AT&T iPhone Lost or Stolen — What To Do

A close acquaintance called this afternoon in a panic that she could not find her phone. Oh my, the last time this happened my friend, an ex-Apple Employee was with me and she played quarterback, it was now my time. Here are the steps I used:

1. iCloud Find My App — On my iPhone 13 Pro Max, I searched for the “Find My” Green and Blue App. I tapped on the ME icon at the bottom of the screen, then the [Help a Friend] link.
2. iCloud Find My App — At the iCloud Sig In Screen, below [Continue] click on the link [Use a different Apple ID]
3. iCloud Find My App — At this point, your close acquaintance needs to share their confidential Apple ID email address and password with you.
4. iMac Computer — The next step is tricky, you need to verify login from a new device. In my case, the close acquaintance had her iMac Computer and the 6 digit verification code was done from there. (It has me thinking that I should add my device to a family member’s phone if my phone is ever lost or stolen).
5. iMac Computer — Unfortunately, the Find My App showed the device was offline.
6. iCloud Find My App — There was an option to put he phone in [Lost Mode] so I selected it. I did NOT select the option to [Erase iPhone].
7. ATT Suspend Wireless Service — I then went to: https://att.com/suspend with the AT&T User Name and Password for the Account. It prompted me to [Suspend the Service], which I did. It then prompted me to [Block Use of Your Device] which I also did.
8. AT&T Customer Service — A friend of mine was traveling in South America and he told a story of being at a market at 3pm talking on his phone, and a guy getting off the back of a motorcycle and holding a gun to his head and taking his phone, then hopping back on the back of the motorcycle. He disabled his phone, but when he came back to the States his phone was inadvertently re-enabled and he lost thousands of dollars from some of his Cash Apps. So I called AT&T Offshore Customer Service at 1–800–331–0500 to see if there were other security measures. AT&T Offshore Customer Service did not mention any additional security measures to protect my close acquaintances iPhone. They said the iPhone Passcode system should protect the data.
9. iPhone Passcode Unlockers — I am still researching to see if an educated thief can use a Passcode unlock program to get at the data. I am still not sure how the thief was able to steal funds from his Cash Apps accounts and will continue to research it.

Replacement Phone

10. My close acquaintance went to the Apple Store and bought a new phone. When the Apple Store Employee tried to confidently activate the phone, it generated an error message “Enhanced Security Required”. They gave me instructions to login to the AT&T website to turn this feature on and re-enter the passcode. AT&T’s UX is horrible, the setting are under: Profile > Add a linked account >Turn On Extra Security (WTF)

11. The Offshore AT&T Customer Support Rep asked for the IME number, was going to charge an extra $35 to activate it until the Apple Employee said they would activate in the store for free. The Apple Employee said we can just click on the phone and re-activate it, but the phone was no longer showing up on the AT&T website. So I pivoted. I wen to https://att.com/suspend and logged in. It gave me an option to reactivate the phone so I clicked it as the AT&T Offshore Rep was telling us he had to transfer the call to a Senior Engineer. The phone appeared reactivated! The phone is restoring now! All is good!