Most of us don’t really take that extra step forward to find a missing phone. We often resort to simpler and easier methods — like tracking a phone through third-party apps. What if you don’t have any third-party apps installed on your phone? What if you want to desperately find the person who stole your mobile phone? In such cases you have to put on your “I-am-gonna-do-this” hat and walk the next step confidently.
If you have already looked at your phone’s packaging for the IMEI number, then you are left with plenty of straightforward option. The first option, and the one that is often used, is to contact your carrier network and let them know about your lost phone. Depending on the connection you have with them, your phone can be blocked. Tracking location just by giving away the IMEI number is simply impossible.
Another option, one that will be discussed here, is to head over to a nearest police station to file a complaint about your lost phone. The cops will write down the complaint and do their best to find this lost phone. Here’s the secret: if you have good connection with the police department, then you can push them to really take action.
By action I mean you have to ask them to use the IMEI number and talk to the carrier network or the SIM card operator. If you make a phone call right now to the carrier network and ask them to help, chances are that you will be refused such services. Most of the companies will never track a phone because you have contacted the wrong person. Your phone call is likely to be escalated to the right person, and even if it happens you won’t be able to convince them to track the location using the active SIM card that’s in your phone.
So what you can do is take an “indirect” approach. First, you must have connections with the cops. This relationship will not happen instantly. Probably a good friend of yours can connect you with his/her friend, who is a cop. Once that’s done, you have to approach the person and register a complaint.
Next step is to find the phone’s location using the help of police. Let the cops do their work. Give them the IMEI number of the phone and ask them to get in touch with the network carrier. This seems like some work and, yes, it takes effort. And as mentioned before, are you ready to take that extra step?
All the network carriers have a way of keeping a database of blacklisted phones. Once it’s confirmed that your phone is not in the list, the police will work in conjunction with the SIM operator to find the whereabouts of your phone. They will reverse engineer your IMEI number to find the phone number, then use the active SIM card to actually trace the phone’s location. If the phone is lost, it will be at the same place and area. If it’s stolen, then using GPS activity the current location can be traced.