The first call you need to make when you lose your smartphone is to your network provider. Report your phone missing and have your service cancelled. This will prevent someone from using your phone to fraudulent ends, and will prevent the thief from gaining access to your online apps or accounts.
For most of us, our phones contain nearly a lot of personal information; hence, you will want to take steps to prevent that information from getting into the wrong hands. The best move is to remotely reset the phone to factory settings.
How do you do this? You simply wipe it! Wiping it means you don’t need to worry because the phone becomes a brick, and the information on it dies. But there’s a clause, you need to have already enrolled in a wiping program to do this.
But what if it’s too late to wish you had a wiping program on your phone? Then follow the next steps:
- Do a mental run-through of apps and websites you use to see where a thief could gain access to your personal information. (Go through this exercise even if you wiped your device, in case someone got access to the phone between when you lost it and when you had it reset).
- Immediately change the passwords of these apps and sites, as well as for any email and social media accounts linked to the phone. This is because your email contains such information like bank statements, monthly bills, ATM card or bank account numbers.
- If you have passwords to your ATM cards stored on your phone, call the banks and have them cancel it.
Finally, always ensure to password-protect your phone to add an additional hurdle for future thieves. And ensure to choose a PIN that’s not easy to guess. Don’t use 1234 or the current year. Really? Even a child will easily guess that!
Read More: Be Smart, Protect Yourself From Criminals Who Want To Steal Your Identity
You may also install a phone finder app, so you can see where your phone is—which can save you much troubles if it was simply misplaced and can also be useful to the police if you are the victim of a crime.
But most importantly, find out from your phone’s manufacturer how to opt into a remote wiping program.
See Also: 8 Incredibly Smart Things You Didn’t Know Your Smartphone Could Do