Mobile or Cellular phones are a relatively recent invention and the time they took in everyone’s hand is even shorter. If aliens were to visit our planet in order to learn about their way of life, they’d definitely want to know about the little thing which everyone always has in his hands and never seems to let go even in very dangerous situations. The way smartphones have become a part of our life, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that they possess a soul of their own – identical to their owner, though.
Even with all the love and care we give to our smartphones, we may still lose them and it’s better to be prepared for such an unfortunate moment then to let someone else have access to our entire private life which may put us and our loved one at risk, not to mention the high chance of becoming a victim of identity theft. No one would appreciate if somebody got access to their financial records and credit card information etc. however, being human, we’re prone to mistakes and our thinking that no wrong can happen to us may lead us to such an eventuality.
The question one may ask himself then is what can I do now? There are some answers to that.
The first thing you should do is to check whether if it’s simply misplaced or have you lost the device. To check if it’s misplaced, try calling it. If the phone is definitely lost (or mugged) then go to the police or local authorities and inform them of the loss/theft providing them with the details of your phone alongside (IMEI number is very important, you can find it on the packaging).
Then, you would want to do would be to go to the website of your smartphone’s manufacturer and look for the security features and how you can access them. If you don’t find any then the generic method of logging into your Google Account (for Android), iCloud for iPhone and Microsoft account (for Windows Phone) may do the trick. All these offer a chance to wipe your data remotely if your phone is connected to the internet.
If the data gets wiped then that’s the best situation you can get, if it doesn’t then you should immediately dissociate your phone from these IDs.
Next step is to change the passwords of all the accounts you had connected to your phone whether they were integrated at with the operating system such as in the Mail app or different apps you were using such as the app from your bank. If you accessed you bank records or your credit card through an app then you should definitely change the login details to your bank account and immediately contact with your bank or credit card provider and inform them of this.
Although these are some of the actions you take once you’ve already lost the phone. It’s always better to be prepared for such eventualities and purchasing a good security app which deletes the data on your phone if wrong password is punched and share the image of the person who is doing it is well worth the few dollars you’ll spend on it.