What To Do When Your Phone Gets Lost Or Stolen (While Living) Abroad

I wish they would have taken my passport. Or even my wallet. Anything but my phone or laptop, please. A couple of days ago, my phone got stolen...

...which I mentioned very briefly yesterday in my post.

I feel a little heartbroken, to be honest. A stolen phone or laptop is one of the most heartless acts of theft I can think of. It’s just the meanest thing you can do to someone!

Honestly!

You know what’s crazy, too? People who steal phones probably just want to resell them for $.

Don’t they realize that the person they stole from is their target market?!?

I would GLADLY pay more than my phone is worth to get it back. I’d be the biggest paying customer. Some people call that ransom...

...but I guess I’m ok with that.

I wish I had been given an opportunity to buy my phone back. I’d eat ramen for a month to make up for it (so much for being healthy).

I know it's just a phone... but phones nowadays are everything. They're like an extension of your soul. They’re like the electronic manifestation of your very being.

They're like your best friend. In fact, I loved mine so much, that I named it! Felicia was her name. And when she got taken away it was like:

Phones hold all of your photos, videos, your memories. Your to-do lists. Your google authenticator (this is literally the freakiest part of all of it).

My phone is the only camera I have. It’s the only way that I create content for steemit and it’s the only way I can keep making crappy videos.

My phone is how I get notified when you guys are trying to talk to me, or you’re making interesting posts. I try to back mine up pretty often onto an external hard drive...

...but sometimes life just gets in the way.

So, what do you do when your phone is stolen and you’re not going back to the US (or your home country) any time soon?

That’s a great question.

If I were a normal person who didn’t need google authenticator for like a million websites, then it wouldn’t be such a big deal.

This article right here [INSERT GOOGLE AUTH article) says you can have a backup code for google authenticator so that if something like this happens, you’ll be covered.

I don’t understand this article. I never saw any “backup” area and I have NO idea how to secure goole authenticator. So, unfortunately, that item just sat on my to-do list for awhile.

Now it is on my list of regrets.

If your phone isn’t currently stolen, and there’s still some hope for you, download the app “Authy” if you use google authenticator. It’s easier to recover your stuff if something is stolen or whatever.

The main thing is verifying myself. I need the sim card that was in the phone with my US number.

There are no AT&T stores in Asia, so I can’t just get my US # back. I can get a Vietnamese # easy, but that will probably have the opposite effect of what I want, which is to be verified with google authenticator, NOT mistaken for an Asian hacker.

So.

What to do.

I’m going to try several things and then document the process for you, and let you know what works and what doesn’t work.

Here Are Some Of My Ideas So Far

1) Get someone on my phone plan from back home to meet someone from Craigslist or Offerup at the AT&T store.

Then, buy the used phone from them. Get someone who works at the store to activate a new sim card and put it in the phone. If that person is trusted, you can try google authenticator over the phone.

Now, this is kinda scary because what if you test it out on a site like, I don’t know, Coinbase for example, and then Coinbase is like “Wtf? How are you logging in from the US on your phone and then logging in from Vietnam at the same time?

Account blocked.

Also, we will not be here to assist you because customer support isn’t really our thing, yet.”

Well I tried it, actually, and I got past step 1.

But now I’m dealing with getting my ID constantly rejected. They might also not accept me because I’m residing in a foreign country while my address is in the US. I guess they haven’t heard of digital nomads or remote workers, yet.

If I can’t get into my stuff, I may just have to fly back to the US so I can be “verified.” Doesn’t that seem ridiculous and dramatic???

Do you know of a better way?!?

This is what I meant when I said stealing someone’s phone or laptop is one of the cruelest things you can steal. I wasn’t planning on going back to the US until next year maybe.

Now I may have to go back within a week. On top of that, I may have to pay for a SUPER expensive last minute plane ticket.

The people who stole this have NO idea what trouble they’ve caused, nor do they care.

But it makes my heart hurt so much to know that I may have to end my trip early because of this. I’ve been working towards this trip for 4 years.

I wish they had looked to me as their #1 buyer. They obviously don’t understand supply and demand and how it works. My demand is greater than anyone else...

...therefore I’d pay more to get it back.

Man, if anyone else’s phone been stolen, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. They could have just gotten a new one in Vietnam and used a Vietnamese # for awhile.

But when you have important things on there, it’s a game changer. I really feel devastated. But, I’m going to try to find a solution, that hopefully doesn’t mean I have to resort to that.

2) Have person send me the activated sim card from home in the mail, buy an unlocked phone here.

Receiving mail is a crapshoot overseas. You have a little bit of better chances with FedEx or something, but TRUST me. It’s not 100% guaranteed. I know this from debit card drama I’m dealing with right now.

My bank is awesome (Charles Schwab) and sent it to me in Hanoi, but for some reason it got sent back. On top of that, if it DID make it through, there’s a HIGH chance that customs would charge me bribe $ to get it through the door.

3) Fly home and feel sad, but wear a banana suit while doing it to make myself feel a little better.

Some Tips To Prevent Some Of The Hassle

Leave your US sim card somewhere secure/separate from your phone...

...that way you can be identified through your own phone # and don’t have to fly back to the US if the mail doesn’t arrive.

You can use your foreign simcard and still use whatsapp and any app you need with the foreign number. No need to have US sim card in your phone while overseas. I used whatsapp with Vietnamese sim and people were messaging my US #.

I was somehow still getting messages.

I only had to switch sims sometimes, to get a verification text message or something.

This one’s crazy, but maybe travel with a backup phone and keep it separate from your other one. Have a clear copy of your license somewhere. Coinbase doesn’t accept US passports as ID verification. My photo id has a sticker on it (the DMV’s ghetto way of saying I changed addresses), and now I may not be able to get verified again from overseas. I wish I had a picture of my pre-sticker version, but I don’t. Not having success getting verified.

Has something like this ever happened to you before? Do you have any ideas that I haven’t thought of? Please let me know in the comments below!

I’ll let you know what I end up doing and what works. Hopefully it’s resolved sooner rather than later, so that I can just update this article.

P.S. I just want to say, don't let a stolen phone affect how you view Vietnam! It could honestly happen anywhere. On the same day it got stolen, I also had an amazing experience with a lot of random Vietnamese locals who gave me food and drinks, so there is also beautiful hospitality here as well!