applications that can take photos from a stolen phone and send it online, send messages to the screen, and so on. For simple phones, of course, such solutions will not work.