Phone lost or stolen

Policing is municipal, and most services take property theft online provided the value is under a ceiling and there is no known suspect. The number you get on submission is not yet the one your insurer needs.

1. Find the service with jurisdiction where it happened: Toronto Police Service, SPVM in Montréal, SPVQ in Québec City, and so on.
2. Check you qualify. Toronto wants no known suspect, value under $5,000, and no break-in. Montréal additionally disqualifies you if there were witnesses or cameras, or if your cards were used after the theft.
3. Pick the right category, which for a pickpocketed phone is theft under $5,000 in Toronto or petty larceny at SPVM.
4. Enter every serial number and IMEI, as a separate property entry per item, plus when you last saw it and when you noticed it gone.
5. Record the temporary case number emailed on submission, then wait for the reviewed official file number.
6. If force or threats were used, or someone entered your home, do not use the online system at all.

Easy to get wrong. The number that lands in your inbox the second you submit is temporary, not the official file number. The report is reviewed first, you may get a correction form back, and only then is the official event number issued — SPVQ states outright that this later number is the one to give your insurance company. Handing over the temporary one can bounce the claim. Montréal has a second trap that catches exactly the situation people are usually in: if your stolen cards were used, online reporting is barred and you must attend a station in person.

France separates a theft from a mere loss, and only one of them is a criminal complaint. Since October 2024 a theft can be filed entirely online, signature included, replacing the old pré-plainte.

Easy to get wrong. Declining FranceConnect on the online form does not finish the job: at the end of the declaration the system makes you book an in-person appointment at a station to prove your identity, which is exactly the trip you were avoiding. And do not embellish. Filing a false complaint, such as describing a pickpocketing as a violent robbery to strengthen an insurance claim, carries six months' imprisonment and a €7,500 fine.

Policing is a state matter, so there is no single national reporting site. Each Bundesland runs its own Onlinewache, reached through one federal routing portal.

1. Call 110 instead if violence was used or threatened. Traffic accidents and complex cases have to be reported in person.
2. Open portal.onlinewache.polizei.de and choose the Bundesland where the offence happened, not where you live.
3. If it happened abroad, online, or somewhere unknown, then and only then choose the state of your German address.
4. Select the offence category. A stolen phone or laptop is Diebstahl → Sonstiger Diebstahl, though the available forms differ by state.
5. Attach evidence at the end: photos, purchase receipts (Kaufbelege), screenshots or PDF exports.
6. Submit. You get an email confirming transmission, and the competent authority contacts you about next steps.

Easy to get wrong. People assume one national police site and file with the wrong state. Competence follows the crime scene, not your address, with the single exception of offences committed abroad, online, or at an unknown location. Be aware of a gap too: the portal promises an email confirming transmission, but does not say a case reference (Aktenzeichen) is issued at that point — and insurers do want the Aktenzeichen, with Vodafone's insurance process demanding it explicitly. If you need one, chase it rather than assuming the confirmation email is it.

Italy draws a hard line between losing something and having it taken. Losing it is an administrative report you can file entirely online. Having it taken is a crime, and the state still wants to see you in person.

Easy to get wrong. Describing a theft as a loss because the online route is easier is the common mistake. It is a different legal act, and insurers and carriers do read which one you filed.

You file an aangifte online at politie.nl with DigiD, or in person by appointment. Only a narrow set of offences can go online, and theft is one of them, but the login has a catch when the stolen item is your phone.

1. Sort your phone out first. Online filing needs DigiD, and DigiD sends its verification code by SMS, so get a replacement SIM into another handset before you start.
2. Start at politie.nl and pick the form for what happened. Most begin with a Keuzehulp that tells you whether filing is worth it before handing you the form.
3. Log in with DigiD and complete the form, or call 0900-8844 to make an appointment to do it in person.
4. Sign the proces-verbaal. Signing is mandatory, you can do it digitally in Mijn Politie, and you cannot authorise anyone else to sign for you.
5. Collect the afschrift for your insurer from Mijn Politie. If your report holds no investigative leads, the police email it to you and close the case.

Easy to get wrong. The chicken-and-egg problem: you cannot file online about your stolen phone, because DigiD texts the verification code to the phone you no longer have. Order the replacement SIM, put it in another handset, and file afterwards. If you have already moved to a new number, change it in DigiD under Mijn gegevens first. Save or print the proces-verbaal the moment it appears, because the police give it to you only once.

Two forces take reports and they work differently. A Policía Nacional online denuncia has no legal validity until you sign it in person; a Guardia Civil one is signed electronically and needs no visit at all.

1. Work out which force covers where it happened: Policía Nacional in urban areas, Guardia Civil in rural areas and smaller towns.
2. Check your case is eligible. Neither force takes an online report where there was violence or intimidation, a known perpetrator, witnesses, a minor reporting, or a crime caught in progress.
3. Note the distinction that decides this: a phone snatched without force is hurto and can go online. A phone taken by force is robo and cannot.
4. For Guardia Civil, authenticate with DNIe, a digital certificate, or Cl@ve, and attach photos and proof of ownership. The system takes a maximum of three attachments.
5. For Policía Nacional, keep the reference number and go to the station you designated to sign.

Easy to get wrong. With Policía Nacional, filing online is half the job. Their own site says you must sign at the designated station as soon as possible and never later than 72 hours, and that the denuncia has no legal validity until you do. A traveller who files from the airport and flies home has no valid report and nothing to give an insurer. Guardia Civil requires no ratification, so which force you file with genuinely changes what you have to do next.

Theft goes to your local force for a crime reference number. Fraud goes to a completely different body. Confusing the two is the most common way people end up with a rejected insurance claim.

1. Call 999 only if the theft is in progress or someone is in danger. Otherwise use 101 or your force's online form.
2. In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, report the theft to your local force. In Scotland call Police Scotland on 101, because their online forms do not cover general theft.
3. Have the IMEI ready. Dial *#06# on a phone to show the 15-digit number.
4. Ask explicitly for the crime reference number before you hang up. You can request it afterwards if you were not given one.
5. If cards, accounts, or your identity were also misused, make a separate report to Report Fraud. In Scotland that goes to Police Scotland on 101 instead, as Report Fraud tells you on its own homepage.

Easy to get wrong. Reporting to Report Fraud does not produce a crime reference number for a theft, and your insurer will reject the claim on that basis. They are different reports to different bodies. Watch the wording too: if you cannot say the device was stolen, police will not raise a crime report at all, and O2 points out you may instead need a loss reference number from the police or a body like Transport for London. And anyone in Scotland who files with Report Fraud has effectively filed with nobody, because Police Scotland is not part of that process.

There is no national police report system. You report to whichever municipal agency covers where the theft happened, and most of them take it online or by non-emergency phone. IdentityTheft.gov is a separate thing that produces a separate document.

1. Find the agency with jurisdiction over the place it happened and use its non-emergency line or online portal. There is no central federal lookup for this.
2. Ask explicitly for the report number. Insurers and device-protection claims want the number, not your account of what happened.
3. If accounts or personal data were exposed too, file separately at IdentityTheft.gov for an FTC Identity Theft Report and a recovery plan.
4. If the theft led to account takeover, extortion, or online fraud, add a report at IC3.gov.

Easy to get wrong. The police deadline is rarely the one that bites; the insurance deadline is. T-Mobile requires device protection claims within 90 days of the incident and wants the police report number, so a report filed at a leisurely pace, or filed without securing the number, quietly kills the claim. Also note that an FTC Identity Theft Report and a police report are two different documents, and a company demanding the latter will not accept the former.

Canada runs a national device blacklist that blocks a reported IMEI across every participating network, which is unusually good. The catch is that suspending your line does not put you on it.

1. Suspend the line. Rogers through MyRogers or 1-888-764-3771, Bell through MyBell or 1 800 667-0123, Telus through My TELUS under Plans & devices.
2. Then separately and explicitly ask the carrier to blacklist the handset IMEI. Telus states plainly that suspending service does not blacklist the device.
3. Get a replacement SIM or eSIM from the carrier's store or account area, and move your number across.
4. Verify the blacklisting after 48 hours by entering the IMEI at devicecheck.ca.
5. If the phone turns up, report it recovered to the same provider that listed it. Bell restores access within 24 hours.

Easy to get wrong. Suspending service is not blacklisting the phone, and the carriers do not treat them as the same request. A suspended line stops your bill running up while the handset stays perfectly usable on Canadian networks until the IMEI is added separately, which only a carrier can do and which takes up to 48 hours to propagate. Worse, the request needs the IMEI, and the easy way to find an IMEI is to dial *#06# on the phone you no longer have — so record it in advance. Remote self-service also tends to fail exactly when needed: Rogers texts a verification code to change a SIM and sends you to a store if you cannot receive it.

All four French operators charge a flat €10 and let you suspend the line yourself from the customer area. What varies enormously is whether you can get back online quickly, because two of them will not reissue an eSIM after a theft.

1. Suspend the line from your espace client or by phone. Orange 3900 (+33 9 69 39 39 00 from abroad), SFR 963, Free 3244. SFR takes up to two hours to apply it.
2. Order the replacement in the same session. Orange delivers within five working days in metropolitan France.
3. File the theft complaint with the IMEI so the handset itself can be barred. Orange applies a traffic ban on receipt of the procès-verbal and refunds the €10 plus your subscription pro rata. Bouygues asks you to file within 48 hours.
4. Activate the new SIM when it arrives. Orange's default PIN is 0000, so change it immediately. After a theft SFR will not let you self-activate and requires a call to 1023.

Easy to get wrong. Assuming an eSIM means instant remote recovery, when in France it can mean the opposite. Free explicitly forces you to order a physical SIM by post after a loss or theft, and to activate it before you can have an eSIM again; Orange works the same way in sequence. That is days offline, not minutes. The second trap: suspending your line is not blocking your phone. The handset keeps working with anyone else's SIM until the police send your procès-verbal with the correct IMEI to the operator.

Germany has a free nationwide emergency blocking line on 116 116, which is genuinely useful and much narrower than its reputation. Carrier participation is voluntary, and for SIM cards only two providers take part.

1. Try to locate the device first through iCloud or Find Hub, which Vodafone recommends before you block anything.
2. Block through your carrier's own portal, which is the route that works for all three. Telekom: Kundencenter → SIM Verwaltung. Vodafone: MeinVodafone → Gerät verloren oder gestohlen. O2: block and unblock directly in Mein O2.
3. Use 116 116 only if your provider participates, and see the warning below. Vodafone customers can instead call 1212 free on-network, 0800 172 1212 from other German networks, or +49 172 12 172 12 from abroad.
4. Order the replacement. Telekom deactivates the old card shortly after you order and posts the new one within days; ordering through MeinVodafone deactivates the old one automatically.
5. Go to a shop if you cannot wait. Telekom hands over a pre-activated card; Vodafone needs your number and Service-PIN.
6. If you hold Vodafone device insurance, report through their portal within 2 days using the Aktenzeichen from your police report.

Easy to get wrong. Everyone believes 116 116 is a universal kill switch for any German SIM. It is not. Participation is voluntary, and on the official partner list the only SIM entries are Telekom and CongStar — Vodafone and O2 are not there, so calling about one of their SIMs achieves nothing. Three further limits: it works by phone only, by design; it blocks the SIM and not the handset; and it does not order your replacement. Telekom has its own catch-22: the online replacement needs an mTAN sent to a number on your contract, so if the lost phone held your only number you cannot self-serve.

Every Italian carrier will give you the same number on a new SIM, but only to the person named on the contract, and only against a copy of the police report. Get the report first or you will make the trip twice.

1. Call your carrier from any phone and suspend the line before anything else. Suspension is free and immediate; replacement can wait.
2. File the police report, because every carrier asks for a copy of it.
3. Ask the carrier to add the handset IMEI to the national blacklist. That blocks the device itself on Italian networks, separately from blocking the SIM.
4. Request the replacement. Most carriers require a shop visit, but Iliad handles it by post or through the Area Personale, and will email a replacement eSIM.

Easy to get wrong. Only the intestatario can replace the SIM. A partner or colleague cannot do it for you, even holding your documents, which matters if you are abroad. If that is your situation, Iliad's emailed eSIM is the one route that does not need you standing in an Italian shop.

All three Dutch carriers let you block the SIM yourself and all three do eSIM, which is the fastest and usually the cheapest way back to your number. Vodafone's pricing swings dramatically on whether you produce a police report in time.

1. Block the SIM. KPN through MijnKPN, Vodafone through My Vodafone or 0800-0094 (+31 6 54 50 01 00 from abroad), Odido through Mijn Odido around the clock (+31 6 24001200).
2. Take the eSIM route if your handset supports it. KPN installs one online immediately and charges nothing; Odido issues them free but only through the Odido App rather than Mijn Odido.
3. Otherwise order a physical SIM. KPN delivers in two working days if ordered before 18:00, Odido in three.
4. Or collect same-day in a shop with ID, with the subscription in your own name.
5. If you get the phone back, unblocking through My Vodafone is free.

Easy to get wrong. Vodafone wants the theft reported to police within 24 hours and the proces-verbaal in their hands within 10 days. Miss that and a free replacement plus free unblocking becomes €20.84 plus €20. It bites hardest on someone robbed abroad who assumes it can wait until they are home. Note also that Vodafone does not require a report at all if you merely lost the phone, which is a different rule from theft.

You can block a Spanish line remotely from any carrier app, but not one of the three major carriers will issue the replacement without the account holder walking into a shop with ID.

1. Block the line immediately. Movistar through Mi Movistar, Vodafone through Mi Vodafone or by calling 22123, Orange through Mi Orange or 1470 free of charge.
2. File the denuncia, which you need both for the insurer and, at Vodafone, to get the IMEI blocked at all.
3. Request the IMEI block separately from the line block, since it disables the handset across every Spanish network. Orange warns that reversing an IMEI block later can take more than two months because every operator is involved.
4. Go to a shop in person with ID for the duplicado. Movistar allows a third party only after the holder completes a remote firma facial; Orange allows no third parties at all, even with written authorisation.

Easy to get wrong. Suspending a Spanish line is not the same as keeping it. Movistar cancels a suspended line permanently if you do nothing for three months, and keeps invoicing you throughout, so blocking your line abroad and dealing with it when you get home can cost you the number outright. And because no Spanish carrier issues a duplicate remotely, a visitor robbed in Spain and flying out the next day simply cannot recover that Spanish number from abroad.

All four networks will bar the SIM, blacklist the handset across every UK network, and give you your number back. The obstacle is proving who you are, because the standard check is a text to the SIM you no longer have.

1. Call your network immediately. EE 150 or 07953 966 150, O2 0344 809 0202, Vodafone 191 or 0333 3040 191, Three 333 or 0333 338 1001.
2. Do it within 24 hours. EE, O2, Vodafone, Three, and Virgin all cap your liability for unauthorised use at £100 if you report inside a day, and EE says that past 24 hours you are liable for everything.
3. Give the IMEI so the handset is blacklisted on all UK networks, not just your own. Three blocks its own network within 24 hours and the others within 48.
4. Order the replacement SIM. O2 requires lost or stolen SIMs to be ordered by phone and sends it pre-activated; Vodafone posts within two to three working days.
5. If remote verification fails, go to a store with photo ID.

Easy to get wrong. The security check is a one-time code texted to the SIM that was stolen. Vodafone's own guidance is to keep the old SIM in your phone until the new one activates so you can receive security texts, which is impossible advice once the phone is gone. O2 states the consequence plainly: you cannot get the code, so you fall back to email or security questions and may end up in a store. Know your account security answers and have address-matched ID ready before you call. And barring the SIM without giving the IMEI stops the bill but leaves the handset perfectly usable on another network.

All three big carriers can move your number onto a new eSIM remotely through their app, which makes US recovery faster than most of Europe. The catch is the anti-fraud lock you may have sensibly switched on earlier.

1. Suspend the lost line first. Verizon suspends for up to 30 days and blocks the device; T-Mobile reports the IMEI to an international database, which blocks the handset on most networks even with a different SIM in it.
2. Turn off any anti-swap lock before you try to activate anything. T-Mobile SIM Protection and AT&T Wireless Account Lock both block SIM changes outright, including yours.
3. Provision an eSIM from the carrier app. Verizon needs no IMEI, ICCID, or QR code and activates over Wi-Fi. T-Mobile asks for the device IMEI plus the ICCID or EID.
4. For a physical SIM, Verizon corporate stores do it same-day; authorised retailers can take up to three days.
5. Turn the protection back on once you are settled, and only request a number-transfer PIN if you are actually leaving the carrier.

Easy to get wrong. The protection you turned on last year is what strands you today. These locks stop your own emergency SIM swap exactly as well as an attacker's, and removing them needs the access you just lost: only T-Mobile's Primary Account Holder can lift SIM Protection, AT&T's lock can only be toggled from a device already active on the account, and changing a T-Mobile account PIN requires being on the T-Mobile network with Wi-Fi off — on the phone that was stolen. Decide your recovery path before you need it.