I lost my phone yesterday. What all should/Can I do?

[vijayshimla]

Unfortunately for us Indians- the police-whose duty it is to recover lost property of public especially if the value is more than Rs 1000- are a bunch of Kaamchors and to the boot a bunch of thoroughly incompetent fools capable of only collecting their HAFTAS.
After having lost my own share of the expensive mobiles and the accompanying pain therein- i have now made of system of not keeping any important data on phone and my next fone is going to be less than 2k- which will cause minimum pain on loss. Phone once lost in India- is gone forever( it is like dropping a wad of currency notes!) I think the recovery of lost mobiles in India has to be less than 1 percent !

 

[gREen]

next time install prey and encrypt your sd card

Have you his previous post.
There is no next time

 

[m-jeri]

Hard luck man. I lost only one phone (slipped out of my pocket while traveling by cab) and I felt horrible after that.

You could try SMSing the person who is using the phone saying you will pay them some cash if you get it back and that you have some police contacts etc etc. Its a long shot but it doesn't cost much to try. I know you already bought a new phone but no harm in still trying to get your old phone back.

Exactly. I feel damn ****ing horrible. It all happened like in 2 minutes. I just couldn't believe it. Really I cant. And I actually feel that it was stolen from me.

I tried sending a message like that. No use.

- - - Updated - - -

Considering your phone is still on, do you have a active data plan? You can remote install tracking apps and find out the phone's location.

In under a hour the phone was missing, I already gave a install request from play store. No idea of it did or not. Anyways the phone is not showing up now.

Its not switched on from today morning. Atleast not in my number.

- - - Updated - - -

next time install prey and encrypt your sd card

... will do... but no more info keeping on phone.

 

[greenhorn]

if you had installed latitude(usually comes along with maps), ask any of your friends to check out where your last check in was?

 

[flash23]

Just went there with complaint and copy of bill. They have a special book for mobile theft.. :S.... They will only do that. FIR and all they wont do. ... And a affidavit. They gave me a receipt with seal and all.

I presume you gone to the police chowky, go to the concerned police station and tell the situation to the on duty cop. If luck favours if can redress the situation. I was in a similar situation and the Station incharge gave a good dressing down to the chowky cop, he even apologized to me.

Tell them you need a proper FIR, make some statements what if the cellphone is used in some terrorist activities/ fraud then what? Ask them in writing that they are refusing to give an FIR.
When I filed an FIR it was in missing property category.

 

[RoBoGhOsT]

thats sad .. i lost 2 phones last year , one Nokia n97 and then after 2 weeks , a white Dell Streak . the N97 didnt have any kind of tracking software and it was lost in my college class room , still couldnt find it . filed and FIR but they did nothing ..

then i went to Delhi and was in metro , the Streak was stolen from my jeans' front pocket when the train was fully packed , next station came and it disappeared . i was shocked that how could such a big phone get picked .. it had all sorts of security software installed including Prey , Wheres My Droid , Sim Checker etc . within 5 mins , i sent message to wheres my droid and tried to call , it was switched off . the guy didnt switch on even with different sim , ( it had sim checker which sends an SMS from SIM when phone is switched on ) .. maybe he flashed the phone again or did a wipe from recovery before turning it on ..

So its better to be careful and after those 2 thefts most of the time i am worried about whether both of my phones are in pocket or not ( iPhone 4 and Nokia 701 right now ) ..

in case phone is dropped still there is chance that security softwares might help if some fool picks up , but if its stolen then there is next to no chance

 

[m-jeri]

if you had installed latitude(usually comes along with maps), ask any of your friends to check out where your last check in was?

Mate.. It was lost like 200 meters from where I live.. .... I was just going out for dinner..
@flash23..

I even used the RTI thingy... they said.. ISP's dont co.operate... especially BSNL prepaid... also, I dont know anyone in KA police..

- - - Updated - - -

in case phone is dropped still there is chance that security softwares might help if some fool picks up , but if its stolen then there is next to no chance

It fell from my pocket in the middle of the road, and in the 10 secs it took for me to realize and turn the bike, it was gone.

Wish our people are efficient in all matters.. where would have we been. Not just in ripping other people..

 

[sabby]

@ OP and others who keep all their imp docs in phone/tablet/laptop, take a little time from your schedule and upload all the imp docs to skydrive and/or google drive. Better late than never

 

[nRiTeCh]

Actually now a days police hardly entertains such thefts and instead blame we people that how cant we handle our cellphones and how the hell we lost them here n there.
I remember way back in yr 2004 I was traveling from Mumbai to Jammu and next morning in the train my cell got stolen. We 4 families were on 12 days north tour and imagine how bad it was when my tour just began and i lost my hard earned cellphone.
My whole tour went awful just by that incident.
I owned Nokia 8250 at that time and it was one of the best phones of that times n i even cherish it today.

On way back to mumbai I explained the matter to my friend whose dad then was an advocate in Mumbai high court. Within 24 hours I got an fir copy from him to retain my Orange (now Vodafone) cell no. and also my cells imie no. too was blocked.

Now after 8 yrs and I have experienced with my friends itself that police doesn't entertain such queries with ease anymore.

 

[flash23]

It is a real shame.
On the other hand there are occasional reports of pick pockets in ToI of mere 2000/-, not that it is bad but simply sad they are not filing a FIR. As if it spoil their 'high crime solving rate'.
The govt needs to formulate a proper action plan, to follow in event of cellphone theft.

I can recall some 2 to 3 weeks ago there was this iphone theft case reported on the front page of ToI. the victim was some Italian and the accused was an India origin foreign diplomat. She got her phone within 2 days. Guess that is why people like us are left in lurch as the police are busy helping foreigners and chasing away the locals.
Even Rahul gandhi has lost 2 to 3 phones, no doubt they were recovered. You can only imagine what happened to the thief.

 

[whatsinaname]

Have you tried looking at this?


https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lookout.labs.planb&hl=en

 

[raksrules]

Happened few months before. While visiting a local CVS store here, my wife dropped her iPhone in the parking lot. We realized only after coming home and tried backtracking the steps.
When we called the number the manager of Cvs answered the phone and told that someone returned the phone and found in parking lot.
I was so so relived after listening that

 

[onlyravi]

Prey is the safest option for Androids and laptops.
One of my frnds in Pune has lost his SIII few months back. He had some contacts in the police so with the FIR he also got a letter from his company mentioning that the SIII contained important mails and docs related to the company which were confidential and should not fall in wrong hands. The police passed this on high priority to all operators. The guy who found the phone had sold his phone to a local shop in camp. Luckily the shopkeeper was using it with an airtel sim and airtel helped the police with the tower information & new phone no. That is the only case I know of a lost cell phone being found by the police.

Try some contacts in police. They can help out but they tend to lazy out. Typical govt workforce mentality.

 

[Techie#1]

lost my 2 month old moto defy last year during dhanteras....man.my memoy.still fresh& grieving for the loss even though i replaced it with a sgs2. U ust kindeld the memry .But as they say first love die hard ...i know how bad it hurts,...i share ur grief!

 

[tech.addict]

The list phones that I lost/got stolen so far

Reliance CDMA (forgot model no.) - cost was Rs. 3.5K in 2004
Nokia 8600 - cost was 11K in 2007
Nokia 5230 X 2 - cost 6.5K each in 2009 - The first one got stolen and I bought another one. That alos got stolen within a gap of one month.
Samsung captivate - cost 10K in 2011

 

[gREen]

The list phones that I lost/got stolen so far

Reliance CDMA (forgot model no.) - cost was Rs. 3.5K in 2004
Nokia 8600 - cost was 11K in 2007
Nokia 5230 X 2 - cost 6.5K each in 2009 - The first one got stolen and I bought another one. That alos got stolen within a gap of one month.
Samsung captivate - cost 10K in 2011

Is the phone stolen or lost?

 

[tech.addict]

One is lost rest are stolen (picked from pocket)

 

[veer_singh]

sorry for hijacking your thread m-jeri
I lost my phone today . I was using vodafone postpaid in that for 10 days , As I was using iphone by side , I kept the [lost] phone in my backpack . The moment I came to my place the zip was opened and phone was missing .
Now I have the box , but i am confused whether the IMEI of the phone and box match , because i remember somewhere in the corner it doesnt match , lost memory :O

My question : can I get the information of the IMEI through vodafone as I used it for 10 days just to verify

========
I have filed FIR in Police Station with the IMEI mentioned on box [1k bribed]. Fingers crossed :|
========

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

i read an interesting article. dont remember where, probably it was on TE itself. The person whose phone was stolen used google location service to track his phone. Whenever he got a fresh location, he used to send a message and email saying that the phone is being tracked by Cyber division. The person who had found the phone got worried and returned the phone. No doubt it was scratched and mishandled, but was working. I think google location services are your best bet. Also try to install androidlost from google market. it can even send you the list of last 10 calls, sms, take a remote photo and email you and also remotely enable GPS to get a fresh location. Remote wipe is just an added feature.
Best of luck

 

[rohan_mhtr]

Once I lost my Motorola L7 . Never heard of it again. Next phone I purchased was a Samsung model which had a feature to send an sms if the sim is changed. That phone was stolen but got the number of the new sim . Called on it and a guy answered I told him that he had two options hand me the phone or let the police collect it for me. Guess what ' he delivered the phone personally and begged not to call the police. He had purchased the phone from a local guy for just 1000 bucks. I had purchased it for some 10 K .