# If Your Mobile Phone Was Stolen & You Hate the Phone Thief, You Should Do This



## swatkats (Oct 5, 2015)

If your phone was stolen, there isn’t much you can do about it in India. The story is usually that you go to the cops, lodge a complaint and they ask you for the bills and unique numbers for the mobile phone. Everybody forgets about it, except you.


Ever wonder if you could do something about this? Register your new phone or stolen phone on MyCellWasStolen, an online database of mobile phones and stand a chance to get it back. Or at least avenge the theft by doing your bit to end the racket!


Here’s how it works: Once you register your phone, it tracks the mobile so that it becomes difficult for the thief to sell the phone. Under normal circumstances, a stolen cellphone is repackaged and sold to an unsuspecting buyer. But imagine if buyers could check if the phone was stolen before buying? The database makes it possible by telling the buyer if its a stolen device or not.


The database is also shared with carriers, who can block calls from stolen phones. Local crime authorities also have access to the data so they can raid shops that sell stolen goods. You could also register a new cell phone on the site, so it can be tracked in the event of theft.


The service was built by Vikas Hazrati, the CTO & Founder of Knoldus Software and his team.


Such a database is of no use unless a large number of people start using it. Morever, the altruistic nature of a buyer can be trusted enough for him to go and check on the site every time he or she buys a device. Second hand phone buyers can be shady too.


The database will gain a lot of credibility if it was maintained by a law enforcement agency directly in collaboration with carriers and consumers. A nationwide database could be the perfect solution for them to curb phone theft. However, this could also throw up interesting questions on privacy and cell phone based tracking.


MyCellWasStolen is not the only database that provides such a service. Websites like missingphones.org, that of the Indore Police department and a few others do the same. The Indian government is also thinking of creating such a database for which it has talked to various companies.


If you are on Android, you could install the Android device manager. Its very useful if your phone gets stolen. You can make it ring remotely, setup a phone lock and erase the data in case it gets stolen.




Source: *www.nextbigwhat.com/mobile-phone-stolen-thief-297/


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## Ramakrishnan (Oct 5, 2015)

Generally after complaining to the cops, you can lodge a complaint with the carriers and they will block the phone for good. The thief will have a paper weight on his hands


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## swatkats (Oct 5, 2015)

*Re: If Your Mobile Phone Was Stolen &amp; You Hate the Phone Thief, You Should Do This*



Ramakrishnan said:


> Generally after complaining to the cops, you can lodge a complaint with the carriers and they will block the phone for good. The thief will have a paper weight on his hands


More details on the operator blocking thing.. Please..


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## Ramakrishnan (Oct 5, 2015)

Have your copy of original purchase bill with IMIE
have FIR copy
Go to the concerned operator
They will guide you

Once the operator puts it the imie in the black list, no sim will work and thief can have a media device at the most.


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## bssunilreddy (Oct 5, 2015)

Great App and idea as well... to maintain such a database is very good...


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## swatkats (Oct 5, 2015)

*Re: If Your Mobile Phone Was Stolen &amp; You Hate the Phone Thief, You Should Do This*

@Ramakrishnan Does the operator blacklists only in their DB or else shares with other operators also.


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## Nerevarine (Oct 5, 2015)

Nice thread, didnt know about this service.. ty OP


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## ariftwister (Oct 5, 2015)

How many buyers are aware of this service?? If they don't know, they won't look it up here.. Also the whole site looks shady to me!!


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## swatkats (Oct 5, 2015)

ariftwister said:


> How many buyers are aware of this service?? If they don't know, they won't look it up here.. Also the whole site looks shady to me!!


I did know about this site at least two years back. 

To be frank, I did look up few IMEI while purchasing 2nd hand phones and last week i lost my phone, which made me upload my phones IMEI in their DB. 

Site's owned by an Indian firm based in Delhi, If i am not wrong. They have a growing database last i checked.


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## Zangetsu (Oct 6, 2015)

The site looks good but I am concerned about privacy of records (as email,name & mobile no is also registered)

and also it is upto the buyer if he wants to buy a stolen phone or not.

nowadays Thieves are getting even more smarter as they use these Chinese FLASH machines to change the IMEI.


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## Ramakrishnan (Oct 6, 2015)

Just two days ago there was a news of cops busted a racket of flashing IMEI nos on stolen phones. thieves are always one step ahead


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## Deadman (Oct 6, 2015)

Imei flashing is done by professionals in case your phone lands into black market. Newer the phone difficult to change imei number. 
I had my phone retrieved last year through imei number.


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## azvnoit (Nov 26, 2015)

I was working on MDM, mobile companies have security features that people rarely use. For example, if you have samsung mobile, you can register a samsung account and you can lock, ring, shut down, track phone, format from anywhere. Apart from these, the phones can be rendered in-usable.
I also have witnessed a friend recovering his phone after theft by police with help of mobile company for locking and tracking phone. The SIM can be blocked and a new one with same number can be procured from the service provider easily.


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## bssunilreddy (Nov 26, 2015)

Best Smart Phone Insurance: Syska Gadget Insurance


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## swatkats (Nov 27, 2015)

bssunilreddy said:


> Best Smart Phone Insurance: Syska Gadget Insurance


Have you bought one for yourself?


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## bssunilreddy (Nov 27, 2015)

swatkats said:


> Have you bought one for yourself?



My Phone is just 8k one so never went for Insurance.


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## kkn13 (Nov 27, 2015)

swatkats said:


> If you are on Android, you could install the Android device manager. Its very useful if your phone gets stolen. You can make it ring remotely, setup a phone lock and erase the data in case it gets stolen.



Even ios and Windows Phone and BB10 have this option inbuilt and generally enabled by default
on ios you need to sign in to your itunes account first
BB10 and WP do it automatically
also ios 7 onwards has "icloud lock" which prevents use of phone even after reflashing,reset etc until you type icloud details


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