Site Totals

61162 Questions Answered 267 Categories

Phone was Stolen and Continues to Use Data

My old S5 was stolen in February and reported it as stolen immediately. I got a new unlocked S7, activated it, and noticed insane amounts of data usage (even after I turned mobile data). After calling Verizon regularly, they noticed that it was all coming from the 3G network with the S5's IMEI number. The 4G network is only used by the S7's IMEI number, which matches with the data use measured by my phone. So somehow the thief who stole my phone was is connecting to the network and the data is being billed to my account. Verizon promised to fix it and didn't, of course.

The people who were supposed to call me back never did, so now I have to start over with new tech support people who now can't find the S7 IMEI number using data at all. Somehow they think this proves that I'm the one using all the data, not the thief, even though they are clearly seeing that all the data is coming from the S5.

Does anyone have this problem? How did you fix it? How did you convince Verizon it's a problem? And why has Verizon been so incompetent throughout this whole ordeal?

(And because everyone is going to suggest this, data saver is on. All my apps, except for Android core apps, are blocked from using background data. The "switch to mobile data" setting (switches to data if wifi is slow) is off. And again, mobile data has been mostly off for the past two months. I have turned off so much stuff on my phone it's basically an expensive, frustrating brick.)

Comments

bearone21

you canlog into myverizon on a another device/computer & suspend an account.

gg5

If you actually read the post, you would see that I reactivated the account when I got my new phone. Suspending the account would block ME.

Any other suggestions?

Doggo

That's not how it works.

When a phone is reported stolen, it gets added to a list of lost/stolen devices. If this were done correctly, the IMEI of the missing phone would be effectively blacklisted and only be whitelisted once the owner confirms they recovered the phone.

With the S5 on a list of stolen devices, it's no more than a small wifi only tablet. If the theif tried to activate the phone, it would fail regardles of carrier. Unless the device wasn't suspended properly AND you have multiple lines where someone on your account is popping their active sim in the S5, it's impossible for that phone to have any communication with the account at all to use data.

PS: There is no suspending an account, suspends are on a line by line basis. When a phone is lost/stolen, the line gets suspended which puts the phone on the negative list. When you activate another device, your old number works with the new phone - old phone still on list unless you call in stating you found it to remove.

Child Item