One of the misfortunes that can happen to us as users is having our phone stolen, so it may be interesting to know how to block a stolen iPhone in this case.
There are two ways to block a stolen iPhone effectively, which are completely complementary and highly recommended. If you want to know how you can do it, we advise you to continue reading this article.
How to lock a stolen iPhone through your carrier
All phones have an IMEI, also known as an International Mobile Equipment Identity. Let’s say that it is something similar to an ID of each phone sold in the world that is only assigned to this device and that serves to identify it worldwide.
When a mobile phone is stolen or lost, one of the possibilities is that we have to report it to our telephone company so that it can proceed to block that IMEI and that it cannot be used in our country.
Blocking a phone by IMEI is very simple: a police report must be attached indicating that the phone has been stolen and our operator will blacklist it.
Reporting the theft of our phone is beneficial, since it guarantees us that if someone sells it in a second-hand store there is a chance of recovering it, since any store that is dedicated to buying and selling mobile phones (including renewal plans to leave an old phone as part of payment), has the obligation to report the IMEIs they have purchased to the police.
What happens when we block the IMEI of a stolen iPhone?
When a device with a locked IMEI tries to connect to an operator’s network, the operator checks the IMEI against its database. If the IMEI is blacklisted, the operator refuses to connect the device to their network.
An unmistakable symptom of a blocked device is that You will not be able to make calls and send text messages, but you will see that you do browse the internet. This is due to how the GSM telephone network that we use in Spain is built.
We advise that if you are going to buy a second-hand phone, always do a test with your SIM card to verify that it can actually call without any problem.
Does blocking a stolen iPhone by IMEI affect only my carrier?
Normally, reporting the theft to the operator involves blocking only where it is reported, or in some other related operator. And this is even more so in countries that use different telephone networks, such as the United States, which alternates between GSM and CDMA standards.
But in Spain the telephone operators share the Blacklist among themselves: you can include a stolen iPhone in Yoigo, for example, which will also be reported to other operators that have their own network, this blocking affecting third-party companies that rent their services such as OMV (a blocking in Orange would make a Masmóvil card not work either on that iPhone, since they share the same network).
What happens if the iPhone blocked for theft leaves our country?
IMEI blocks in the European Union they only cover the geographic scope of the country where it is blockedso the phone could be used without any problem in third countries.
In fact, thieves often sell stolen phones outside the country where they were stolen, both whole and for spare parts if they are not in good condition.
Although it should not be legal, there is even a market for phones blocked by operators abroad that could be purchased in Spain, as is the case of iPhones blocked as bad ESN / bad IMEI on eBay, although theoretically these have not been stolen.
Can a phone be blocked for reasons other than theft?
In Spain the only reason to block a phone by IMEI by a telephone operator is theft or lossbut as we have said, always accompanied by a police report.
Although this is not the case throughout the world: there are countries such as the United States where operators have the power to block a phone for non-payment by IMEI: when a customer decides not to stop paying for a phone purchased in installments, a fine for it is blocks the terminal by IMEI so that it cannot be used until the payment of the debt is satisfied.
How to lock a stolen iPhone using iCloud
Although there is an IMEI block, one of our concerns may be access to the information we have on our iPhone or that it can be used outside our country. And at that moment, it is when the famous enters Apple iCloud lock at stake, to prevent the phone from being used.
iCloud Lock is a security feature implemented by Apple on its devices that is designed to protect personal information and prevent unauthorized use of the device if it is lost or stolen.
This is based on the iCloud account associated with the device, activating the function Search my Iphone on your iOS device when configuring the device for the first time with our Apple account.
When an iPhone is stolen, this lock allows:
- Prevents the device from being activated by anyone You don’t know the password for the iCloud account associated with the device. Even if the device is restored or tried to set up again, the iCloud password will be required in order to use it.
- Allows the device owner track your location on a map via iCloud servicebeing very important to locate the device in case of loss or theft.
- Use the Erase iPhone feature through iCloud to remotely delete all personal data and restore the device to its factory settings, in order to safeguard our information.
If you want to know more about the iPhone lock and how to activate it, we recommend that you read the official Apple guide where they explain in detail how it works and how you can take advantage of it to lock your stolen iPhone if you find yourself in the situation.
And with this we would conclude our article. We hope you never have to use this information, but if you do need to lock your stolen iPhone, you know how to do it to prevent your data from being held by a third party, as well as to have a small chance of getting your phone back. .
