Stolen Cell Phone makes a mess
My son had his cell phone stolen about a month and a half ago. For some reason I never called Sprint about it - nothing showed up on the online statement for about 2 weeks, so I figured it was just lost. Today I happened to check my statement though, and it was ugly. Normally I don’t even look at it - I have it set to auto-pay so I never see it. Today I just had the urge to look. What I found out was roughly $600 in charges - text messaging, internet usage, directory assistance calls, and prolific talking. After talking with Sprint for about an hour, it looks like I’ll only get hit with about $60 or so in charges. The rep back-dated a different plan for me, with unlimited texting & internet, so that will reduce those charges. The new plan is $9 more per month, but certainly an easier pill to swallow than $600 in fees. I won’t see the exact total damage until my next bill, so I’m a little on edge until then.
We pulled the call logs to see who the new owner was calling ( I did call her, but she hung up on me quickly ). It turns out she has some family in California - namely a sister. We spoke with the sister, who seemed shocked, SHOCKED that her sibling would be using a stolen phone. She promised to get in touch with her regarding the charges. I don’t expect anything to come of it, to tell you the truth. Hopefully it will at least scare the bejeebers out of the phone thief, so she’ll think twice before doing something like it again.
Always call in a lost phone
Ugh, stupid mistake. If you can’t find your phone, call it in post haste. You never know what might happen. I learned an expensive mistake - and it could have been much more expensive. Anyway, that’s the moral of my story. I hate morals that cost me a chunk of cash.
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July 7th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
I got this at work maybe it could help someone in the future.
“HOW TO DISABLE A STOLEN MOBILE PHONE”
To check your mobile phones serial number, key in the following digits on your phone: *#06# A 15-digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your phone, write it down and keep it somewhere safe.
If your phone gets stolen cantact your service provider and give them this code and the will block it so that even if the thief changes the SIM card it will not work.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
after reading this I dont think I would take the chance of somthing being ‘just lost’. Glad you would get an agreement with the phone company.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:03 pm
You can get insurance to cover the loss of an expensive mobile phone, but this entry leads me to think about the additional costs of some unscrupulous schmuck USING the phone! I hadn’t thought of that possibility, thanks for the heads-up.
Jerry
August 31st, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Losing the device and the possibility of extreme charges is almost the least of your concerns, especially when it comes to the “smart” phone. I’m specifically referring to PDA type devices that allow you to store email, passwords, etc. The finder of your phone can have a heyday with the amount of information you’ve stored in this “one place for all” device. You can disable the device from being used for calling/texting, etc, but trust me, the information you’ve stored in the phone is still accessible.