Report a Lost or Stolen Phone

If your phone does get stolen, the first thing you should do is call the wireless operator and deactivate the SIM card so that the thief cannot make calls against your account. You can also ask the operator to put the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number of your phone into a blacklist database. The blacklist database is a cooperative effort by wireless operators to bar blacklisted phones from making calls on any of the participating operators' networks. This greatly reduces the value of a stolen phone. However, the current blacklist implementations have some problems:

In most countries, the blacklist is a national or regional database. The thief might be able to export the phone to other countries where it has not been reported as stolen.

Wireless operators in the U.S. have not joined any blacklists. This has made the U.S. a haven for stolen phones.

In addition, an experienced mobile phone hacker can alter the phone's IMEI number via data cables. It is an illegal operation, but it is possible. Once the IMEI number is altered, the phone is no longer on the blacklist.

If you live in the UK, you can register your phone with the National Mobile Phone Register via the web site http://www.immobilise.com/. This allows you to quickly report a stolen phone to the UK national blacklist and get notified when the police recover your phone.