Lost my phone somewhere on the train from Narita to Nippori.
I *was* a YMobile! customer at the time. I track my phone, Find my Phone says it was last detected near Akiyama Station and no longer powered on. I had about 90% battery at the time. I report it to the Station Master, they said standard procedure when they receive a lost phone is that they turn it off. They turn it into the police. Police check the physical SIM card, then ask the carrier to ID the owner. Takes a lot of time for this to happen, if at all. Lost black smartphones happen all the time so apparently they are flooded with lost black smart phones with the same unidentifiable features. Obviously I cannot wait weeks praying for my phone to return. So I buy a new phone. **I change carriers in order to get a significant points back to be able to use as a discount on my new phone**.
Finally, my question. When the police try to ID my phone through the physical SIM card, I am no longer a YMobile! customer. My phone is no longer connected to any carrier service. Am I boned?
by ritsukiHI
4 comments
That is …weird.
Especially since newer phones don’t even use SIM cards. I personally haven’t used a SIM in 3 years. (eSIM ftw)
You’d think they’d leave the phones on so Lost Mode can turn on, but yeah… no idea how that would work without active service.
Did you speak Japanese? My bet is the station master found it bothersome so he made up a story.
It doesn’t matter if you have moved carriers. Police tracked me down with my SIM card for my old carrier y-Mobile. Even though it was cancelled and I had moved to SoftBank. Ok so they are the same parent company but they did put in some leg work.
Fortunately for you the police in smaller cities and towns have more time to check your details. Im not 100% sure if I lost my phone in Tokyo it would have got back to me. Fortunately I lost it in the sticks in Hokkaido and the local station had a lot of time on their hands. They even posted it to me collect, after I had faxed them my id 🤣🤣🤣
Btw, most modern phones can’t be turned off manually without the passcode/fingerprint/FaceID to prevent the situation where your phone cannot be tracked