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Jai
Jagannath,
Tracking a Lost your mobile phone? ( Composed by Preethi )
Here are some steps to follow to recover it. or at least recover
from your loss. You lost your mobile. More than the gadget, you
mourn for the invaluable collection of your contacts, the pricey
downloaded mp3s and photos that you took and never bothered to
upload. At that moment, many feel anger at the theft or misplacing.
They curse the world and its evil ways, gain sympathy from friends
and are, for a few days, totally helpless. While the executive user
may count the number of months before she last synchronized the
phone book with her laptop, the college student would probably grin
at the prospect of getting the latest `cool' mobile on the shelf. If
you don't belong to the latter category, then read this as a guide
that you could follow if you lost your mobile.
1. Go for an FIR : If your handset was
stolen, or you thought you had a chance to get it back, then
register an FIR (First Information Report) at the nearest police
station (nearest to where you lost it/it was stolen). An FIR is a
written document prepared by the police when they receive
information about the commission of a cognizable offence. It sets
the process of criminal justice in motion and is the first step to
begin investigation. While filing the FIR, the details required are:
make and model of the mobile, phone number, description of where you
lost it, and who you think could've stolen it. The police, even in
towns, are usually sympathetic and helpful, but will offer no
guarantee that they can get your mobile back. "For them, the
priority is different," is the understated explanation they offer.
Read the FIR while it is being filled out by the police, sign it and
remember to take a copy of it for later use. Many mobile theft
victims have reported that the police officers coax them into
reporting that the mobile was `misplaced' and not robbed. This would
save them the actual hunt for the `suspect'.
You can also make a complaint to the State Human Rights Commission
or the National Human Rights Commission if the police does nothing
to enforce the law or does it in a biased and corrupt manner.
However, most citizens tend to sigh about the `system' and buy a new
mobile instead of `dealing with bureaucracy'. "It's like if you lost
your spectacles. Would you bother going to the police and reporting
it?" said one mobile user.
2. Deactivation of number : The next
step, or probably the first that many could do, is to call your
cellular operator's service centre, and inform them to deactivate
your number. This is to ensure that the crook or whoever picks up
your phone will be unable to use it for their purpose. In post-paid
mobile connections, this is more common — the misuse could run up
the mobile bill into thousands. Sometimes, it may be better to
inform the operator and ask them to check for any surge in phone
activity before de-activating. This is on the off-hand chance that
an honest person would find your mobile and try to call any of your
contacts. Usually such people call the person you called last and
inform them that your mobile is in their possession.
Once your mobile number is deactivated, ensure that people whom you
expect to call you at that number are informed of its loss. For
reactivation, a fee of Rs 200 (or Rs 250, depending on your carrier)
is charged. It takes between 3-4 days to activate the new SIM card,
since they want to confirm that you are actually the owner of the
mobile phone that is reported lost. So, they ensure that the details
of birth date, address and all that match with that of the database,
before they reactivate it. Pre-paid users may prefer to get another
number instead of reactivating the old one, but corporate and most
white-collar workers would insist on retaining the same number due
to the difficulty of informing their long list of contacts about the
change. Some also have an attachment to the number and may want to
retain it. For those, the service centre of their cellular operator
will offer information on reactivation of the same number. Some
request you to bring the FIR to authenticate your identity. But this
process is also usually bypassed. If you have registered your mobile
at an Internet banking site, then you should inform the bank about
the incident. They will disable your mobile banking facility
immediately. You can always register the number again.
3. Tracking it down : Operators in
India are not yet offering to detect where your mobile is located,
for reasons primarily economic in nature. When approached, a popular
operator said that they were not allowed by law to trace a mobile.
However, cyber law expert Na. Vijayashankar says "It is possible
that some mobile service providers are wrongly interpreting privacy
laws as requiring protection of IMEI numbers. Not using IMEI/IMSI
tracking and blocking is against the concept of Due Diligence, as
per ITA-2000." Operators can track down a mobile if the IMEI number
is known. The GSM Association hosts a server containing all the IMEI
numbers of GSM handsets sold, and divides them into the Black List
and White List, the former being the ones the association has been
informed of misuse or inactivity. Countries can tap into this
database and check with their existing database of call records if
such Black listed handsets are in use in their circles. The
International Mobile Equipment Identity is a unique 15-digit number
to your handset. CDMA phones have an 8-digit Electronic Serial
Number. The mobile is registered with the service provider's network
at this number, and it can be traced every time you make a phone
call from the handset.
Tracking the mobile can be done using information about the tower's
location where it was last seen and zeroing in on the handset with
its IMEI, which would give them a unique target. The operator can
then block the mobile across its GSM network. However, the ability
to disable the handset if it uses another SIM card is not yet
possible. Australia and a few other European countries have enabled
this blocking, by having a centralized database for the country,
with all operators joining hands to fight mobile theft. However, in
a country as huge as India, a central database of all mobile IMEI
numbers, called the equipment identity register, is near to
impossible, say industry experts. Some cellular operators offer the
service for high-profile businessmen, NRIs and on police order (to
track down terrorists and gangsters). The layman, however, will have
to wait a while before the service is offered to them. Australia and
the UK offer this service for free.
4. The 'Hot spots' : On an average,
about 150 mobile phone instruments are either stolen or snatched or
lost in the Chennai Metropolitan Police area. Were you aware that in
any given year, 2 per cent of wireless phones are reported lost,
stolen, or damaged? According to a Spice employee, the operator
receives around 500 police complaints a day in Bangalore alone.
According to Mumbai's Western and Central Railway police records, of
the 669 complaints of mobile thefts registered last year, the
highest incidences had taken place in suburban railway stations.
Other spots where mobile theft is common are cars, theatres, bus
stands, homes and offices.
With people increasingly depending on mobiles as a lifeline, one
simple precaution to ensure the thief does not access your critical
data is to have password locks wherever possible. Also, all buyers
of second-hand mobiles should demand details of previous ownership.
Regards
Nilachakra
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