Lost your mobile? Remember these five things!

For many of us, losing a mobile phone is doubly painful: you have to spend money on buying a new phone and you've lost a lot of personal contacts, messages, photos, calendar items etc that you stored on it.

In the unfortunate event that you do lose your mobile phone, here is what you should do to maximise your chances of getting it back.

1. Gather information

Gather the following details of your phone by looking up the packaging/invoice/warranty card/other documents relating to your mobile phone:

• Make and model of the mobile
• IMEI /PUC number (The International Mobile Equipment Identity is a unique 15-digit number to your handset. CDMA phones have an 8-digit Electronic Serial Number).
• Your phone number
• Description of when and where you lost it
• Your suspicions (if any) of anyone who could have stolen it

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2. Deactivate your number

This is a step that you can take now, or after going to the police (see next step). The advantage in waiting for a while before you deactivate your phone is that in case your phone is in the hands of an honest person, they may try to contact someone from your phone list (they may choose numbers stored under names like 'Home', Mom', 'Dad' or just the last dialed number) to inform you that they have your phone. However, if you have a post paid connection it is advisable to call your service provider to see whether there has been a sudden surge in phone calls as a thief may be able to rack up a huge bill on your phone.

Call your service provider (Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance etc.) and ask them to deactivate your number so that anyone who has stolen it is not able to use it to make calls.

Check whether any calls have been made -- this may help you in tracking down the whereabouts of your phone

You may want to inform people who you expect a call from that you have lost your phone.

In case you phone has data synced with online applications like Gmail, Google Contacts, Google Calendar etc., it is wise to change your password immediately.

3. Police

Since your mobile can be misused by someone else and lead to serious consequences, it is important to follow one of the following procedures when you realise that you don't have your mobile phone.

In case you think your phone was stolen, you must go to the police station nearest to the place where the phone was stolen and get an FIR registered to report the theft. Sometimes policemen refuse to register FIRs -- you must explain that in case of theft, an FIR has to be registered, and you would be forced to report the matter to higher authorities.

Usually police officers would relent at this point. Do NOT settle to get just a Daily Diary Report registered since this means the police will not be investigating into the theft.

Note: The police is usually reluctant to file FIRs, especially for petty thefts, because they would be required to conduct an investigation (a lot of times they see it as unnecessary burden on their shoulders).

In case you think your phone was misplaced or lost, you should go to the police station nearest to the place where the phone was misplaced or lost, and get a Daily Dairy Report (DDR) registered.

Note: Please do NOT insist that an FIR be registered -- the police officer is not allowed to do so. However, the DDR can act as proof of your bona fides (good intention) in case the lost phone is misused.

Remember to take a copy of the FIR or the DDR, as applies to your case, once you have signed it.

4. Reactivate your number

It is possible for you to request your service provider to reactivate your number (that is, get a new SIM-card with your same old number).

Your service provider may ask for a copy of the FIR and/or ID proof (including a photograph) to perform this service.

5.  Retrieving data

Your service provider should be able to provide you with the list of phone numbers to which you made calls in last three months. They charge nominal fee of Rs 50 or so for this service.

Unfortunately at present, there is no way for you to recover any other data, unless you have backed it up somewhere or synced it with online applications like Gmail, Google Contacts etc.