Successfully Deactivated my Stolen Nokia Phone

Sent by Ankit:

I had a basic Nokia handset — Nokia 6600 — that I have been using since last 3 years. Long story short, I lost it on my way to office. May be someone stole it? I don’t know, but what I know is that I was never able to find the missing phone back again.

This was my third phone and it was a real pain to lose it. I lost all the contact information I had accumulated over the years, important messages, and those colorful pictures and moments I shared with my friends.

I was immediately told to file a police complaint after losing the phone.

I did visit the nearest police station to lodge theft complaint. They said they will inform me if they find the phone. Chances of finding my Nokia handset were really very slim though.

Locked and Deactivated my Nokia Handset

One of my friend recommended me to contact my network operator to see if they can help me in finding the lost device. I contacted Airtel Customer Care and told them the entire story.

After escalating the call to someone else, I was told that it’s almost impossible to find the location of the phone. This was because my handset was an older one. Even GPS tracking methods will not work, they said.

They did give me another option though. I was told that it is possible to deactivate the SIM card. Doing this can be helpful for a number of reason:

• The thief cannot use the phone to make outgoing calls.
• The information of my SIM Card cannot be accessed. All the information will be protected forever.

Another solution was to permanently lock my phone, so that the device will not work anymore. This is done through the IMEI number. So if I give them the proper IMEI number of my Nokia phone, they will “blacklist” it. Using any operator — Vodafone, Aircel, Tata Docomo, or other SIM card carrier — on my phone will not help the thief anymore.

My phone will be a piece of wood for them — it will be really useless, which will at least stop them from stealing cell phone of  others.

I chose the first option, and after verification of my identity they told me that  they will deactivate the SIM card within 24 hours.

It’s been a week now. I gave a call to my lost phone’s number and it is not working anymore. I am in the process of buying another SIM card with the same number, but first I need to buy a new phone. This time I will be more careful though.