Using Imei Number To Track Lost Mobile Phone & Physical Features Of Mobile Phones
4.10. Lost Cell Phone Tracking
Losing the device itself is bad enough, but there's a good chance that you'll lose your contacts and text messages, since they're not backed up anywhere-particularly if it's a regular cell phone. BlackBerrys, iPhones, and other smartphones may also have your private information stored in their apps. Replacement cost is another issue.
First, write down your phone's IMEI, MEID or ESN number (it's on a sticker under the battery, and which one you have varies by phone) somewhere safe. That's a unique identifier you can give to the police or your wireless carrier if your phone gets lost.
If you have any AT & T or Sprint phone, you can sign up for the network's child-finder service.
If you have a Verizon Wireless feature phone, you can use Verizon's Family Locator service for $10/month. Verizon's system doesn't work with most of the carrier's smartphones, though.
All the carrier-based services need to be activated before you lose the phone, because you either need to reply to a text message or change some settings on your phone to accept tracking.
Android phone owners can load up the third-party program Mobile Defense which offers not only phone-tracking, but remote lock, backup and wipe services. It's currently in a free public beta.
Apple iPhone owners that subscribe to MobileMe can use its Find My iPhone feature. This will bring up the phone's current location on a Google Maps screen. If you can't find the phone or will never be able to access it again, you can also kill the phone remotely; that will take effect the next time the phone sees AT&T's cellular network.
If you don't want to sign up for MobileMe you can also use the third-party tracking app iHound, but it relies on fooling a thief into launching it to send your stolen phone's current location back to you. That's a little clumsy, but it's a lot cheaper than MobileMe.
