Last week one of my friends called me from his wife’s phone and informed me that he has lost his smartphone somewhere on the way back to his home and it is coming as switched off now. He anxiously wanted to know what he must be doing next to prevent cybercriminals or anyone who gets hold of it from misusing the contacts, media and social media apps inside it and whether they can open the banking apps and perform banking transactions from it? Finally after relieving his anxiety he wanted to know if there is anyway he can block it completely or is there a possibility of recovering it back. I then informed him below information on the steps one can take, how to block his phone completely from reuse and what Indian government is doing with blocking and recovery of smartphones, which can be used by anyone who has lost his smartphone.
Smartphones have become a major part of our lives and we can’t really imagine the scenario of losing it. From private pictures and conversations to sensitive bank details, your smartphone is a treasure that you can’t afford to lose. Losing your phone can be a nightmare and can immediately put you in a state of panic. You must act quickly to protect your sensitive data.
Indian government’s department of Telecommunication has developed a website called sanchar saathi(sancharsaathi.gov.in) to block and trace stolen or lost smartphone. It also helps user to verify if its a stolen phone before buying used smartphone. Once the block request is placed on this website, the phone is blocked within 24 hours and it cannot be used on any network across India, but this does not prevent in police tracing the phone. As of today, close to 15 lakhs lost phones are blocked and more than 8 lakh such blocked phones are traced back.
Precautions one can take to avoid major damages in case phone is lost :-
- Take regular backup of your content to an offline(computer/pen drive) or online(google drive, dropbox) storage device.
- Setup strong passwords or fingerprint to open your smartphone and important Apps(gallery, banking & shopping apps).
- Enable auto lock feature on your smartphone with short time period setting.
- Install if its not preinstalled “Find my device” for android phones or “Find my iPhone” for Apple phones.
- Enable two or multi factor authentication to all your important accounts if they support it.
- Enable “Lock SIM” feature and set a SIM card PIN.
- Store your phone’s IMEI details safely, maybe in your email so that you can use it to block and trace your phone.
- Take a lost phone insurance policy if you are using a expensive smartphone.
Steps to take if you loose your smartphone :-
- Use “Find my device” or ” Find my iPhone” feature on google/apple website to locate your phone or play a sound or locate the phone or erase/factory reset the data on your smartphone.
- Call your mobile service provider and report the theft to temporarily block the SIM.
- Visit a nearby police station and file a complaint about your lost phone.
- Raise a request for blocking and tracing your lost smartphone on sanchar saathi(www.sancharsaathi.gov.in) website.
- Change the password/pins of your important accounts like banking, social media, shopping and email.
- Unlink all the cloud accounts like google, dropbox etc linked to your smartphone to prevent access to them from phone.
- Inform your office, friends and family about your lost phones and ask them to not react to any requests.
- Contact your phone Insurance provider and file a insurance claim for lost smartphone.