Stolen Phone - £20 worth of calls made since reported!

skiddy2k

just recieved a phone call from my sister telling me that her phone has been stolen in Whitechapel-London at around 14:40 this afternoon.

she called me and i called tmobile to block the SIM and Phone and they did so.
i asked whether or not any phone calls had been made in the last hour, and there were two phone calls made to Morocco i believe totaling up to £20.

On request, i asked for the telephone numbers that were dialed and have them at hand.

tmobile said that i cannot get any kind of imbursment and the kind lady on the phone gave me the phones imei number to give to the police.

Now, what would the police be able to do with the imei number? i can also tell them the phone numbers that were dialled to 'Morocco and they may be able to trace it.

Is there anything else i can do to stitch up the people that knicked the phone? i have the urge to dial the number, but id prefer not to just incase they dont anwser anymore phonecalls that the police may make-if they're going to take it furthur.

i havent got insurance on the phone.

Has this happened to anyone else? what process and procedures did you have to go through with the police?

Any advice would be appreciated,
Thanks in advance,
Skiddy

P.S. I will be keeping an eye out on ebay to see if i spot it on there!

ka7e

The police, basically, can do nothing. The imei number might be useful to return the phone if it is ever recovered. My daughter had her phone stolen at midnight, in a club. By 2am the thief had rung up over £100 worth of calls to Morocco and premium lines. We had to pay up as the phone was not missed until next morning. When the phones are blocked the thief either dumps them or sells them on. Unfortunately, there are people who will unbar them illegally.

skiddy2k

sorry to hear ka7e, £100 is alot of money to blow on some punk who goes around stealing and using phones!

skiddy2k

i had a look at the 'Moroccan Yellow pages to see if the number the thief's dialed was recognised, but this proved to be a struggle as my french is very basic!

anyone speak or read french fluently?lol

The numbers dialed were
tel. 00212 62 398710 & 0021265156747

someone wil pay for this!!
(apart from me who will have to fork the bill, haha!)

Skiddy

-1-

With the IMEI the phone can be blocked. Yes it's blocked once you rang them, so it's blocked on that perticular sim, but a different sim can be put in and be used, with the IMEI it can be blocked so it won't work at all in the UK.

Not sure if the Network or Police block it though. Maybe it is the police if they gave you the IMEI to call them.

Unless you didn't tell them you didn't have insurance, as if they thought you had insurance, you would need to give the IMEI to the police to get a crime reference number which you give to your insurance company to claim.

Ring your network, ask how to block the phone completeley in the UK, they'll tell you if they do it or the police do it.

fazz

Hope you get the So and So's (expletive deleted!) my son had his phone stolen, but the calls made up to the phone gettimg blocked were to premium lines so no way to trace the caller... the network provider were very reluctant to give me the numbers, even though the police asked me to find them..

Good luck

BTW the network provider blocked the phone completly using the IMEI number

rrwfotr

These so and so's are quite clever their selling them on ebay, you would of thought ebay would ban such items therefore reducing the demand for them. Just checking on ebay a moment ago these phone are going from £50 - £250!!!

skiddy2k

i asked tmobile to block the sim and the phone aswell.
you do not need to get the police to do this, the network can do it for you.

im thinking of bombarding this number with telesales and junk calls on there. Its the best i can think of!

anyone got any other idea's?? wud be excellent to know

Yes.....revenge is sweet!


Skiddy

pufferfish_2

Sorry to hear about your sister's loss Skiddy.

The sad truth is that £20 of unauthorised calls is simply not worth the time of the police to investigate. There are many groups of organised criminals pick pocketing in London (and every major city in the world, for that matter) and the chances are, your sister's phone is probably on its way to Morocco itself. These crooks steal phones to be sold on.
Yes, eBay is a market where blocked phones can be bought. I can tell you that the major croooks deal in hundreds of phones at a time, so they don't use eBay.

IMEI blocking databases of stolen UK phones are only shared amongst the UK networks. This means that your sister's phone just has to be taken across the Channel and it has a new lease of lif - anywhere in Europe or the rest of the world.

Personally, I wouldn't bother with revenge. What is the point? Let's say you mangage to find out the phone number in Morocco, then what will you do? Even if you have a name, what use is it? Do you really think the authorities there are going to cooperate?

Just cut your losses and move on, if I were you.

Rikki

-1- wrote:

With the IMEI the phone can be blocked. Yes it's blocked once you rang them, so it's blocked on that perticular sim, but a different sim can be put in and be used, with the IMEI it can be blocked so it won't work at all in the UK.

Not sure if the Network or Police block it though. Maybe it is the police if they gave you the IMEI to call them.

Unless you didn't tell them you didn't have insurance, as if they thought you had insurance, you would need to give the IMEI to the police to get a crime reference number which you give to your insurance company to claim.

Ring your network, ask how to block the phone completeley in the UK, they'll tell you if they do it or the police do it.

I have a contract phone. I have a sim lock and a phone lock on my phone. When it was stolen I blocked the sim within 20 minutes (lucky no calls) and if the phone is turned off and a new sim card used it will ask for the phone lock as well as their sim number. Making it totally useless.

nearlyrich

I left my phone in a taxi last year, the person who found it kindly ran up £166 in calls to Pakistan within an hour of me losing it. When I called the taxi firm just after I got home they said the driver had gone off shift. I don't use that firm anymore...

Fortunately my company let me off the charges.