Hi all - my first post (you'll see why, although the subject may be a bit of a spoiler). Mods - apologies if this is the wrong board to post on, please of course move as appropriate.

In advance - thanks to anyone who takes the time to read this and has any thoughts/advice. I can't influence the past sadly, just the future - already kicking myself enough in hindsight.

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Disclaimer - Extreme long shot!
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I've just arrived from the UK, travelling in Cambodia for a few weeks - currently in Phnom Penh. Like to think of myself as fairly well travelled and 'street wise', but obviously my recent experience gives me no credit there at all.

Last night (Wednesday 11th November 2015) I made the mistake of checking my phone at night (11pm) on a street near the waterfront. A motorbike came from behind, swiped it in an instance, including separate case. The phone is a black Sony Xperia Z3 (Google Android OS), as mentioned it had a generic soft pouch style case and a 128GB Micro SD card inside. IMEI of the phone is 356265066731745 I've logged it at www.imeidetective.com Please can I ask you don't perform a search for it there, as I'll get alerted and have some false hope it's a potential buyer who's actually checking that site first to see if it's been stolen. If this post does anything, perhaps a bit of publicity for that site - worth checking if you're ever buying a second hand phone (to see if it has been reported stolen), or sadly, worth using if your phone is ever stolen.

I'd also just yesterday picked up a SIM card for the phone - Smart network. The phone number is +855 963 387 410 My hotel tried calling it last night, it's acting as if off. I purchase it for data use only (well, that was my requirement to the seller) and they did not take my passport details, so I'm not sure Smart can deactivate it (online chat not very helpful) and to be honest I'm thinking keeping that live may actually be the only chance of tracking/connecting to it (again, LONG shot). If anyone else can tell anything from calling it I'd be interested. I had not set a lock on the SIM card yet, was planning on doing last night(!) No time like the present huh!

I've performed what I think are the standard tasks post phone being stolen to try and protect my data/accounts/ID, including resetting passwords (for Google account and apps) and trying to track the phone via MyXperia (which basically uses the Android Device Manager tracking). It's not showing up at all. Either it's powered off, or on without any connection, or perhaps has already been wiped - although I'm hoping the Sony security software may render it useless, although sure there will be a way around it. I wanted to have the IMEI blocked, but discovered that appears to only be something UK and US operators check.

I have filed a police report today with the tourist police, at a cost of 30 USD(!) I need the case ID to get anything via my travel insurance, but with a fairly high excess and expecting they have some T&C around exactly how the phone was taken, I'm not so sure what if anything I'll get back. The phone is only ~6 months old and still retails in the UK for ~£350, so ~$500 USD mark new.

So what's are my questions? (How many times have I mentioned 'long shot' so far?? )

1.) I'm interested to know if it's likely this phone could be sold locally, if there are any known outlets likely to have received it (again, massive long shot I know) or if people are familiar with the usual next steps here - phone taken out of Phnom Penh - could be 'reset' and resold anywhere in the country or out of it?

2.) I don't know how common the Z3 is out here. If you happen to see any for sale and are able to get the IMEI checked ('dial' * # 06 # on the handset) and it matches 356265066731745 then I'd love to know, 'cos that's my phone. This is why I thought posting on the 'Tech Zone' forum may be appropriate - again, my bad otherwise.

Appreciate any replies to the thread or PM's if appropriate. Thank you for getting this far.

sm123 wrote: I've logged it at imeidetective.com Please can I ask you don't perform a search for it there, as I'll get alerted and have some false hope it's a potential buyer who's actually checking that site first to see if it's been stolen.

I can't imagine that happening in Cambodia.

It's a nice idea/thought....but yes, the reality in many places is that it'll never get checked, or even if it does, not acted on. But there is a chance....as I say, long shot.

sm123 wrote:It's a nice idea/thought....but yes, the reality in many places is that it'll never get checked, or even if it does, not acted on. But there is a chance....as I say, long shot.

if you had left it in a bar/restaurant then there might be a slim chance/i have heard of cases where the person has been lucky and someone had handed it in...
but with this being a theft by snatching, i think its safe to say you can start looking for a new phone...

to add a bit of light though, down in Sihanoukville i was sat with a khmer lass and her sister down on the beach, both who ive known a good few years, and one pulled out an iphone and asked if i could delete the pictures off it, a little puzzled i asked why and she said a friend had given her it to sell and she wanted it wiping, she had already been down the market and paid $20 to get the password unlocked, so i had a quick flick through the pictures and noticed the owner of the phone had been hanging around here for a while (she was actually in a relationship with a khmer guy im good friends with) and i managed to find a picture of a doctors note she got in bangkok which had her name on it, so i found her on facebook and asked if she had lost her phone, to which she said yeah it got stolen last week, so then i had a word with my friend who was adamant that she didnt steal it and she was only trying to sell it, i told her i knew whos phone it was, but she wouldnt give it away, and wanted $200 for it! so i told her i wanted to buy it for myself and she let me have it off her for $120, i then called the girl whos phone it was and she came and picked it up...
she was very lucky...

Jamie_Lambo wrote:so i told her i wanted to buy it for myself and she let me have it off her for $120, i then called the girl whos phone it was and she came and picked it up...
she was very lucky...

Well if you find a phone with a few holiday snaps of the Royal Palace in PP and my home renovation project, please do the same It's good to know there are some decent people out there, as this recent event as made me feel a lot of distrust - trying to shake that off though.

General Mackevili wrote:

sm123 wrote: IMEI of the phone is 356265066731745 I've logged it at http://www.imeidetective.com Please can I ask you don't perform a search for it there, as I'll get alerted and have some false hope it's a potential buyer who's actually checking that site first to see if it's been stolen.

Am I the only one who has an urge to do this now, LoL?

Hmmmm! Thought you guys were safe

When a phone is stolen the thief generally removes the sim and sells the phone at one of the phone shops in the market. Often data is just left on, so if ur phone has not been reset and someone is now using the phone there might be a chance of tracking it via Android device manager. This depends on having a Google account and your phone being switched on and connected to the net.

Android Device Manager is a Google’s official and easy-to-use tool to track your Android phone or tablet. The best thing about it is that you don’t need to install an app to be able to track your devices. The only requirement is that your device is connected to your Google account, turned on and connected to the internet. All you need to do is visit the Android Device Manager while being logged into your Google Account. Once the site is loaded it will automatically try to track down your phone. http://trendblog.net/how-to-track-your- ... cking-app/

Thanks for the info.

Regarding tracking, yeah as mentioned I used the Sony MyXperia service, which is basically their layer over the Google service. Nothing. However, I changed my Google password as saw this as top priority. There's a bit of confused information as to whether this will break the tracking or not - anyone know for sure or want to test on their phone for me*?

*no thief required!

I know it's probably pointless, but if anyone is noticing any Sony Xperia Z3's being sold, it's possible they kept the case with it, as that was taken too, it looks like this:



...and the Z3 in black if you're not familiar with it: