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Finding the location of a cell phone?

 
town drunk
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Does anyone know of a site/mechanism/whatnot that lets you locate the physical location of your cell phone? My new, fancy-shamcy phone was stolen this morning

M
 
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call your cell and ask the reciever where he is and arrange for a meeting point
 
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Call the NSA and ask if you can borrow satellite.
 
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I got lucky... I dropped my phone and somebody had a conscience and returned it a few days later (after making several long calls to OH and CA... luckily it was at night so it didn't run up my minutes...).

I sent myself a few txt msgs asking the person to return it, and luckily they replied, I called and they told me where I could meet them.

Other than that... I think you're SOL.
 
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I think you can trace the phone's location through an IMEI number(serial number). You need to file a FIR and submit a copy to your network company.

It works like this, everytime you make a call the cell phone's IMEI number is also transmitted. So you can trace that number and find out the location through your cell phone operator.

Oh by the way, this technique is only used by the police or the Interpol. I am not sure whether civilians are allowed to use it.
 
Zip Ped
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Also, you can call that guy or send him a text message saying that this cell phone is a government property. Any calls made from this cell phone will be traced.
 
Max Habibi
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Originally posted by Jessica Sant:
I got lucky... I dropped my phone and somebody had a conscience and returned it a few days later (after making several long calls to OH and CA... luckily it was at night so it didn't run up my minutes...).

I sent myself a few txt msgs asking the person to return it, and luckily they replied, I called and they told me where I could meet them.

Other than that... I think you're SOL.



Yeah, very disappointed: It was a Treo 650, and I had already hacked it.
The thing is, whoever has it won't be able to use it: it's password locked, and the police have the serial number. So basically, I'm losing out, and they're not winning out. I'm very, very ticked off.
 
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Originally posted by Kailash Thiyagarajan:
Also, you can call that guy or send him a text message saying that this cell phone is a government property. Any calls made from this cell phone will be traced.



Hehe, good one. I have now nick named some of my friends, workers etc on my mobile phone as, (examples)

Officer James (NYPD)
Officer Theo (NJPD)
Brooklyn FBI Office
John (FBI Div I)

you get the point. if I ever loose my phone. I have high percentage of getting my phone back
 
Jessica Sant
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if you haven't already -- don't forget to report it to your cell phone company. After I reported mine with Verizon -- I wasn't responsible for any calls / overages that were incurred while my phone was lost.

Granted... if its password protected, they won't be able to use it anyway, and thus not rack up any minutes... but anyway.

Sorry bout your luck
 
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My local Starbucks shop (extremely busy) had a "thank you note" clipped to the wall. It went something like this: "Dear customers, thank you for your generosity. Last month along, you donated over 70 used cell phones to Starbucks."
 
Scott Selikoff
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Can't you just reset it if its password protected?
 
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Mobile service providers use Camel or something similar to track any mobile using their service if it is switched on. I am not sure how accurate/current this statement is but am pretty sure it exists as I had once worked on a project that had this feature, at Huawei, A Chinese telecom company.
Do you have any services like http://www.followus.co.uk/how_accurate_is_it.html
Or http://www.traceamobile.co.uk/mobiletrackingguide.php at your location
 
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Originally posted by Scott Selikoff:
Can't you just reset it if its password protected?



To reset you need the old password.

By the Way, Did you mean resetting of the phone or the password?
[ January 05, 2006: Message edited by: Arun Kumarr ]
 
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Originally posted by Arun Kumarr:


To reset you need the old password.

By the Way, Did you mean resetting of the phone or the password?

[ January 05, 2006: Message edited by: Arun Kumarr ]



The phone of course.
 
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Im sorry to hear about your phone Max..

And as most of the other posters have mentioned, it seems as if
you wont be able to get the phone back, unless the thief/person
who found the phone gets a guilty conscience.

I used to work for a large telecompany, and AFAIK the only way
you can trace a mobile phone is via it's sim-card (a working
sim-card has a 1-1 relationship with a phone number), and NOT the
IMEI number (as another poster suggested).

In other words, if they insert another simcard you wont be
able to trace the phone, but only be able to see the last
"cell" in which your simcard/phone was turned on last.

/Svend Rost
 
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I bought insurance with my current phone because I travel and I figure it's just a matter of time before I get careless and someone else's fingers get sticky. I have to back up my address book all the time too, and make sure the backup file is readily available and that the next phone I get can work with that file format....

Speaking of which, it'd be nice if there was a simple way to upload your phone data so you could GET it when you needed it.
 
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