Losing your phone is an extremely frustrating experience, and it’s also highly dangerous. If your phone gets into the hands of a criminal or opportunist, you could experience financial loss, compromised accounts, identity theft, and more. Even worse, the pain could spread to those close to you as criminals use your phone to scam your contacts.
But stay calm — there are several steps you can take to minimize or even remove the threat. I put together this simple guide on the steps you should take to best deal with this emergency situation. I recommend following my steps in order, as there are some things you need to do right away while others can wait.
I must stress right from the get-go: I don’t encourage you to confront your thief, even if you know for a fact they have your phone. That only puts you in danger, and a phone is never worth the risk.
Instead, take the steps listed below to minimize the damage. The best way to recover from a stolen phone is to use an identity monitoring tool like Norton LifeLock. These will detect if your personal information is being leaked online and monitor your credit, preventing identity theft.
10 Steps You Should Take if Your Phone Is Stolen
You should take these steps in the order they’re presented here. This might not seem all that important, but there are some actions that need to be taken immediately to be effective and others that aren’t as time-sensitive.
Note that you should always keep your phone locked when it’s not in use, so that’s a logical starting point. After that, we move on to things like locating your phone, which can help you confirm whether your phone was stolen or simply misplaced. Some steps should wait until you’ve confirmed it was stolen, while others are good to take even if there’s a chance a helpful stranger has your phone and will be getting it back to you soon.
My steps are also written under the assumption that you weren’t physically robbed. These are the steps you should take if you don’t know where your phone is and think there’s a chance it was stolen. And remember, anytime you lose your phone in public, theft is a possibility and appropriate actions need to be taken.
If your phone was taken from you by a mugger, these steps can still be followed with some slight variations. Take the first 2 steps, but instead of proceeding to step 3, contact local police. Once you’ve explained the situation to them, you can circle back to step 3.
One more caveat: if you have very sensitive data on your phone, you may want to consider jumping from step 1 to step 7 and remotely wiping your phone. This will obviously entail the loss of any data you haven’t backed up, but if you do it fast enough, it’s the only way to be 100% sure that the thief won’t get their hands on your personal information or take over your accounts.
There are ways to protect some of your information without wiping your phone (I’ll get into these shortly), but if a thief accessing any of the information on your phone would lead to serious consequences, it’s something you should consider doing first. After taking that deep breath, of course.
Step 1. Don’t Panic
The first thing you need to do is stay calm. If you start to panic you might make mistakes, skip important steps, or put yourself in even more danger. Perform these steps as soon as you can, but give yourself room to breathe and focus. Remember the wise words of the ancient Stoics: “Don’t panic over a stolen phone.” Good luck fact-checking that quote without your phone.
Step 2. Remotely Lock Your Phone
Once you’ve taken a deep breath, it’s time to lock your phone. Both Android and iPhone come with built-in methods to remotely lock your phone behind your password or PIN. Android users will also be logged out of their Google account.
If the thief knows your phone’s password, this will only do so much good, but it’s still worth it for Android users, because you certainly don’t want to give a criminal unrestricted access to your email account.
How to Lock an Android
- Go to Google’s official Find My Device website.
- Sign into your Google account. Once your password has been authenticated, you’ll see a list of all devices associated with your account.
- Select the missing phone and click Secure device.
- Once you’ve confirmed your choice, you’ll be signed out of all Google services on the missing device, and your phone will be locked with your existing PIN, password, or pattern. You’ll also have the option to display a message and phone number on the lock screen. If it’s at all possible that your phone is missing rather than stolen, I highly recommend setting a message with your email or a friend or family member’s phone number. That way any good Samaritan who finds your phone will have an easy way to return it to you. However, if your phone was stolen, I don’t recommend using this feature to contact the thieves as it’s unlikely anything good will come of such a discussion.
Don’t go anywhere yet! You should stay on the Find My Device site to complete step 3.
How to Lock an iPhone
- Open Apple’s Find My website on a computer or a friend’s phone.
- Sign in with your Apple ID.
- Select your stolen iPhone from the list of devices.
- Click Mark As Lost, then click Activate (or Enable). This will disable Apple Pay and lock your phone.
- You can optionally leave a message that displays on your home screen, so if someone finds it, they can return it to you. If you misplaced your phone, this is a great idea. But if you know it’s stolen, I suggest simply confirming that you want it to be marked as lost.
Stay logged into your Apple account on the Find My site, as this is also where you can complete step 3.
Step 3. Locate Your Phone
The next thing you should do is figure out where your phone is. Luckily, you can do this from the exact same website you used in step 2. If you’re lucky, you’ll see where you accidentally left your phone, and you can go get it. If it was stolen, things are a bit trickier. For one, it’s possible that your remote location feature has been deactivated by the thief. If you’re having trouble finding its location, don’t worry about it too much and move on to step 4.
If you see that someone currently has it, don’t attempt to retrieve it yourself. Contacting the authorities is part of my guide and we’ll get there soon enough.
How to Locate an Android
- Go to the Find My Device website. If you’ve just finished locking your phone, you’re already in the right place.
- Sign into your Google account.
- Select your missing Android from the list of devices.
- Your phone’s location should appear on the map.
Just remember that someone can deactivate the Find My Device feature from within your phone if you’re logged into Google. A clever thief may have thought of this and disabled it within minutes of taking it.
How to Locate an iPhone
- Open the Find My website. You should already be on the site if you’ve just locked your iPhone.
- Sign in with your Apple ID.
- Select your missing iPhone from the list of devices.
- Your phone’s current location should be indicated on the map provided.
As with Android, this feature can be turned off by whoever stole your phone. That’s why this is one of the early steps — it’s important to act quickly.
Step 4. Cancel Debit/Credit Cards Linked to Your Phone
If you use mobile payment apps like Apple Pay or Google Pay, or if you’ve stored card details in apps or browsers, you could face severe financial loss. Even if your phone is locked, there’s a chance the thief knows how to break in using specialized hardware.
Take a moment to think about how you use your phone to pay for things. When using an app or website to make purchases, do you need to enter a password or does your payment information automatically get filled in? If you have any apps where this is the case or payments saved in your web browser, try to remember what cards they use.
If you can log into these apps or websites using a computer or a borrowed phone, you should be able to manually remove cards from your account. Do this for every app and site you use to pay for things on your phone. If you can’t log into a site or app where your payment information is saved, you’ll need to get in touch with your bank.
Depending on your financial institution, you may be able to cancel or freeze cards through the bank’s website. If not, you’ll have to make a phone call. Note that many banks will give you the option to temporarily freeze your cards rather than cancel them entirely. If possible, freezing your cards will be more convenient.
Below are the steps you need to take to unlink your Apple Pay and Google Pay cards from your phone. If you use Samsung Pay, CashApp, or any other similar service, you should take similar steps to turn these off. If you have a cryptocurrency app, follow the necessary process there too.
How to Cancel or Freeze Google Pay Cards
- Go to Google Payments Center. You can even use Google to find the right page!
- Log into your Google account.
- Click Remove next to a debit or credit card.
- Confirm that you want to remove the card.
- Continue until you’ve removed every card. You can always relink them later.
Here’s the tricky part. If you’re not already logged into Google on the phone or computer you’re using, it may be impossible to log in successfully. Google’s two-factor authentication (2FA) may require you to press a prompt on your phone.
If this happens to you, the safest thing to do is to call your bank immediately and speak with a representative who can help with the process.
How to Cancel or Freeze Apple Pay Cards
If you followed my instructions in step 2 and marked your iPhone as missing, Apple Pay will already be disabled on your missing phone. But if your thief knows the code to unlock your phone, they will be able to undo this and potentially re-enable Apple Pay. So it doesn’t hurt to remove cards from your Apple account. If you have reason to believe the thief does know how to unlock your phone, this step is essential.
- Open any Apple app on a computer (Apple Music, Apple TV, etc).
- Choose View My Account.
- Click Manage Payment.
- Click the Edit button near the card you’re trying to remove.
- Select Remove Payment Method at the bottom of the screen.
- Repeat these steps with all of your cards to be safe.
As with Android, if you’re not already logged into your Apple account on the computer or phone you’re using, you may not be able to log in without your phone. It all depends on what your pre-existing 2FA settings are. If you can’t log in to your Apple account, immediately call your bank and ask them to cancel your cards.
Step 5. Change Your Passwords
After decoupling payment methods from your phone (and potentially canceling your cards), it’s time to change your passwords, starting with your email account. Since your email acts as a sort of hub for your interconnected passwords, a clever thief can use your email address to access and potentially lock you out of all of your apps and accounts.
It may be possible to remotely log out of your email and other important accounts. With many services and sites, you can log in on another device, go to the account management page, and find an option to log out everywhere or log out on specific devices. This is helpful, but I recommend just changing your passwords. It’s more secure and only takes slightly more effort — if you use a top-notch password manager.
If you already use a password manager, go through your vault and find your most sensitive accounts. You should be able to jump to the login page from within the password manager. If you use something like 1Password, your existing account name and password will automatically be filled in. From there, go to the site’s account management page and create a new, unguessable password using your password manager’s generator. Again, your password manager will automatically be updated with the new password.
If you don’t have a password manager, you can still follow the same process — it will just take far longer. And you’ll have to memorize all your new passwords, which very few of us are capable of.
You may already use something like the password manager included with your browser or phone. This is frankly dangerous. If you do, the thief who stole your phone can automatically log into every single account that you have saved. But if you already use a premium password manager on your phone, your thief can’t get into a single account unless they have your master password (or a slice of your finger if you have biometrics enabled). Dashlane and other password managers come with top-notch encryption, great security features, and unlike Chrome’s password manager, they don’t store your passwords locally. Local storage is a huge hazard if the thief has technical knowledge.
You’re probably logged in to dozens (if not hundreds) of apps and sites on your phone. This might seem overwhelming, so remember to focus on the most important accounts first. As I said earlier, start with your email accounts. If a thief has access to your email inbox, they can probably reset most of your passwords from there. Beyond email, here are some of the accounts whose passwords you’ll want to change first, starting with the most important:
- Financial accounts (banks, brokers, crypto sites).
- Sites with stored cards (e-commerce sites, services where you pay for a subscription).
- Cloud storage providers.
- Social media and messaging services.
Sites with sensitive personal information. - Work-related accounts.
- Government accounts.
The exact order will depend on your personal priorities, but you should always start by changing your email passwords.
Step 6. Contact Your Mobile Carrier
Once you’ve changed your most essential passwords, you’ll want to reach out to your mobile carrier. They can help suspend your service to prevent unauthorized use, such as using your phone’s data plan or making calls. This step is especially critical if you use your phone for 2FA, as the thief will be able to reset your passwords by providing codes sent to your phone via SMS. Once your provider suspends your phone line, these texts won’t come through.
Some carriers may also offer options to blacklist your device, making it unusable even with a new SIM card. Additionally, your carrier might assist in tracking the phone’s location based on recent activity in case you couldn’t find it during step 3.
Step 7. Remotely Erase Your Data
If you’re completely certain that your phone has fallen into the wrong hands, you may want to wipe all data from your phone. This will delete everything on your phone and factory reset it, preventing the ne’er-do-well from being able to view your private messages, steal your accounts, or use your saved payment cards.
This may sound dramatic (and it is), but wiping your phone is the only surefire way to ensure a thief can’t get access to anything stored on your phone. If you back up your data, photos, settings, and apps, this isn’t a big deal, as all these things will be automatically added when you set up a new phone. Still, depending on your circumstances, you may be hesitant to do this.
Alternatively, for some people, this should be step 2. If you work in a sensitive job, for example, you may be obligated to immediately wipe a missing device.
Here’s how to remotely factory reset your phone. I’ve provided instructions for both iOS and Android users.
How to Remotely Erase Your Android
- Go to the Find My Device website.
- Sign into your Google account.
- Select your device.
- Click on Factory reset device or Erase device. This will completely wipe your phone, deleting all data and applications.
- Confirm your choice.
How to Remotely Erase Your iPhone
- Access Apple’s Find My service.
- Sign in with your Apple ID.
- Select the iPhone you want to wipe.
- Click Erase This Device. Your data and apps will be wiped and the iPhone will be restored to its factory settings.
- Confirm your choice. You’ll need to enter your password to continue. Like with locking your phone, you can also set up a lock screen message after erasing it.
Step 8. Contact the Authorities
If you’re confident that your phone has been stolen and not just mislaid, it’s time to contact your local police and file a report. If you have your phone’s current location or know who grabbed it, you should share these details with the police. Unfortunately, this may be a lengthy process, and there’s no guarantee you’ll get it back, even if you can show them where the phone is.
Again, I don’t recommend confronting the thief, even if you know where they are. You are putting yourself at risk. Don’t encourage others to help you reclaim it either — just let the authorities handle it.
Step 9. File an Insurance Claim
If you have insurance coverage for your phone, either through your carrier, a third-party provider, or as part of your homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, you should file a claim as soon as possible.
Be sure to provide all of the necessary documentation, like your police report, the proof of purchase, and details of the incident. Filing a claim promptly can help you recover the cost of the stolen phone or receive a replacement device.
Identity monitoring tools like Norton LifeLock provide identity theft insurance that you can use in case the crook impersonates you to take out loans, finance purchases under your name, or worse. If whoever took your phone impersonates you, make sure you let your identity protection service know as quickly as possible.
Step 10. Monitor Your Accounts
For the foreseeable future, monitor all of your accounts. This includes your financial institutions, social media accounts, email, and anything else you manage. Be on the lookout for unusual purchases, messages sent without your knowledge, or changed settings. It’s possible that someone might be hanging onto your information for a long period of time before they act, so don’t let your guard down.
Good identity theft protection services like Norton LifeLock monitor your sensitive information for unauthorized transactions. Norton can monitor all kinds of personal information, including your social security number, bank accounts, social media, credit score, and more. If the thief posts your personal or financial information on the dark web, Norton will report this to you and tell you what steps to take next. Additionally, if the worst does come to pass, Norton will reimburse you up to $1 million thanks to LifeLock’s identity theft insurance.
If you follow every step, the chances of having someone steal your identity are significantly lowered, but never zero. Even if you locked your phone within 5 minutes of having it stolen, someone still could have collected your personal information within that timeframe.
What Are The Dangers of Having Your Phone Stolen?
Losing your phone can have serious consequences, especially since most people keep tons of personal and sensitive information stored on their phones. Here are the major dangers you face if your phone is stolen:
- Identity theft: Thieves can use your phone to access personal information, such as emails, photos, and important documents, which can be exploited to steal your identity or commit fraud. You can mitigate this harm using identity monitoring tools like Norton LifeLock.
- Unauthorized access to accounts: Many people store login credentials or have apps that remain logged in. A thief can potentially access your email, social media, banking, and other critical accounts. With each account they access, the harm they can cause grows exponentially. Using a password manager like 1Password, which requires a master password before filling in your credentials, makes this much less likely and makes changing your passwords en masse far easier.
- Financial loss: With access to mobile payment apps or stored credit card information, a thief could make unauthorized purchases or transfer funds. Not only that, but apps that you have money stored in, such as your Steam Wallet or cryptocurrency platforms, are very vulnerable. Unlike with your normal bank, nobody can help you if your crypto gets stolen.
- Compromised personal privacy: Photos, messages, and other personal data stored on your phone could be exposed or used for all sorts of malicious purposes. The thief could blackmail you using sensitive pictures or information they’ve learned about you, take over your social media accounts (which is especially destructive if you’re any type of influencer), and more.
- Contact with sensitive information: If your phone contains work-related data or access to company accounts, it could result in a breach of sensitive or confidential information. This could in turn lead to you losing your job (for example, I couldn’t imagine the government being too happy with an employee who had confidential documents stolen from them).
- Phishing scams: Not only is losing your phone a danger to you, but it’s also a danger to your friends and family. A not-so-dashing scoundrel could use your phone to send phishing messages to your contacts, posing as you to trick them into giving up personal information or money. Since this affects your loved ones, I highly encourage you to take losing your phone seriously and make sure you follow my guide to minimize the risk to them (and yourself, of course).
How to Protect Your New (or Next) Phone
You’ll need to ensure you’re properly protecting your new phone. You can’t make yourself immune to phone theft, but there are some steps you can take to dramatically reduce the risk of serious consequences if a thief does get ahold of your new phone.
- Set up a strong passcode: A strong passcode is your first line of defense. Avoid simple combinations like “1234” if you’re using a PIN code, or easy-to-guess patterns. Instead, opt for a longer passcode or use a biometric option like a fingerprint scan if available.
- Enable two-factor authentication (2FA): 2FA makes it so that if someone tries logging into your accounts, it requires a second form of authentication. For any apps or accounts that support it, enabling two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security. This way, even if the thief gets your logins, once you’ve locked and wiped your phone they can’t use them. It buys you time to rotate your passwords.
- Regularly back up your data: Whether you use your carrier’s backup options or a good antivirus backup feature, regularly backing up your data ensures that you won’t lose important information if your phone is lost or stolen. When you get a new phone, you can just import all of your backed-up data.
- Download a password manager: Password managers are used to store and easily manage the passwords you use for every app on your phone. They make it so you can easily change your passwords. On top of that, a password manager like 1Password can be used to create passkeys for apps. This extends the security benefits of biometric logins to your sensitive apps, rather than just your lock screen. On most phone and browser password managers, anyone with physical access to the device can log into your accounts. Password managers are safer because they require a master password or biometric input (and have strong encryption and a host of other security features).
- Use identity monitoring tools: Tools like Norton LifeLock can help monitor your personal information across various platforms and alert you to suspicious activity, such as unauthorized attempts to access your accounts, changes to your credit score, or suspicious activity regarding your social security number. Note that LifeLock is only available in a few countries, so if you’re not in the US, New Zealand, or Australia, you might want to check out McAfee’s identity monitoring service instead.
- Install a good mobile antivirus: There are some great antiviruses for Android and iOS, and many will come with anti-theft tools that make it harder to steal from you. These tools can include remote locking, locating, and wiping of your device. Norton also has a unique feature that takes screenshots of anyone who attempts to log into your phone, plus it emits a loud screaming noise to deter people from trying to rob you.
- Learn martial arts: This way you can fend off — just kidding. I don’t recommend confronting thieves, so your best tip for avoiding theft is to exercise caution and follow the tips above.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can someone who stole my phone use my credit cards?
Yes, if your phone was stolen and you have any cards linked with apps like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, or even stored card details in apps or browsers, the thief could potentially use them. Even worse, if your banking username and password are stored on your phone, the crook could use them to log into your bank and cause even more damage.
But don’t panic. If you think your phone is stolen, follow my guide to ensure that you’ve covered all of your bases. That way, you have the best chance of avoiding any potential financial harm the thief could cause.
Why does having my phone stolen affect friends and family?
If your phone is stolen, the rogue may gain access to your contacts, messages, and social media accounts. This could lead to phishing attacks or impersonation scams targeting your friends and family.
For example, whoever stole it could use your accounts to send messages asking for money or personal information. Another common tactic is to send links to fraudulent websites. Although this is usually done by hackers who steal your accounts from afar, it could still happen if someone physically takes it. Once you’ve confirmed your phone is stolen, let your friends and family know.
How does an antivirus help with a stolen phone?
Top antiviruses come with security tools that help protect you if your phone is stolen. Norton’s mobile app comes with standard features such as remote location, wiping, and erasing, plus several advanced anti-theft tools. If a criminal picks up your phone, Norton’s Sneak Peak feature will take a snapshot of the thief’s face, so you can see who has it. You can also set your phone to emit a loud screaming noise to deter would-be rogues from grabbing it.
The identity monitoring tools offered by antiviruses like Norton and McAfee are also very helpful when monitoring your accounts. Once you’ve finished the immediate steps you should take after getting robbed, you should use identity monitoring tools to make sure thieves don’t use your info to attack you.
Should I try to find my stolen phone?
Yes, but NEVER confront a thief. I’m not one to usually yell like that, but directly confronting a thief could lead to serious physical injuries or worse. Even if you’re as strong as an action movie hero and think you could take them on via brute force, you never know if they have a weapon.
But there are times when you should try to find it. It’s totally reasonable to locate your phone remotely. There’s even a good chance your phone wasn’t nabbed and it’s just lost. In these cases, I’d encourage you to go grab it before someone else does.
If your phone was stolen, follow my guide to make sure that you minimize any harm you might suffer (contacting the authorities is step 8, so I promise we’ll try to get it back without putting you in danger).
