WHAT TO DO IF YOUR PHONE IS STOLEN

Many of us store all sorts of personal information on our cell phones these days. If your cell phone gets into the wrong hands, you could become the victim of identity theft. Or worse. If you have an app that locates a lost or stolen cell phone, you might be tempted to go after the phone yourself. Bad idea. People have been killed confronting cell phone thieves. Contact the police and let them handle things.

But there’s something else you can do that won’t put your life in danger but will protect you from identity theft. Password protection helps, but there are services that for a price will unlock a locked phone. So simply relying on your password is not good enough. What you need to do once you realize your phone is stolen and not simply misplaced is immediately notify your service provider and ask that your phone be placed on the BLACKLIST. This will lock the thief out so that he’s unable to accessing your personal information.

In order to do this, though, you need to give your service provider a numerical code from your phone. To access this code, dial *#06# (star, pound, zero, six, pound) on your cell phone. A long number will pop up on your screen. Copy that number down and store it with your cell phone information so it’s easily accessible if needed.

Hopefully, you’ll never have to put this plan into action, but it’s always best to know how to protect yourself, especially in this day and age of so much identity theft.