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Loosing your mobile can be
a very unfortunate event and there is only a limited number of
things one can do to recover and track a lost mobile. Depending
on the type of mobile phone – smart phone or feature phone one
can use different ways to recover it.
First of all, the moment you loose your phone whether a smart
phone or older feature phone, you need to call your telecom
operator and inform them of the same so that they can help you
with the trace. You also need to file a complain with your local
Police station and get a receipt of the same. At both these
places while registering your lost phone you would require an
IMEI number. IMEI stands for International Mobile Station
Equipment Identity number. It is a 15 digit number which is
unique to each mobile device. You can find it on the box and
invoice of your mobile. With the help of the same the telecom
operator can trace if any mobile number with the IMEI number as
your’s lost or stolen mobile is being used in it’s network. In
case it is being used in the operator’s network you would be
able to get the geographical locations of the same form the
operator and also the call logs- which would help you with
recovering the phone.
Secondly, almost all the devices including the feature phones
these days come with inbuilt mobile tracking application
or service. This mobile tracking service or application sends a
text message to the previously registered number (set by the
owner of the mobile) in case of change of sim card. The text
message often contains the mobile number (of the inserted new
sim) and at times GPS co-ordinates (in case of mobile with GPS
functionality) of the current location of the mobile. Using the
information one can identify the person using your lost or
stolen mobile and take steps to recover the same.
Thirdly, In case of smart phones running on iOS and Android
platforms there is an in built facility in the mobile operating
system itself which keeps track of the location of the mobile.
Using the web based interface for accessing the feature can be
used to discover the current or last location of your mobile.
The service is called ‘Find my phone’ in iOS and inside ‘Android
Device Manager’ in case of Android. Both these features are
inbuilt and activated by default in the smart phone.
Lastly, there are certain apps which keep track of your
location. Apps like Google Maps, Nike Free Run etc. which are
commonly installed in most of the devices and track the location
of the mobile using GPS. In case you had any of these or similar
Apps installed on your smart phone- you can find the current
location of the mobile on a map by logging into your account
using your web browser from the computer.
In case any of the above options do not help with tracing your
lost phone – the last option you have is to block your mobile
with all the operators using the IMEI no. so that it is unusable
in the country and in case some one uses your lost mobile with
any of the operators in the country the same is flagged and
reported to the concerned authorities.
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