My cousin's galaxy note 3 got stolen

[OmarVlogable]

Hello everyone, my cousin's Note 3 was stolen & it have been switched off since. How can we lock the phone or erase the data? Help please.

 

[mumfoau]

With it powered off you won't be able to lock or erase using Device Manager but, if you haven't already, you can go through the carrier to have it added to the lost or stolen list. This will, in effect, make it absolutely useless to the thief or anyone he may sell the Note 3 to.

 

[Techngro]

Hello everyone, my cousin's Note 3 was stolen & it have been switched off since. How can we lock the phone or erase the data? Help please.

With it powered off you won't be able to lock or erase using Device Manager but, if you haven't already, you can go through the carrier to have it added to the lost or stolen list. This will, in effect, make it absolutely useless to the thief or anyone he may sell the Note 3 to.

Unfortunately, as mumfoau said, if the phone is off there's not much you can do. I recommend that you install the Cerberus app on all your phones (and your cousin's phones) in the future. The way cerberus works, it immediately alerts you when your phone has been turned on and someone has tried to do any number of things (such as inserting a new SIM card, or input the wrong passcode). It also allows you to remotely lock the device and track it, and allows you to take pictures, video and audio from the device remotely (so you can catch that nasty thief). Of course this assumes that the thief doesn't wipe the phone immediately.

As for having the device blacklisted by the carrier, unfortunately that does not make it absolutely worthless to the thief. They can just change the IMEI and unlock it and sell it as an unlocked device. They could also sell it overseas where US blacklists mean nothing. Either way, the thief is making money off your loss. It sucks, but hopefully when Android implements the 'kill switch', it will have some effect on these occurrences of theft.