Directly lifted from kill911.blogspot.com
Well Losing a phone is bad.But losing an expensive smartphone is even worst.Apart from the obvious loss of loads of personal data which lazy bums like us never backup,There is the cost of the handset itself which are becoming as expensive as some very impressive notebooks.
To cater to this wide niche of ex android users,Android market offers many apps which promise to do loads of things like sending sms to wipe your cellphone,locking a phone or even positioning your last droid on the map.
But accidents are not planned.You may lose your phone the day you bought it. Research(Having no statistical basis obviously) has shown that 80% users who install "Lost phone" (Which BTW is an excellent freeware)do it after they have lost an android phone,and now are on to their second droid .
I will here talk about the second group of users who had an acute "Unplanned" loss of their android phone.
This method does work,there is a one in 10 billion chance that it will work,but still as they say something better then nothing.
Apart from Filing an FIR and twiddling of your thumbs,can you do anything else? Yes you can, and Yes this method works,Because it did work for a very good friend of mine.Obviously the idea was mine.
Thanks to google for the smashing integration between the services on the phone and the web.
Pre Requisites:
1)The person who found your phone/Stole your phone should be either
A)Literate but long term Nokia 3310 user/dim sum lover
B)Literate but noob enough not to know how to setup his own google account on the phone
2)Also there should be No lock code/pattern code/Pin lock set on your phone.
3)There should be active Email Syncing/Contacts syncing on.
Let us accept the fact.Most mobile snatchers wont even know how to unlock an android phone,leave alone how to use it. The person who "took" my friend's cellphone did not even manage to unlock it.But he was obviously smart enough to pull out the battery and also broke the battery cover in progress.
Step 1: The Gmail TRAP
Ok.If you own an android 90% chance is that you have put your own google/yahoo/whatever account to sync with it.
So when your phone gets stolen and even if the sim card is changed,The sync will mostly go on(Nowadays most service providers in india provide GPRS/Edge services by default).To know if your phone is still syncing please do the following:
DO NOT access Your GMAIL account from any Mobile Based Browser/Thunderbird/Mobile Phone/POP3/IMAP till this exercise is over,You may use the browser www access aaram se.
a)Open your Gmail Main page
b)There is a link(pretty small) at the bottom saying "Last account activity:xx minutes ago:details".Please open the details.
This show you the IP address and the type of access that has been made with that particular account.Check if it says IMAP(for Gmail accounts) or POP3.Also make note of the time and date the access was made.
DONT click the option "Check out from all accounts".
If an IMAP access was made after your phone was nicked then the chance that u can get your cell back increases by a measly 0.303%
Open a New email account/or use an alternative one.But make sure the email account name sounds impressive. something like "districtcourt_tishazari" or "Police_Indiagate"
Next compose an official looking email.Keep the subject line something impressive like "FIR registered P/S Tilak NAGAR"
The email should be composed of two sections.1st in Hinglish(ie write hindi in english. Then in pure english.That is two "notifications" identical but differing in their language approach.Make it look like something police wallahs/Babus will write
Include the following features in your email:
-mention the date of registration of FIR and The police station name
-Mention the model no,IMEI no and most importantly color,phone type etc
-mention that the details have been sent to all nearby P/S and all service providers
-mention some new fangled tech like Cell ID triangulation/GPS
-mention the fact that the email sender/authorities (ie you) are not interested in the device itself but rather in the data in the device.This might throw him off guard
-mention the consequences what he will face
-most importantly, in the end mention about the reward... for ex.
"If you have come in possesion of this device by mistake,or stumbled upon it somewhere,pls contact phone no. xxxxxxxxxx(your alternate mobile no here)If the device is returned,The FIR will be withdrawn and The person will be rewarded suitably minimum Rs.xxxx
-mention the contact no(alternate phone no that u have) to be called for reward in case the phone is found.
Send the composed email to your own email account which was active in your phone.When you go to your original inbox please for god sake dont open that particular message/Email.It should be left unread!
Now I know we talked about how the person stealing your android phone does not know how to operate it.But then he is also human and is prone to learning about his new precious Gadget.Or he may show it to his semi knowledgable cousin(complete with a black mole on cheek and balding pate) in gaffar market for a price evaluation.
Whatever happens,That "one new email" in the notification bar looks pretty inviting.And once he opens that mail,You are in the game!
2 things might happen.He may either contact you to give the phone back which is strangely exciting but quite slim actual manifestations of the chores that you may have done. Most likely he will dispose the phone,sell it burn it,whatever.
But still we live in a world where the glass is always half full.
STEP 2: Contacts Sync
Again here we are supposing your phone was actively syncing your phone contacts with your gmail address book.
Earlier we discussed about how our new friend was discovering the new ways he can enjoy his new droid. Ofcourse the 1st thing he learns is how to add his best friend(remember our gaffar market Friend with a mole and shady eyes)phone no to the address book.Then he might add his jiju's phone no,His friend's like suresh,Mahesh or maybe jignesh(if gujju)
And here we are sitting on a PC happily noting this development.Right.
Wait for 24 hours for him to respond to your email(Step 1).If still he does not,print out a list of your gmail contacts ,Mark those that are not yours in BOLD letters,And start calling them(I say start with suresh. Request,Threaten,Bargain ,offer. This is the real PR training friends.
If sun sets in the east,and he actually contacts you to give back your cellphone,DONT panic him By shouting,cursing,whatever.Thank him profusely,promise him a reward and agree to meet in a neutral but public place.A metro station works just fine. Take a copy of the FIR but most importantly take a friend(preferably stockily built)to the meeting place . Even when you meet him,Please dont abuse him and dont call him a thief. Do give him the reward you promised him (10% of the phone's cost is good enough),Also tear the copy of FIR you brought and assure him you wont take any police action.And say good bye.
V Imp.: Next stop at Police station where you registered the FIR.Go there and tell them that you want to cancel the complaint as the phone was found by a good citizen and duly returned to you. Or the Service providers may eventually block your own cellphone thanks to your own complaint.prety infuriating to say the least.:S
Chances are these methods will not work for you.if they do work then thank your stars,offer 51 Rs ka prashad at the santoshi mata/sai baba temple and next time buy some cheaper phones.You clearly are not good enough to possess/use expensive ones.
Note: There are other avenues that may be explored like "latitude",maybe some social apps. Also some space age anti theft apps actually allow you to install their application after your phone is lost/stolen.Pretty awesome I say.
p.s.I got a friend's P500 back by this method.(I never needed the step 2).The back cover was broken,The screen quite scratched but the phone still usable.I rewarded the "gentleman" with 700 bucks.He was embarassed and said sheepishly "Yeh to mera farz tha". My friend wanted to kill him there only.But I reasoned with him.After all we need more android noob thieves in this dystopian world...
p.s. 2 : No disrespect meant to anyone named Suresh,Jignesh, or anyone working in Gaffar market, or anyone with black mole,shady eyes or balding pate..
Regards,
aka.
Well Losing a phone is bad.But losing an expensive smartphone is even worst.Apart from the obvious loss of loads of personal data which lazy bums like us never backup,There is the cost of the handset itself which are becoming as expensive as some very impressive notebooks.
To cater to this wide niche of ex android users,Android market offers many apps which promise to do loads of things like sending sms to wipe your cellphone,locking a phone or even positioning your last droid on the map.
But accidents are not planned.You may lose your phone the day you bought it. Research(Having no statistical basis obviously) has shown that 80% users who install "Lost phone" (Which BTW is an excellent freeware)do it after they have lost an android phone,and now are on to their second droid .
I will here talk about the second group of users who had an acute "Unplanned" loss of their android phone.
This method does work,there is a one in 10 billion chance that it will work,but still as they say something better then nothing.
Apart from Filing an FIR and twiddling of your thumbs,can you do anything else? Yes you can, and Yes this method works,Because it did work for a very good friend of mine.Obviously the idea was mine.
Thanks to google for the smashing integration between the services on the phone and the web.
Pre Requisites:
1)The person who found your phone/Stole your phone should be either
A)Literate but long term Nokia 3310 user/dim sum lover
B)Literate but noob enough not to know how to setup his own google account on the phone
2)Also there should be No lock code/pattern code/Pin lock set on your phone.
3)There should be active Email Syncing/Contacts syncing on.
Let us accept the fact.Most mobile snatchers wont even know how to unlock an android phone,leave alone how to use it. The person who "took" my friend's cellphone did not even manage to unlock it.But he was obviously smart enough to pull out the battery and also broke the battery cover in progress.
Step 1: The Gmail TRAP
Ok.If you own an android 90% chance is that you have put your own google/yahoo/whatever account to sync with it.
So when your phone gets stolen and even if the sim card is changed,The sync will mostly go on(Nowadays most service providers in india provide GPRS/Edge services by default).To know if your phone is still syncing please do the following:
DO NOT access Your GMAIL account from any Mobile Based Browser/Thunderbird/Mobile Phone/POP3/IMAP till this exercise is over,You may use the browser www access aaram se.
a)Open your Gmail Main page
b)There is a link(pretty small) at the bottom saying "Last account activity:xx minutes ago:details".Please open the details.
This show you the IP address and the type of access that has been made with that particular account.Check if it says IMAP(for Gmail accounts) or POP3.Also make note of the time and date the access was made.
DONT click the option "Check out from all accounts".
If an IMAP access was made after your phone was nicked then the chance that u can get your cell back increases by a measly 0.303%
Open a New email account/or use an alternative one.But make sure the email account name sounds impressive. something like "districtcourt_tishazari" or "Police_Indiagate"
Next compose an official looking email.Keep the subject line something impressive like "FIR registered P/S Tilak NAGAR"
The email should be composed of two sections.1st in Hinglish(ie write hindi in english. Then in pure english.That is two "notifications" identical but differing in their language approach.Make it look like something police wallahs/Babus will write
Include the following features in your email:
-mention the date of registration of FIR and The police station name
-Mention the model no,IMEI no and most importantly color,phone type etc
-mention that the details have been sent to all nearby P/S and all service providers
-mention some new fangled tech like Cell ID triangulation/GPS
-mention the fact that the email sender/authorities (ie you) are not interested in the device itself but rather in the data in the device.This might throw him off guard
-mention the consequences what he will face
-most importantly, in the end mention about the reward... for ex.
"If you have come in possesion of this device by mistake,or stumbled upon it somewhere,pls contact phone no. xxxxxxxxxx(your alternate mobile no here)If the device is returned,The FIR will be withdrawn and The person will be rewarded suitably minimum Rs.xxxx
-mention the contact no(alternate phone no that u have) to be called for reward in case the phone is found.
Send the composed email to your own email account which was active in your phone.When you go to your original inbox please for god sake dont open that particular message/Email.It should be left unread!
Now I know we talked about how the person stealing your android phone does not know how to operate it.But then he is also human and is prone to learning about his new precious Gadget.Or he may show it to his semi knowledgable cousin(complete with a black mole on cheek and balding pate) in gaffar market for a price evaluation.
Whatever happens,That "one new email" in the notification bar looks pretty inviting.And once he opens that mail,You are in the game!
2 things might happen.He may either contact you to give the phone back which is strangely exciting but quite slim actual manifestations of the chores that you may have done. Most likely he will dispose the phone,sell it burn it,whatever.
But still we live in a world where the glass is always half full.
STEP 2: Contacts Sync
Again here we are supposing your phone was actively syncing your phone contacts with your gmail address book.
Earlier we discussed about how our new friend was discovering the new ways he can enjoy his new droid. Ofcourse the 1st thing he learns is how to add his best friend(remember our gaffar market Friend with a mole and shady eyes)phone no to the address book.Then he might add his jiju's phone no,His friend's like suresh,Mahesh or maybe jignesh(if gujju)
And here we are sitting on a PC happily noting this development.Right.
Wait for 24 hours for him to respond to your email(Step 1).If still he does not,print out a list of your gmail contacts ,Mark those that are not yours in BOLD letters,And start calling them(I say start with suresh
. Request,Threaten,Bargain ,offer. This is the real PR training friends.If sun sets in the east,and he actually contacts you to give back your cellphone,DONT panic him By shouting,cursing,whatever.Thank him profusely,promise him a reward and agree to meet in a neutral but public place.A metro station works just fine. Take a copy of the FIR but most importantly take a friend(preferably stockily built)to the meeting place . Even when you meet him,Please dont abuse him and dont call him a thief. Do give him the reward you promised him (10% of the phone's cost is good enough),Also tear the copy of FIR you brought and assure him you wont take any police action.And say good bye.
V Imp.: Next stop at Police station where you registered the FIR.Go there and tell them that you want to cancel the complaint as the phone was found by a good citizen and duly returned to you. Or the Service providers may eventually block your own cellphone thanks to your own complaint.prety infuriating to say the least.:S
Chances are these methods will not work for you.if they do work then thank your stars,offer 51 Rs ka prashad at the santoshi mata/sai baba temple and next time buy some cheaper phones.You clearly are not good enough to possess/use expensive ones.
Note: There are other avenues that may be explored like "latitude",maybe some social apps. Also some space age anti theft apps actually allow you to install their application after your phone is lost/stolen.Pretty awesome I say.
p.s.I got a friend's P500 back by this method.(I never needed the step 2).The back cover was broken,The screen quite scratched but the phone still usable.I rewarded the "gentleman" with 700 bucks.He was embarassed and said sheepishly "Yeh to mera farz tha". My friend wanted to kill him there only.But I reasoned with him.After all we need more android noob thieves in this dystopian world...
p.s. 2 : No disrespect meant to anyone named Suresh,Jignesh, or anyone working in Gaffar market, or anyone with black mole,shady eyes or balding pate..
Regards,
aka.
