💬 Lost my phone on Friday, what can I do with the IMEI number?

Lost my phone on Friday evening somewhere between Charminar and the bus stop. I still don't know where. I noticed at 8 pm when I wanted to call my wife and my pocket was empty. Borrowed a shopkeeper's phone and rang my own number. It rang twice, then went to switched off. That's when my stomach dropped. Everything is on that phone, photos, bank apps, WhatsApp, 6 years of contacts. I have the IMEI from the box and the bill, which my wife keeps in a plastic folder. A friend said just type it into a website and it shows exactly where the phone is. I tried 3 sites that night. All of them wanted my number, my email and some money first. I closed them. Something felt wrong about a stranger's website asking for that much. Next morning I used my laptop and found the Find My Device page for my Google account. It showed the phone near Charminar at 4:50 pm, then nothing. Offline since. I locked it from there. I called the SIM company and got the card blocked. Then I changed my email and bank passwords. Took 2 hours. Bruno, my dog, sat next to me the whole time like he was helping. I haven't been to the police yet. Someone told me to carry the bill, the box and an ID. Now I don't know which station to go to, the one near where I lost it or near my house. Also, does the IMEI really help find a phone, or is it only useful for blocking it? My wife says forget it and buy a new one. I'd still like to try the proper way first.

Lost mine on a bus in 2023. Find My Device showed it for about 10 minutes, then went offline.

If you have the IMEI number, the first thing to do is register a police complaint/FIR and keep a copy of it safe. Also submit an IMEI block/trace request on the CEIR portal. Through CEIR, the phone can be blocked on Indian networks, and you can unblock it again if it's recovered. Tracking the live location yourself using just the IMEI number isn't possible; that kind of tracking is done through law enforcement and telecom authorities. It's best to file the complaint quickly. Hope you get your phone back soon.

I used the CEIR portal last year. Submitting the form is easy, but you must upload a police FIR/lost complaint copy to get the device blocked.