by Kye Husbands

Losing a smart phone like an iPhone, BlackBerry or a Samsung Galaxy S can be a gut wrenching feeling.

First there’s the information on the phone you worry about, including all of your contacts and your emails/text messages and then of course the reality that you need to come up with $500 or more to get connected all over again.

If that’s where you are as you read this, sorry!!! So let’s separate fact from fiction when it comes to losing your phone.

If you installed any of the apps we’ve mentioned time and time again on this blog, the first thing you can do is try to see if you can locate the phone.

Apps like allow you send a note to the phone (a reward perhaps), wipe the phone remotely, or possibly locate the the phone if you realize early enough.

1) Call your carrier to report your phone lost or stolen. Doing so is really about preventing someone else from running up additional charges on your bill and making a bad situation even worse. Don’t delay on this, because quite a few customers have been saddled with enormous bills in this situation along with the stress of fighting with their carrier to reverse these type of charges.

2) The bad news, once someone takes the SIM card out of your device and plugs in their own SIM card they have a new phone to use – free and clear. Although every device has a unique identifier called a IMEI number, there is no national or global database of IMEI numbers for the carriers to know if and when your device is reactivated on their network. So in short, once your phone’s SIM card is removed your phone is gone, but make a note of your IMEI number now, none the less. You can obtain your IMEI number by entering the following 5-digit code in your dial pad ( *#06#).

There has been a lot of talk recently in theUS, where 40 per cent of all robberies now involve cell phones and the FCC is trying to champion a law that will blacklist lost or stolen IMEI numbers, thereby rendering them useless.

No such plan is in the works in Canadaand the carriers here have been belly aching about the cost of maintaining that database. Go figure, a great opportunity for them to get on the side of consumers and they blow it again. But one thing’s for sure, the carriers love money and they may see this as an opportunity to rip Canadians off for this so called privilege.

So how does the L.O.S.E.R Fee sound? (Lost or Stolen Emergency Recovery Fee) Would you pay this fee to help the carriers cover the cost of maintaining a national database of lost IMEI numbers?

PS – One more thing, never purchase electronic equipment (smartphone, tablets, camera, etc.) at a retail store, leave the bags in your car and return to shopping. This apparently has been one of the easiest ways for thieves to target you and steal your brand new smartphone, tablet or whatever else they can get their hands on.

Of course, if you are in the market for the you can find, give myCELLmyTERMS a shot.