How to block IMEI number on stolen phone

[Matt71]

My niece has her phone stolen on holiday in Greece earlier today. It's a second hand iPhone with O2 pay monthly SIM, I think the phone was purchased either online or from a friend, and may not have been an O2 phone originally.

I've managed to get the O2 SIM barred once the help desk opened at 8am and a replacement is due in a few days, but they said because the phone wasn't bought directly from O2, they are unable/won't block the IMEI number.

Apple say they cannot block IMEI, only the carrier can do that.

What can we try next to block this? Any advice appreciated as Ive never lost a phone abroad before, and want to do all we can to stop them possibly using the Apple Pay or anything else.

[Enlli]

Some advice from Apple re stolen phones

Have a read through there are things you can do to protect yourself from unauthorized access

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/120340

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

@Matt71 

Complete rubbish from O2.

Guide: Lost or Stolen O2 Device? - How to Report it 

Message them on Social Media. Facebook (https://o2uk.co/O2CFB) or Twitter (X)  (https://o2uk.co/O2CTW)

Guide: How to find help & contact O2 

[Matt71]

Thank you for your comment, I followed it up on the X link first, but apparently they can't handle such requests on X now, so I tried the Facebook link instead, and they have now put an IMEI bar on the phone, and said the original assistant should have been able to do that for me. 

🙂

[MI5]

Good outcome @Matt71 

Still a strange initial response as it's the same social media team across both platforms.

[jonsie]

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@MI5 wrote:

Good outcome @Matt71 

Still a strange initial response as it's the same social media team across both platforms.

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Plain old apathy....

[MI5]

Beyond belief these days @jonsie 

[Enlli]

I'm out at the moment so difficult to search the forum but there was a post from @Dave-O2 regarding X support

[madasaf1sh]

Cant find owt from Dave, but X is down for both o2 and Virgin, saying due to platform restrictions... 

Probably someone hasnt paid the bill, lol 

[MI5]

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@Enlli wrote:

I'm out at the moment so difficult to search the forum but there was a post from @Dave-O2 regarding X support

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That was Insta, I think?