What To Do If You Lose Your Prepaid Phone

A prepaid phone that enables you to buy online mobile recharge can be a lifeline for staying in touch with loved ones, taking care of business and countless other tasks. It’s not a good feeling when you can’t find your phone, or even worse—you realize that it’s been stolen. Sensitive personal and financial information can be compromised, so it’s important to take immediate steps to protect yourself if your prepaid phone has been lost or stolen.

1. Look for Your Phone

If you’ve got that sinking feeling that your phone is lost or stolen the first thing you’ll want to do is try and locate it. Call the number and listen for ringing or vibrating around you. If you left your phone somewhere, a good samaritan may have picked it up and could be waiting for your call to try and return it.

2. Use a Phone Finder App

Apps like Find My iPhone, Samsung Find My Mobile and Google Find My Device, can be very useful when trying to locate a lost or stolen phone. If your mobile phone is not equipped with one of these apps, your wireless carrier may be able to locate it for you. Some of these apps also enable you to erase or lock your phone remotely so it can’t be used by anyone.

3. Contact Your Wireless Carrier

Call your carrier’s customer service line or log in to your account on their website to report your phone lost or stolen. If available, follow the prompts to suspend service on your device. Some wireless carriers can suspend the use of your device on their network and may be able to assist you with blocking your device so it can’t be used at all. It’s also important to keep in mind that even if your service is suspended, the expiration date on your international mobile top up minutes will remain the same. Any unused balances will expire on that date, which may result in lost minutes.

4. Change Your Passwords

Even if your phone is protected with a PIN, password, or pattern, thieves can crack them and access the information on your device. Changing passwords for any accounts associated with your device is vital to protect yourself. If you use a service like Digicel prepaid recharge to top up minutes, make sure to log in and change your password right away so no one can use your account to send or add minutes. Change passwords for email, app stores, online banking accounts, PayPal, shopping sites, and streaming sites like Netflix. In fact, you should change all passwords for sites or apps where someone could view saved billing information like credit card numbers.

5. Contact the Police

If you believe your phone has been stolen, file a police report. Although you probably won’t get it back, at least the theft will be documented and a police report may come in handy if your financial information is stolen. In some countries, devices that have been reported stolen or missing are added to a nationwide blacklist and won’t work with any networks in the country.

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