'We Found Your Phone' Message with a Tracking Link over the phone

How it looks over the phone, the red flags and what to do.

A phone call lets the scammer talk fast, sound confident and keep you from thinking. The caller ID can be faked, so it proves nothing. 'We Found Your Phone' Message with a Tracking Link is one of the ways this shows up: After you lose a phone, a message says it was found and asks you to click a link or pay a fee. The link steals your cloud login or money.

What 'we found your phone' message with a tracking link looks like over the phone

• A calm, official voice that already knows your name or the last digits of your card.
• Being told to stay on the line and not to tell your family.
• Instructions to install a screen-sharing app or to press keys on the phone.

The set-up is timing. Thieves who stole a phone want to remove the owner's lock on it. They may use the number on the lock screen, a message in lost mode, or a phone's SIM to send messages. Others simply watch social posts and chat groups for someone saying they lost a phone and then send a text. The message mimics a real location alert and includes a link to a login page that looks like the maker's own.

Red flags to check on the phone call

• A message about your lost phone includes a link and asks for your account login.
• The sign-in page address does not match the maker's official site.
• A code or password is requested to 'confirm ownership'.
• A finder asks for a reward before returning the phone.
• The caller asks for an OTP, UPI PIN, card PIN or CVV.
• You are told that a case, arrest, block or penalty is coming within minutes.

What to do

1. Use only the official find-my-device feature from your phone maker's website typed by hand, or Safeavio's portal if you set it up.
2. Do not tap links in messages about a found phone.
3. Lock or erase the phone remotely from the official tool, and change your account passwords.
4. Tell a family member and report the number on the Sanchar Saathi portal (Chakshu facility).
5. Hang up. A real bank or office will not mind that you call them back.
6. Call the bank or office on the number printed on your card, bill or official app, not on a number the caller gave.

Report the number on the Sanchar Saathi portal (Chakshu facility). If money moved, call 1930 immediately.

If money or a code is already gone

1. If money was sent or accounts were accessed, call 1930 and report at cybercrime.gov.in.
2. Call your bank on the number on your card and ask to block cards and UPI on that phone.
3. Change email, cloud and banking passwords from a safe device.
4. Report the loss to the police with the phone's details.

National Cyber Crime Helpline: 1930; report at cybercrime.gov.in.

If you set up Safeavio Sentinel's anti-theft before the loss, the owner's portal at safeavio.com can locate, ring, lock and show a lost-mode message on the phone, and the SIM-change alert and recovery information help. These work only if the phone is on, online and was set up earlier. Link check can test a link from a 'found phone' message. Safeavio cannot stop a thief who switches the phone off.

Full guide: 'We Found Your Phone' Message with a Tracking Link: how it works, signs and what to do. Other channels: SMS, WhatsApp, email.

Questions