Lost Phone Best Practice

[Bulkhead_SD]

Hello All,

I recently lost my Droid Bionic phone and have not been contacted by anyone to return it. I've reached the conclusion that it is not going to be returned.

I have taken several steps, aided by information I've found by searching this forum, but thought it may make sense to compile a set of steps that a person who looses their phone should take, including the appropriate sequence, based on the great body of knowledge you all possess.

The reasoning behind compiling a list with sequence is that I think I missed some steps or did the wrong thing at some point. Perhaps you all can help me understand if there is anything left for me to do.

This is what I did:

• Panic
• Return to location to look for it and leave my contact information with a manager
• Call carrier to suspend service on phone
• Research apps to be used to locate or wipe phone remotely
• Push AndroidLost to my phone from Google Play Store
• Reactivate my phone (as I figured out the app wouldn't push until my phone was back on the network)
• Following instructions from AndroidLost, send sms to my phone to attempt to register it with the app
• Call carrier to ask when the phone was last connected to the network (prior day. It had not been connected since it was lost)
• Continue hoping it would surface or register on the network
• Finally call carrier back to suspend service to phone and mark it as lost/stolen
• Change Google passwords
• Change all other passwords to important sites/services
• PRAY someone isn't hacking it for sensitive information..

Any other steps I could take besides not suspending service before trying to recover phone with a lost phone app? (besides installing such app before loosing phone..)

Thanks in advance,

 

[gtbarry]

Once you have truly lost your phone and you know it is missing, changing passwords immediately is the most important thing you can do.

As far as your mention of installing a recovery app before you lose it goes, I highly recommend Cerberus as it can track the phone, turn on the camera, etc.

Lastly, once it is gone gone and you have no hope of finding it ever again, black list the IMEI so no one can use it.

 

[Bulkhead_SD]

Thanks - I trust that to blacklist the IMEI, I need to contact my carrier - correct?

 

[Bulkhead_SD]

Should I resume service to the phone with the hope that I could get AndoidLost (or other similar app) to push to the device so I can wipe it?

My primary concern is for the data on the device, not the handset itself. ( I was ready to replace it anyway)

 

[Uzephi]

When you tell your carrier it is lost/stolen, they usually will put it on the black list.

All pawn shops and used phone retailers have to check the blacklists before they can buy a phone from someone.

Craigslist and other sites do not. But if someone tried to activate it with a blacklisted imei, your carrier will know and most likely notify you.

As for the data, this is why it is important to keep a lock on your lock screen (pattern, password, facelock, etc)

 

[gtbarry]

Should I resume service to the phone with the hope that I could get AndoidLost (or other similar app) to push to the device so I can wipe it?

My primary concern is for the data on the device, not the handset itself. ( I was ready to replace it anyway)

You can also try Plan B
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...GwsMSwyLDEsImNvbS5sb29rb3V0LmxhYnMucGxhbmIiXQ..

Sadly, if you lost your phone to someone sophisticated (or someone who knows someone sophisticated - i.e. a cabbie) they pulled the battery when they got it and nothing works with the battery pulled.

But if the device still has power, you will be able to locate and/or wipe it with a variety of programs - had you installed them prior. I believe that the post-lost apps can only locate though. Sorry.

 

[Bulkhead_SD]

Thanks for the replies. Fortunately, I did have a pattern on my lock screen and it sets after only a brief period of inactivity so it was probably locked when found.

I suppose one of the take-aways of this experience is that a user should not disable a lost phone immediately upon discovery of it missing but instead hope one of the location apps can find it.

Once that has been attempted a user should then contact their carrier and suspend service.

 

[Bobhob]

Sometimes what appears to be stolen is actually a case of someone finding lost stuff and not being able to return it. If they are not able to easily figure out who it belongs to it won't get returned. This is why putting tracker tags from mystufflostandfound.com on all your stuff is such a great idea. They make it easy for someone finding your lost things to return them quickly and securely.

 

[DonB]

See the link in my signature, will give all you need for the next time.