Stolen Android

[billbenson]

Someone I know had their Android phone stolen today. It's with T Mobil if that matters. She didn't have insurance either. Anyway, they couldn't locate it with the GPS. She could apparently tell that the SIMM card had been removed. Getting the phone back seems very unlikely, but what can she do to make it useless to whoever has it? T Mobil gave her some web sites to try to track the GPS and that didn't work. She'd just like to make life miserable for the thief at this point.

[Harold Mansfield]

Everyone's security is different. What brand and model phone was it?

Depending on the model and age of the phone, if she kept it password or bio protected even changing the sim card won't help who ever has it as it will still ask for a password before it will factory reset.
Additionally, if it was registered with the manufacturer reporting it lost will help keep someone from registering it with a new carrier.
If she didn't have it password protected, not much she can do now. Reporting the phone lost or stolen may keep someone from activating it here in the U.S. but typically stolen phones are bulk shipped overseas.

Also, there are very few phones ( Samsung & iPhone) that a savvy thief can't get around to be able to use it as most prepaid companies aren't that discerning. If you have control of the phone you can just drop in one of many prepaid sims from one of dozens of companies. Also if it was stolen, most thieves act quickly to try and beat the owner from disabling or wiping the phone.


The best time to put theft protection in place is when you have the phone. Not much you can do afterwards. I'm afraid it's probably a loss and nothing she can do to stop anyone from using it again.

When she gets her new phone make sure she changes her Google password of the account the phone was on as well as the passwords to EVERY account that she accessed on that phone.