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Stolen Phone & Keeping Plan

Alejandra
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Hi all,

 

My phone was unfortunately stolen a couple of days ago. It's an iPhone, so I can track it using the Find My iPhone feature, but in order for it to work the phone needs to be connected to the internet.  The thief knows this, and has kept the phone off except for a brief 5 minute period when it went online.

 

I understand that PM will let me suspend my account with them, which is great except that if I suspend the account and the thief turns on the phone it won't have data, won't connect to the internet and I won't be able to track the stolen phone.  

 

So now I'm faced with either continuing to pay the $42 per month in the hopes that the thief turns on my phone, or cancel my data plan, get a new phone and adios to the stolen one. The thief probably knows this, and is happy to wait a few weeks for me to cancel my data plan. It would be great if PM had an option to deal with this sort of a situation.  Is there a way to maintain my data plan on my stolen phone so that if it gets turned on I can track it?  Would they do this as a courtesy if I get a new phone and just keep the stolen phone live in case it's turned on?  Or is there a pay-per-use plan I could switch the stolen phone to and transfer my regular 4.5 MB plan to a new phone?

19 REPLIES 19

Anonymous
Not applicable

@interceptor1001 wrote:

can you activate my new sim card and transfer the balance from my old one to new one


 @interceptor1001 

While you're waiting for the moderator that has connected with you...you can do all this yourself. You've lost your phone. Go into your self-serve and call it lost. Go buy a new SIM. Go into your self-serve and call it found. Then use the Change SIM feature to change the SIM card to the new one you just bought. Restart the new phone with the new SIM. No balance transfer needed.

Done.

CS_Agent
Customer Support Agent

Hello @interceptor1001

 

Can you please send us a private message in regards to this issue? 

 

Thank you! 

interceptor1001
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

can you activate my new sim card and transfer the balance from my old one to new one

@Alejandra

Its actually far easier than you think

Blacklist is only Canada + USA wide. Those stolen phones often end up in Caribbean, Africa, east Europe or Asia

But even assuming for a second can hack / wipe the phone

Unless you have a brand new iPhone XS or something, its usually worth more money as parts

So they will break down the phone and sell battery, screen etc (think chop shop) as the entire phone is basically recyclable and the sum of all parts + labour is normally worth more than selling the used phone

 


@Alejandra wrote:

Yes, there's a passcode on it and it's in "lost" mode.  Seem like it would be useless to a thief really (and is a complete pain for me, lost photos, notes, contacts, etc).  I guess the thief could take the SIM out and that disables data.  It would only connect to my wifi networks like Shaw Open, so maybe there is a slim chance of that happening.  I think it's very difficult to wipe a stolen phone and use it without my Apple ID and password.  Not really sure what the best thing to do is - hope he turns it on in the next week and it connects to 3G and gives me a location I guess (but as I said, if he's taken out the SIM card it won't connect to 3G).  Totally sucks.


 

While your service is suspended you are still paying for service. Suspend does not extend your monthly date.

 

Chances are the thief has already removed your SIM card from the stolen phone and inserted a new one (or taken phone apart for parts). If they had wanted to use your SIM to make calls etc would already have done so. (many use stolen SIMs to make international dialing which Public does not support)

 

Even assuming for a moment you could find your phone, now what? Walk up to a house / apartment / condo and? You can't break door down (even if you could you might be outnumbered inside) and police will not do anything in this case (small claims court at best)

 

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@Pattara wrote:

my phone was stolen, and i haven't had a chance to create an account, now to create an account to report my cell stolen, i need to put my cell number for them to send me a code, but i don't have my phone. i would really like to keep my plan, but i need to purchase a new phine which i will need to wait till i have my cheque come in.


@Pattara I'd suggest you reach out to the moderator team for assitance.  You can find the details here:  https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Knowledge-Base/How-to-Get-Help/ta-p/251745


>>> ALERT: I am not a moderator. For account or activation assistance, please click here.

Pattara
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

my phone was stolen, and i haven't had a chance to create an account, now to create an account to report my cell stolen, i need to put my cell number for them to send me a code, but i don't have my phone. i would really like to keep my plan, but i need to purchase a new phine which i will need to wait till i have my cheque come in.

Javatyger
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

Hi there,

 

that really sucks your iPhon got stolen, as I’ve had this happen to me as well, but I was able to recover mine quickly; I got some tips that’ll help:

- first, login to Find my iPhone and make it as lost/stolen, this will prevent anyone from using your phone without the passcode, and will also prevent it from being restored and activated on another carrier (aka also blacklists it as well). This will also track your iPhone the moment it gets turned back on and connected to the internet (via wifi or cellular). 

- second, make sure you also turned on notifications as well, that way Apple will notify you if it’s ever connects to the internet. It’s better to have a plan on it, but you also don’t want anyone Trying to use it. You could just add a base plan to it, so it has a cellular connection, but the iPhone will try and connect to wifi on its own all the the time, to send its location to you when in lost mode. 

 

Good luck and and I hope you find it. 😊

 

Lonnie. 

Sorry, to be the bearer of bad news, but is all likelhood, you're not going to get your phone back.

 

Are you certain it was stolen, as in you caught someone pickpocketing you?  If there's a chance that it may have been dropped on the ground and someone finds it, the most you can hope is that someone brings it into a police station as lost property.

 

If the phone was misplaced, suspending the service and locking out the phone would prevent someone from figuring out how to contact you to try to return it.

 

Personally, I would not keep the service active for any reason if you don't know where the phone is.  The last thing you want is someone using the phone for potentially illegal purposes and having the police start questioning you when you'v done nothing wrong.

 

As for wanting to keep data active so you can locate the phone, even if you locate it, what are you going to do?  If the phone is truly stolen, it is proabably very unwise to confront someone with possible connections to the criminal elements. 

 

As mentioned earlier, my advice would also be to move on, blacklist the device, and passcode lock it so that no one can use that device (although they could still use the parts in it).

Alejandra
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@stonechucker wrote:

I'm sure it's any connection to data, so if the WiFi is ever used (ie a free hotspot) it should still get the signal out.

 

If you have a passcode on it, that may not work as the thief may not be able to bypass it.

 

The find my iPhone should give you a last known location - that would be a start.  Then you can work with the police on it.


Yes, there's a passcode on it and it's in "lost" mode.  Seem like it would be useless to a thief really (and is a complete pain for me, lost photos, notes, contacts, etc).  I guess the thief could take the SIM out and that disables data.  It would only connect to my wifi networks like Shaw Open, so maybe there is a slim chance of that happening.  I think it's very difficult to wipe a stolen phone and use it without my Apple ID and password.  Not really sure what the best thing to do is - hope he turns it on in the next week and it connects to 3G and gives me a location I guess (but as I said, if he's taken out the SIM card it won't connect to 3G).  Totally sucks.

pakmode
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@PJC wrote:

Sorry to hear about your stolen phone.

 

Chances are, it will be very difficult to retrieve your phone even if you had access to the Find my Phone. If I were you, I could cut my loses and purchase a new Public Mobile SIM card and transfer your plan to the new SIM card. Keep 

 

If you are determined and want to still give it a shot with the thief turning on your phone, what you can do is switch your plan to the most basic plan ($10 plan with 50 mins) and also purchase a data addon (either 200MB for $10 or 1GB for $30, these data addon packages do not expire and will be active until the alloted data is used up). 

 

 


+1

 

This is a creative and good plan of attack to hunt down your phone. 

Ugghhh... got pulled away from typing my reply - so many good answers here.

 

Still, I think the wifi data connection if they have access will help you out.

stonechucker
Mayor / Maire

I'm sure it's any connection to data, so if the WiFi is ever used (ie a free hotspot) it should still get the signal out.

 

If you have a passcode on it, that may not work as the thief may not be able to bypass it.

 

The find my iPhone should give you a last known location - that would be a start.  Then you can work with the police on it.

will13am
Oracle
Oracle

@Alejandra, worse case you can ask to have the phone blacklisted.

Alejandra
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@PJC wrote:

Sorry to hear about your stolen phone.

 

Chances are, it will be very difficult to retrieve your phone even if you had access to the Find my Phone. If I were you, I could cut my loses and purchase a new Public Mobile SIM card and transfer your plan to the new SIM card. Keep 

 

If you are determined and want to still give it a shot with the thief turning on your phone, what you can do is switch your plan to the most basic plan ($10 plan with 50 mins) and also purchase a data addon (either 200MB for $10 or 1GB for $30, these data addon packages do not expire and will be active until the alloted data is used up). 

 

 



Thanks for this, that's helpful information. 

PJC
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Sorry to hear about your stolen phone.

 

Chances are, it will be very difficult to retrieve your phone even if you had access to the Find my Phone. If I were you, I could cut my loses and purchase a new Public Mobile SIM card and transfer your plan to the new SIM card. Keep 

 

If you are determined and want to still give it a shot with the thief turning on your phone, what you can do is switch your plan to the most basic plan ($10 plan with 50 mins) and also purchase a data addon (either 200MB for $10 or 1GB for $30, these data addon packages do not expire and will be active until the alloted data is used up). 

 

 

cappaj
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

@popping wrote:

@Alejandra

Report stolen phone online to suspend your plan.

 

Plan and Add-Ons --> Lost/Stolen Phone


Some details from that page to consider before you click the "Suspend Service" button:

 

"If your phone is lost or stolen, you can suspend your service until you find your phone. Once it's found, return to this page to resume your service. 

If your account is suspended for more than 90 days, your account will be deactivated and you'll lose your phone number. "

 

Which won't help if you still want the phone to be able to connect to data.

ShawnC13
Oracle
Oracle

@Alejandra, so whoever stole your phone has your password and can unlock your phone?  Once you click the lost or stolen phone I beleive it deactivates the SIM and there will be no data or calling out.  I think it comes down to the choice is yours keep paying this bill in hopes of finding your phone but not having an active line yourself or you cancel the sim and replace your phone and get a new sim to activate your current line onto.

 


I am happy to help, but I am not a Customer Support Agent please do not include any personal info in a message to me. Click HERE to create a trouble ticket through SIMon the Chatbot *

popping
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@Alejandra

Report stolen phone online to suspend your plan.

 

Plan and Add-Ons --> Lost/Stolen Phone

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