What to do, in order, once a phone is stolen on a trip: lock it remotely, suspend the line, document what happened, secure exposed accounts, recover your number, and follow your insurer's claim rules. This is the response sequence itself — not scam prevention, which lives on Scams & Tourist Traps, and not which card to carry, which lives on Cards & ATM.
At icloud.com/find (or the Find My app on another Apple device), select the missing iPhone and choose Mark As Lost. Lost Mode locks it with its existing passcode; if it did not have one, Apple asks you to create one. It can display contact information and suspends Apple Pay cards and passes on the device without erasing your data.
At android.com/find, signed into the same Google Account, select the device and choose Mark as lost. It locks the screen with the existing PIN, pattern, or password and can show contact information and a message. If two-step verification blocks sign-in, use a backup code or Google's account-recovery options.
A separate step from locking the device — call or use your carrier's app to suspend the SIM or eSIM. This stops calls, texts and data on that number immediately and prevents roaming charges from racking up on a phone you no longer control.
Remote erase permanently deletes device data when the command reaches it, so use it only after recovery looks unlikely. Android location is no longer available in Find Hub after an erase; an iPhone with iOS 15 or later may remain locatable through Find My. Device protection or Activation Lock remains important, so do not remove the phone from your Apple or Google account just because you erased it.
Many travel and device policies require a police report or incident reference, often within a short deadline. Contact local police while you are still at the destination and ask how to file; the process may be in person, online, or by phone depending on the jurisdiction. Get a copy or reference number and check your own policy's exact conditions.
Ask your hotel desk for the nearest station that handles reports for tourists — in cities with heavy tourist traffic there is often one used to the process and quicker than a random local precinct.
Your passport, the approximate time and location of the theft, and the phone's IMEI number if you have it saved. Before travel, record it from *#06# or the device settings. After a theft, check the original box, carrier account, Apple Account device details, or Find Hub settings where supported.
Policies often distinguish theft, accidental loss, and an item left unattended. Give police and the insurer the same factual account; do not describe a loss as theft. Ask for a copy of the report or its reference number, and keep any translation or receipt the station provides.
Lost Mode suspends Apple Pay on an iPhone, and your bank or wallet provider can confirm or remove payment tokens on either platform. Review recent transactions and call the issuer if anything is unfamiliar. Cancel the physical card only if it was also stolen or the issuer advises it — removing a wallet token and cancelling a card are not always the same action.
From another device, change your primary email password before anything else. Email is the recovery path for almost every other account, so securing it first is what stops one stolen phone from becoming several compromised accounts.
If an authenticator app lived only on that phone, use the backup codes you saved when you first set up two-factor on each account, or that service's own account-recovery flow. Keep a running note of which accounts you still can't get back into — you'll need it for both the recovery process and, if any of them are financial, your bank.
If a password manager was unlocked, or the phone itself was unlocked, when it was taken, treat every password stored on it as compromised. Work outward from what matters most — email and banking, then anything with a stored payment method — rather than trying to change everything at once.
Ask your carrier to move your existing number to a replacement SIM or eSIM on a compatible backup phone; identity checks and local rules vary. If that cannot happen quickly, a temporary local SIM may restore data and calls where registration rules and your device allow it, but it will not automatically recover accounts tied to the original number. See Phone & SIM Abroad for regional setup guidance.
Recover the original number before re-registering where possible. WhatsApp restores a backup only with the same phone number and the same Google or iCloud account that created it. Signal can restore after a lost phone only if you previously enabled a supported secure or on-device backup and still have its recovery key or file; otherwise your old message history is not recoverable. Registering a temporary new number creates a separate account rather than restoring the old history.
A travel companion's updated device is safer than a hotel business center or public terminal for account recovery. Use a private browser window, never save credentials, sign out of every service, close the window, and remove your account from the borrowed device when finished. Avoid banking on a shared or public computer.
A quick email or a call from the hotel to whoever you'd normally text lets them know your number is temporarily down — so a message that looks like it's from your old number, asking for money or codes, is recognized as suspicious rather than acted on.
The police report and its reference number, proof you owned the device (a receipt, or your Apple/Google account showing it registered to you), and the IMEI if you have it. Keep the original police report — insurers generally want it, not a photo of a photo.
Travel insurance typically covers a stolen phone under "personal effects," usually with a per-item sub-limit well below the phone's value. A dedicated phone or gadget insurance policy is a separate product and usually pays out closer to replacement cost — check both if you're not sure which one applies. See Travel Insurance for how personal-effects coverage generally works.
Notify the insurer as soon as practical, then follow the reporting and document deadlines printed in your policy. The deadlines and required evidence vary substantially, so do not rely on a generic 24-hour or 30-day rule.
The police report, proof of ownership, and often a short written statement of what happened, in your own words. Some also ask whether the device was ever left unattended — answer plainly; it affects the outcome less often than travelers assume, but a claim written to avoid the question reads worse than one that just answers it.
Fill in the blank lines below before you travel and keep this with your passport — a stolen phone is the one document you can't look this information up on.