What Do I Do If Someone Stole My AT&T Phone?

Introduction

If your AT&T phone was stolen, you have options for trying to get it back and for making sure that the thief can't use it. However, you need to act fast. The faster you move, the higher your chances of being able to recover the phone and keeping the thief from using your data or using your saved passwords to get into your various accounts.

What You'll Need

If you want to try to locate your phone, you must do it before you shut off wireless service to that phone and block it from the network. Once you do those things, your phone will no longer be able to send a GPS signal for the device locator to use.You should also report any credit or debit cards you had stored on your phone as stolen, so they can be shut off and you can get new ones issued. If you do not, the phone thief could also end up draining your bank account.You may want to change your passwords for any social media sites and other important sites that you accessed through your stolen phone, to keep the thief from accessing them.

Use a device locator service to try and locate your device.

Both iPhones and Android phones have a device locator option, although you can only use it if you had the "Find My" option on your phone turned on prior to it being stolen.
Apple's "Find Devices" page
Android's "Find Hub" page
If you locate your device, and if it is not with somebody who you know, do not try to go and retrieve your device yourself. This is a matter for the police to handle.
Even if you cannot locate your phone using a locator service, if it was stolen, you should file a police report.

Go to the AT&T home page.

AT&T home page

Click on the Account icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

A dropdown menu will appear.

Click on the "Sign in" button to sign in to your AT&T account.

Scroll down to the "My Devices" section and select the phone that was stolen from your list of devices.

Select "Manage wireless."

Go to "Device options."

Click on "Suspend wireless service."

Follow the prompts you are given to suspend wireless service to this device and to block this device from the AT&T network.

Doing these things will make your phone useless to the thief, even if they try to put in another SIM card. AT&T will also inform other service providers, so they can block your phone from their networks as well.
If you later recover your phone, you will be able to restore service to it and unblock it by contacting AT&T.

Conclusion

If you have any questions, call an AT&T customer service representative to get them answered. You can also ask that representative to suspend your wireless service and block your phone from the network for you. The customer service call center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.