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Lost, Misplaced, Stolen or Found Cellphone
Old 07-23-2015, 09:49 PM   #1
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Lost, Misplaced, Stolen or Found Cellphone

I had a bit of a scare this evening. This afternoon I was in town listening to a small and short and free outdoor concert. When I got home I couldn't find my phone. I thought I looked all over my apartment. I suspected it may have fallen out of my pocket at the concert. Yikes!

I went down the street to the gas station and used their phone booth. I left a voice mail on my cell, giving my email and home addresses, in case anyone found it. When I got home a few minutes later, I heard the voice mail alert sound and found the phone. This prompted a few questions. (I'll have to also visit Tracfone's FAQs on their site, etc.)

  • What's the standard procedure if I find a lost phone, aside from turning it into the nearest lost and found? Keep it and call someone in the phone's contact list to try to learn the owner's identity?
  • If I can't retrieve my old phone in a "reasonable time," and have to get a new one, do phone companies port the old number, so that I keep the old one?
  • Do they carry-over the accrued minutes I had on the old phone?
  • What if I get the old one back after I've gotten a new one? Combine minutes? Have two phones with the same number? (That doesn't happen, does it?)
  • Do I call the phone company and have them cancel the account of the old phone while I'm trying to get a new one?
  • Was it a mistake for me to give my email and home addresses, because of potential identity theft exposure?
  • Should I etch my email address on the case? Or something like that?
  • Any other things one should consider if one loses or finds a phone?
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Old 07-23-2015, 10:34 PM   #2
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#1, I have my phone password protected. I also can either wipe it, or initiate a screeching sound or gps track it from the web if I were to lose it.

#2, I have alternate numbers and email scrolling on the page for entry of password

#3, If I were to find an unlocked phone, I would scroll through the most recent voice calls and call one to notify...

#4; dunno on your other questions--although it I didn't have my email scrolling, I would probably etch it.
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Old 07-24-2015, 12:51 AM   #3
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I lost my cell once. I called the number and the nice lady at the lost and found told me to come in and get it.

Just found an I-phone a few days ago. Someone left it on a table at the USPS. I turned it in to one of the folks at the window.

My phone is so dumb, I don't think I would know how to password protect it. It cost $15 and the only thing I would regret about losing it is that I've figured out how to use it and it would be a pain to learn a new one (plus I have my favorite numbers already input.) YMMV.
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Old 07-24-2015, 08:26 AM   #4
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Wow, you did think of a lot of good questions! I found someone's phone once, I used the phone to call a recently called number, got the spouse who came over to pick up the phone. I lost my cell once while on vacation. Thought I left it at a restaurant. Restaurant said nope, no phone turned in. I called my cell hoping someone would answer and it rang in between the seat cushions of my cousin's SUV (while she was in it, thankfully!), and she got it out for me. I almost always have it turned off, so I was lucky it was on still, in this case!
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Old 07-24-2015, 08:33 AM   #5
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We use Blackberry phones so don't really worry about that. In addition to being the most "Secure" cell phone, they have a "Protect" feature:

BlackBerry Protect Login - Download BlackBerry Protect and Sign In - US

For instance:

Quote:
Protect your information

You’ve lost your smartphone. Why wonder who has access to your information? Simply log in to the BlackBerry Protect website and lock your device.

Pretty sure you’re not going to see it again? You can delete the information on your smartphone from the BlackBerry Protect website too.
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Old 07-24-2015, 04:06 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Koolau View Post
It cost $15....
You wuz robbed. My Tracfone was $5. Of course, how "smart" of a phone that buys shows so I wouldn't be terribly upset if I lost it.

And yes, when it replaced another phone the minutes and phone number went to the new phone.
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Old 07-24-2015, 04:42 PM   #7
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Apple has this well covered with the Find My iPhone feature https://www.apple.com/icloud/find-my-iphone.html . Logging into your account from a computer will allow you to (1) Locate your device, (2) Play a sound on your iPhone to help find it, (3) Use Lost Mode to lock and track your phone , or (4) Permanently erase your information from the phone.
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Old 07-24-2015, 05:06 PM   #8
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Sorta had this happen myself. Lost it and as I'm not a "walk around zombie with phone in hand" (no offense intended, I'm just not that tied to it) it was a few days before I started seriously looking for it, battery no doubt dead and I hadn't really activated Find my iPhone. So after looking everywhere I gave up and bought a new one, which hurt since my 5 had died just before the 6 came out so I had to pay full freight on the new 6. I was more upset that I had just lost the damn thing than the $; just bugged me.

6 weeks or so later I get a call from local Apple store. Have my phone. Apparently (since it was locked) the folks who found it at the wine store (no comments please, I had not been sampling all afternoon) had found it but couldn't figure out how to open it or ID it in any way. So they finally took it to Apple, who charged it up and was able to figure out it was mine. Called me and I happily retrieved it. DW was elated since she never had lusted for a smart phone, but her old flip phone was a pain, and texting was just painful. So we already had transferred my old # to the new phone, and had her number transferred to the old (found) phone. She's happy, I'm happy, and ATT now gets another $30 a month I was an original ATT iPhone user so have the unlimited data which transferred to my phone. Can't say about minutes as neither of us are big phone talkers.

I haven't done it yet but it makes sense to me to make a label for the back of both phones with our home land line number to short circuit what happened.
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Lost, Misplaced, Stolen or Found Cellphone
Old 07-24-2015, 05:20 PM   #9
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Lost, Misplaced, Stolen or Found Cellphone

A number of years ago I lost my tracphone...had about 100 minutes credit- i called tracphone ...they cancelled the service so the minutes could not be used...but would not transfer the minutes to a new phone. So that's when I went to a regular cell phone service.


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