* If your phone is stolen, you should inform your service provider's customer service team immediately. This will allow them to block any further calls from being made using your SIM card. It is important that you take this step as soon as you realise that your phone has been stolen, as thieves often use stolen phones to make large numbers of high cost calls. In many cases, the owner of the phone is responsible for the charges that result from these calls up until the time at which the phone is reported stolen to the service provider.
* Some service providers operate technology that allows them to add a stolen phone to a blacklist. Once added to the blacklist the stolen phone is no longer able to access the service provider's network. If you are reporting a stolen phone, ask your service provider if they offer a blacklisting service for the phone itself as well as for the SIM card. If they do, they will require the IMEI number of your phone in order to add the phone to the blacklist. If you have a note of this number, you should provide this to your service provider at the same time as reporting the phone stolen. In some countries, all mobile service providers participate in blacklisting schemes and share the IMEI numbers of stolen phones with one another. This ensures that a phone reported as stolen by a customer of one service provider cannot be used on that network or any of the other networks in that country.
* You should report the theft to the police. If your phone is covered by an insurance policy then you may need to obtain a reference number from the police in order to make an insurance claim.
