Phone Location Tracking

[Jtalk4456]

Without having installed an app beforehand, is there anyway to track a phone by calling it? My wife thinks someone stole her phone

[aezakmi]

call the company and report it

[Jtalk4456]

1 minute ago, aezakmi said:

call the company and report it

i did, they claim they have no way to track it and i need to pay off that phone and buy a new one...

[seon123]

Android device manager or find my iPhone? 

[Jtalk4456]

1 minute ago, seon123 said:

Android device manager or find my iPhone? 

only works with wifi on

 

[aezakmi]

1 minute ago, Jtalk4456 said:

i did, they claim they have no way to track it and i need to pay off that phone and buy a new one...

they could blacklist the IMSI number or something so the phone can't be used for data/calls, I don't know if that's how it works in your place

 

of course there are ways to get around this that I'm not going to post here of course.

but the fact is that most thieves will just steal and then sell phones in the black market to get drugs or whatever

[GoodBytes]

All smartphones (and Windows 10 PCs) have a "Find my Phone" feature ("Find my Device" in the case of Windows 10)

• Google: https://myaccount.google.com/intro/find-your-phone
• Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/explore/find-my-iphone-ipad-mac-watch
• Windows 10 / Windows 10 Mobile: https://account.microsoft.com/devices

Just login, and you'll see the device last known location.

[Jtalk4456]

1 minute ago, GoodBytes said:

All smartphones (and Windows 10 PCs) have a "Find my Phone"

• Google: https://myaccount.google.com/intro/find-your-phone
• Apple: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/explore/find-my-iphone-ipad-mac-watch
• Windows 10 / Windows 10 Mobile: https://account.microsoft.com/devices

Just login, and you'll see the device last known location.

that requires internet connection

[GoodBytes]

22 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

that requires internet connection

Ah well.

'cause the thing, is, technically you CAN track a phone by calling it.  In the sense, that you can know which antenna the phone is using, and based on signal strength, know vaguely where one is. But that is not something, at least I don't think, that carriers have. While maybe the FBI has equipment they they can add to carrier equipment to add this ability (which already faced a lot of controversy), it is not something that the police has access to, and even if they did, I think they are more interested in using it to track critical situations like a potential terrorist,  than a lost phone.

[GoodBytes]

23 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

that requires internet connection

Another idea, if the phone goes on WiFI, then you can see its last location. It might not be ideal, as the WiFi must be one that was connected before to have that WiFi password, but, if the lost phone is at locations it had WiFi access before and not sure where amongst a choice, than this is a starting point. But if not, and it only connected from Home, it will probably show you the home address on the map.

[Jtalk4456]

thanks for all the responses. Thankfully the phone was found, however I am left with more questions than answers. So apparently she dropped it in the parking lot at work somewhere. It was found by the janitor in one of the trash cans in the parking lot. So someone saw it, picked it up, decided to not turn it in in case someone was looking and didn't sell it on the black market for money, just decided, "eh, i don't need it, i'll just toss it in the trash..."

so confused

[Egg-Roll]

5 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

thanks for all the responses. Thankfully the phone was found, however I am left with more questions than answers. So apparently she dropped it in the parking lot at work somewhere. It was found by the janitor in one of the trash cans in the parking lot. So someone saw it, picked it up, decided to not turn it in in case someone was looking and didn't sell it on the black market for money, just decided, "eh, i don't need it, i'll just toss it in the trash..."

so confused

I found a windows phone (nokia) a while back at a bus terminal at 4:30am, took it to work would have charged it to see if I could try contact someone in the list about finding the phone(using my phone obviously). Thanks to Nokias "must feel as special as Apple with ports" I was unable to charge the phone, so I looked at the sim card and handed it in to the phone provider at the local mall...

 

I could have given it to the bus driver (too early for a assistant worker who idles at the terminal during rush hour), but that would have been handed down to their supervisor than to the L&F at their office which was a good hours bus trip away. I found the phone near the mall I dropped it off so there is a chance it is at least local or family/friend is local, and could be back in their hands inside of the day.

 

The person who put your wifes phone in the trash just sounds like a dick... esp if the phone is locked with security measures and didn't think it was worth their time trying to gain access...

[Jtalk4456]

25 minutes ago, Egg-Roll said:

I found a windows phone (nokia) a while back at a bus terminal at 4:30am, took it to work would have charged it to see if I could try contact someone in the list about finding the phone(using my phone obviously). Thanks to Nokias "must feel as special as Apple with ports" I was unable to charge the phone, so I looked at the sim card and handed it in to the phone provider at the local mall...

 

I could have given it to the bus driver (too early for a assistant worker who idles at the terminal during rush hour), but that would have been handed down to their supervisor than to the L&F at their office which was a good hours bus trip away. I found the phone near the mall I dropped it off so there is a chance it is at least local or family/friend is local, and could be back in their hands inside of the day.

 

The person who put your wifes phone in the trash just sounds like a dick... esp if the phone is locked with security measures and didn't think it was worth their time trying to gain access...

well my problem isn't them being a dick. I get some people finding a phone and wanting to steal it and use/sell it. Don't condone it but I know that's a thing. What I don't get is the logic... They found a phone, they realized they didn't care enough to turn it in. But they weren't quite a dick enough to steal it. So they just said screw this, and threw it in the trash instead. If they didn't want to be nice and didn't want to be a dick, why even pick it up???? I'm just confused